Uneven rear tyre wear

[dubber36]

I've done the search and found topics about this, but has anyone got to the bottom of what causes it and can it be fixed under warranty as my car will be 3 in January?

Mine's on its original Dunlops which have suffered saw tooth wearing on the inner edges. This is making the usual wheel bearing drone and causing slight vibrations at around 70mph.

I understand that this could be caused by incorrect toe settings and that some makes of tyres wear more than others due to this. I know I'll need to change the rear tyres, but have I fitted new front Dunlops recently, so would want to keep 4 matching tyres if possible. I'm hoping that if the geometry is correct, the new tyres (Dunlops or other) will be ok.

[Big_Dave]

As far as I know this is just a trait of VW group cars using this platform. My Leon did the same, along with everyone else's! I found when the tyres are part worn I swap the fronts with the rears which stops the noise until the fresher rear tyres wear into shape again.

Also I found Goodyear asymmetric 2's were much quieter.

[dubber36]

But once the tyres are worn, surely swapping them onto the front will just move the noise to there?

[Edi35]

I have been fortunate in that I have not suffered this on my MK5 or MK6 GTI's so I can't really comment but these cars had done 25K+ miles and had very worn tyres (Dunlop and Michelin) but not min depth, does this happen once the tyres get down to a certain depth?

[Raffe]

I had this on my Focus TDCi, MK5 Golf GT Sport and my Leon's rears have just done the same, so not specific to VAG cars.

It's not brand specific as I have had Toyo, Bridgestone and Goodyear's all do exactly the same and it starts around 32k miles.

No idea what causes it, just accept it as 'one of those things' which modern fwd cars seem to do.

One garage did ask if I did a lot of miles without passengers in the back, which I do but didn't really get any decent response as to why this would make a difference.

Very common but from scouring all sorts of owners forums never found anything conclusive as to the cause.

[mike.]

The problem is not the car but the tyre design, It is called heel and toe wear and is caused because the tread blocks on the inside of the tyre are not connected. It seems to be most prevalent on front wheel drive cars with the undriven wheels. Here is an explanation from another site.

Heel and Toe wear occurs when the tread-block passes through the contact area. The leading edge of the block is compressed at the moment of contact - which slows down the rate rotation on that particular tread block. The trailing edge of the block has to accelerate to catch up with the general rotation of the tyre and "flicks" through the point of contact causing more wear at that point.

The Conti Sport 5 I bought recently have a line of rubber between each of the inside blocks so hopefully they should not suffer. They are so much quieter than the Dunlops that came off.

[Buck]

I haven't had that but I put the winter set on this weekend and noticed that both fronts were quite worn on the inner edge.

the tyres will be replaced when the winters come off with some new ones but suprised me how worn they were compared to the outer edge particularly as this is the hardest to see so can go unnoticed

[dubber36]

I spoke to the dealer today to see what they had to say. He told me pretty much the same as Mike posted.

It's not so much of an issue on cars with smaller wheels and higher profile tyres, as there is more "give" in the tyre, so heel and toe wear is less pronounced.

He suggested new rear tyres, then a full alignment check to ensure everything is pointing in the right direction, then run the rear tyres with a few more psi in them and swap them front to back every 5k or so.

[Snoopy]

Im not sure but I thought I posted about this before as I have suffered it with bridgestones.
Someone pointed me in the direction of autoexpress long term gtd at the.time. they called it 50 pence pease ware.
Luckie I had the old issues.
It can be fixed but as AE say VW won't as its within tolerence.
It's because yours like mine will be nearer an extreme tolerence.
Get the rear suspension reset and it will be less likley to happen.

[mkviken]

yes the tolerances for wheel alignment is huge

my car had probably 700 miles on it when i fitted the WALK and had wheel alignment done and the back end was a mile away from the ideal but within manufactures limits

on the hunters machine just about everything on the back end was in the red as set by the factory.




i rotate my wheels front to back at least every 4000 miles and to be honest i havent experienced this issue at all