Uneven tyre wear (fronts only)

[Hawaii-Five-O]

Hi All,

Not posted anything in ages but here's the thing... is anyone experiencing the same problem? Getting uneven wear across both front tyres. It's occurring across the middles. Below 3mm now after 15k. Both left and right edges are still quite good at around 5mm. Now this would suggest over inflation. However I'm fastidious about keeping pressures balanced at the recommended 36psi. Do you guys think that's too high and leading to increased wear in the middles? Just so you know the rears are also kept at 36psi but their wear is evenly distributed across the tyre.

Any suggestions?

[Fabio Bignose]

My mk6 GTD did this as did my current MK7.

Both had Bridgestones from factory and then both had continentals thereafter and were fine.

Pressures were always correct which was verified by fitters at time of changing so ive no idea why they wore like that.

Just a characteristic of the tyre i suppose albeit a pretty sh!te characteristic....

[fredgroves]

I agree - my Tombstones were worn just like that - despite being correctly inflated.

Why? No idea, the tyre fitter had no clue either.

[Hawaii-Five-O]

BTW they are Continental's fitted at the factory.

[fredgroves]

Sounds like some kind of MQB funny then...

[Hawaii-Five-O]

Maybe... but is this problem common or isolated? That's what I'd like to know. And can it be offset by lowering the pressure by a few psi?

[2014GTi]

I would check your tyres to ensure they are the same type.
I found out when I came to replace my Pirelli P-Zero tyres @ 15k miles that the dealership must have replaced a tyre at PDI from new, they tyre was replaced with a Star (*) model of the same tyre which is a run-flat variant for BMW only cars!
Hence why my front tyres wore unevenly and it also used to cause the driver side pressure monitor to always trigger every so often.
I had no idea I had been driving for 15k miles on a mismatched pair of front tyres!!! 

[monkeyhanger]

Not had this on the current Bridgestones, but the front tyres that came with my last Scirocco 170TDI (Pirelli P7s) were terrible for this - the central 1/3 was down to the markers when the outer 1/3 either side had a healthy 6mm, at 11k miles. Michelin PS3s went on the front in replacement and they wore evenly. Kept a close eye on the tyre pressures - never overinflated. I'm sure Sootchucker had P7s on his 140 Scirocco and never experienced the same issue though.

Maybe the "one size fits all" tyre pressure sticker in the fuel filler flap isn't correct for all types of tyre (leading to overinflation that's fine for one tyre but not for another), or maybe a few of us get crappy geometry set-up that some tyres tolerate more than others?

[fredgroves]

If it was geometry then surely that would wear inside or outside, not the centre?

I'm a bit of a muppet with car tech, but that's what I can only think of at the moment.

[corgi]

If it was geometry then surely that would wear inside or outside, not the centre?

Agreed.

Is the band in the middle well defined i.e. it doesn't have wavy edges?

It does sound like over inflation. Tyres on mine have worn evenly for all of 24K miles...