A6 35 profile uneven tyre wear

[A6Lemans1966]

I have had my A6 since new, all it has ever done is chew through tyre inner walls and been really "tyre noisy" on the road.

I have now done 120,000 in it and been through a lot of tyres. Audi dealer did do full alignment check FOC and said it was slightly out about 6 months ago. It has still done the same, anyone had any joy with them admitting it is an issue?

I am going to put budget tyres on it now as it has become tedious at £1000 per set of four!

I would welcome any comments on this fed up to the back teeth of having to fork out for what appears to be unreasonable tyre use the full tread width is fine it is just the inner walls go off.

Cheers

[NikB]

I can't specifically comment on A6's but I do know that BMW( i know wash my mouth out) suffer from the same problem and this is basically due to the fact that Car Manufacturers are continually offering large wheels for cars they where never designed to go on with no geometry changes,
For example I don't know what the standard A6's are fitted with but I would imagine they are probably 205 or a 225 with say a profile of 45-55 on a 16-17 inch wheel, now take the Le mans for example which is especially the same car underneath which runs 255-35-19 I suspect that there are no geometry changes and possibly only a slight change in off set, then when you consider that the back tyres do not sit perfectly square to the road the wider you go the more it increases the problem,

Not very well explained I know but that’s my best guess.

[NikB]

P.s. you didn't mention is it a Quattro??

[A6Lemans1966]

Thanks NikB

Yes it is a Quattro I half suspected this was the issue. Yes the big wheels look wonderful and sell the car but they need to consider the problems this causes.

Cheers

[NikB]

I too think the big wheels look great and wouldn't change them for the world but if I was to go through tyres that quick I'd have to think long and hard think about it, especially as you point out that they are £200-£250 a corner.

[phil miller]

this is a very common problem and the only way ive found to combat it is to swap your wheels front to rear every 3/4000 miles, 6000 miles ago i fitted some GTI wheels to my golf, the fronts are on about 5mm the rears still have the makers name in the tread (that little wear so far) but the inner edge of the tyre is starting to go, the only thing im gonna do is swap them around cos id hate to have to replace a tyre with loads of tread id rather spend 30 mins every couple of months swapping them around, hope this helps bud

[NikB]

True enough it does even out the wear but the problem is that you then end up replacing all four tyres at the same time instead of 2 at a time, in the long run you will still need the same number of tyres but changing 2 at a time spreads the cost a little, just my thoughts

[sja]

well I can agree there is a problem as I just replaced my rears. Approx 20% of innner tread gone, flat spots etc. Remainder of tyre is all 5/6mm. What a waste.. Not a quattro but FWD 2.0

[Garry_M]

AH just found this thread, see below looks like same problem;


Hi,

during some work on my brakes the garage called to say my two front tyres needed changing, passenger side inner side had a 10mm deep by 10mm wide wear showing white stuff and the drivers side close to the same. It is a quattro and all four tyres were less than 3 years old and covered 24000 miles. The wheels were in alignment (toe in/out) but the camber wasn't checked. Rear tyres were fine.

Mechanic said this is common on low profile tyres and said he was amazed i never had any judder at speed.

Garage is reputable and a web search showed no issues regarding cost of work/quality etc.

Generally keep air pressures as per door pillar sticker Front 3.1 Bar, Rear 2.9 Bar.

What I would like info on is why they wear like this on the inside, is it these speed bumps that are almost as wide as the axle width, something i'm over looking etc?

Drive sensibly around the city and enjoy it in the winding highland roads (30% of its miles).

Any advice greatly appreciated from a safety point of view ( I was blown away when I seen the damage).

Cheers,
Garry.