Castellated / Sawtooth rear tyres mk7 GTI

[fredgroves]

Mine also castellated on the rears, replaced all 4 rather than swap rear to front as the rear side walls were beginning to show early signs of age cracking (just over 4 years old). Replaced the Potenza’s with PS5’s - big improvement in ride and noise.

I don't mean swap the mangled ones, I mean going forward do the new on the rear trick

[Adam T7]

Mine also castellated on the rears, replaced all 4 rather than swap rear to front as the rear side walls were beginning to show early signs of age cracking (just over 4 years old). Replaced the Potenza’s with PS5’s - big improvement in ride and noise.

I don't mean swap the mangled ones, I mean going forward do the new on the rear trick

Gathered that, just my poorly written response. Used to swap front to rear on my Discoveries, they could eat front tyres in no time.

[fredgroves]

On a Mk7 the fronts do 12-14k (different makes of tyre, different driving styles) but the rears will still be road legal at maybe 65k.... but get saw tooth much sooner.

The old swaperoo fixes it.

Or you can just not care and bin the noisy rears whenever they get the tooth..... but basically you'll never wear them out.

[Exonian]

… And unsurprisingly the same issue affects mk8’s too.
My 24,000 mile old rear PS4S’s have started making that unmistakable noise in the last couple of weeks. Shed loads of tread on them still but alas destined for the bin now.

[Rudedog]

Strange because I didn't (haven't) suffered it at all with my original tyres and then the PS4's, although I did have a Hunter 4 wheel done and the toe in was neutralised front and back - hopefully my new PS5's will be ok.

Now my previous Mk5 did it straight from the factory but I had read about that got the rear camber sorted within the first 500 miles so never had any issues.

[Jace]

Brigestone Potenza, terrible for it on VAG platforms.

I had a Leon FR from new with them & the rears used to go like a 50p, changed to Eagle F1's & never had it again.

Definitely get a Hunter alignment to be 100% sure 

[m4t_lee]

So popped in for a hunter check and all green, no adjustments needed.
They popped it on the wobbly mot ramp and checked bushings too and all ok

Thoughts on hunter, are they any good at all?

Popped in to my local tyre place who are decent who don't rate hunter and said they use different kit and rather than go off the manufacturers settings they look and set it currently, thoughts?

[m4t_lee]

Hey all, has anyone experienced this on a mk7 GTI at all please?

My mechanic says it's fairly common and caused by the rear bushings on the MK7 getting soft causing the rear of the car to sag, the wheels to toe out and causing the tyres to castellate.

It could just be as simple as the geometry is out and needs sorting. I bought the car last year and put a fresh set of PS5's on

The rears have 20k on them and still have 6mm on them, such a shame to bin them

I normally wear the fronts out then pop the new on the back and move the rears to the front, keeps the rears fresh then

Not sure if the noise will just move to the front if I rotate them?

Both my mk7's that I had from new did it.

Replace the tyres, job done.

Good idea to swap rears with fronts when you eat up your fronts (fronts last about 14k, rears get sawtooth before they are worn out). So put new tyres on the rear, old rears on the front.

[AMG01]

Had the exact same issue bought my 7.5 GTI PP in October and straight away noticed a noise, sounded like wheel bearings, replaced under warranty and noise was still there.  Asked on here and was told about the sawtooth tyres, I had Bridgetsones on the back (perhaps originals going by comments on here) and no name tyres on the front put on by the dealer I bought the car from.  They have lasted only 10k miles so I got 4 Goodyear Eagles fitted today along with a 4 wheel alignment and based on a half hour motorway drive the noise is all gone, so much quieter and such a nice place to be.  They said it was 1.5 (assume mm) out at the front and 1 mm out at the rear, stated that all Golfs are sensitive to it.

[Agreeable Slick]

It can come down to tyres. (Had Rainsport 3's on at the time which are apprently quite succeptable to it)

Mine was making the trademark noise, and I got 4 PS4's fittted and then took it to be hunter aligned (was .5mm out on the rear) and the noise disappeared.

Was clear to see it was only the rears that were affected as well.