Front tyre wear

Richard Hurst · Jun 28, 2019

Hi everyone
Do you think I need to get my wheel alignment looked at, I did take it to a local garage recently and they reported it was all spot on but I can’t see how it is with this outside edge tyre wear. Is it out of alignment or should I change my tyre pressures, think they are currently on 55psi. On the images below you can see the wear on the old tyre and the wear starting to appear on the new tyre.

Sorry they are 255/45/18 on a California Ocean

VW Guru · Jun 28, 2019

It maybe the angle of the picture but are the insides worn the same? And what size tyres are you running ?

Velma's Dad · Jun 28, 2019

If the tracking is out you may be able to feel some roughness of the tread when you run your hand over it in one direction.

It might well be an over-inflation problem but you don't say which vehicle/wheels you have got. What are the recommended pressures on the sticker?

Hotel California · Jun 28, 2019

Velma's Dad said:
If the tracking is out you may be able to feel some roughness of the tread when you run your hand over it in one direction.

It might well be an over-inflation problem but you don't say which vehicle/wheels you have got. What are the recommended pressures on the sticker?

I always though over-inflation giving wear in the midlle
Under-inflation giving wear on the sides

Velma's Dad · Jun 28, 2019

hotel california said:
I always though over-inflation giving wear in the midlle
Under-inflation giving wear on the sides

Doh, thanks HC. Quite right, ignore my 'overinflated?' query. I need to go and get my first coffee of the day then I might be able to type some sense.

:happy

5i1ver8ack · Jun 28, 2019

Have a look here too.....

https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/still-legal.29413/#post-339376

Richard Hurst · Jun 28, 2019

Sorry they are 255/45/18 on a California Ocean. No inside wear at all

VW Guru · Jun 28, 2019

The vw pressures for this size tyre is 3.1 bar front and rear which is 44.96psi. If it’s just wearing the outer edges then you will need a full geo check

Borris · Jun 28, 2019

My limited and ancient knowledge of the causes of tyre wear is that wear on the outer edges tends to suggest the steering is toeing in slightly. A bit like having pigeon toes. As the vehicle moves forward the tendancy is to scrub rubber off the outer edges. If it were toeing out the the wear would be on the inside edges. If the tyre were over inflated it would adopt a more balloon shaped cross section and the wear would be in the centre of the tread pattern. Again looking at a cross section, if the tyre was under inflated the tyre would go slightly concave in the centre of the tread therefore the wear would be on both outer edges. If the wear is on the outer tyre walls then your wife has been driving it! If there's no rubber left on the tyres at all then your teenage son has been driving it.

However I'm sure that there is a lot more to it than that.

vwsween · Jun 28, 2019

Unfortunately your local garage are very unlikely to have the expensive equipment needed for a full 4 wheel alignment and geometric check. So when they say to you that its spot on what they probably mean is that the steering wheel is centered and all 4 wheels point the same way as far as they can see. The wear does not look to be anything to do with pressures or wheel direction so you need a garage with the right equipment.

TripleBee · Jun 28, 2019

What was the depth of thread in the middle?
My tyres tend to wear more at the outside too, but that is because of the cornering. On roundabouts, the weight of the vehicle will push outwards, meaning that the tyre is going to deform to roll on the outer edge of the tyre. In the UK means: the left side of the left tyre will wear faster than the other side. My right tyres wear a little faster because I am from Belgium and all continental roads tend to roll off to the right, meaning the vehicle is pushed to the right wearing the tyre more at the outside on the right side.
On the other side, the left front tyre is worn more at the outside too, because of hairpin roads, meaning the vehicle leans or left or right wearing the tyre more at the outside.

At the back, the tyres will wear more at the inside because of the weight making the camber of the rear wheels more negative (the rear wheels look like this: //-----\\).
At least it is with mine as the rear tyres were flattened on the edge inside.

So not really worrying if the front tyres were less than 3 mm in the middle.
If you really want to be sure, take it to VW to do a full geo. They must have the equipment as it is obligated to have the right alignment tools.

Velma's Dad · Jun 28, 2019

TripleBee said:
What was the depth of thread in the middle?
My tyres tend to wear more at the outside too, but that is because of the cornering. On roundabouts, the weight of the vehicle will push outwards, meaning that the tyre is going to deform to roll on the outer edge of the tyre. In the UK means: the left side of the left tyre will wear faster than the other side. My right tyres wear a little faster because I am from Belgium and all continental roads tend to roll off to the right, meaning the vehicle is pushed to the right wearing the tyre more at the outside on the right side.
On the other side, the left front tyre is worn more at the outside too, because of hairpin roads, meaning the vehicle leans or left or right wearing the tyre more at the outside.

At the back, the tyres will wear more at the inside because of the weight making the camber of the rear wheels more negative (the rear wheels look like this: //-----\\).
At least it is with mine as the rear tyres were flattened on the edge inside.

So not really worrying if the front tyres were less than 3 mm in the middle.
If you really want to be sure, take it to VW to do a full geo. They must have the equipment as it is obligated to have the right alignment tools.

Really interesting Triplebee, I never knew that and have just googled it... here someone who works for Toyo confirms it:
http://toyotires.com.au/toyo-blog/540-why-does-the-left-front-tyre-wear-faster

Main factors are roundabouts and the road camber: in both cases tending to increase loading on nearside tyre.

You live and learn.

TripleBee · Jun 28, 2019

And you pay...

for new tyres a little sooner.

andyinluton · Jun 28, 2019

Richard Hurst said:
Hi everyone
Do you think I need to get my wheel alignment looked at, I did take it to a local garage recently and they reported it was all spot on but I can’t see how it is with this outside edge tyre wear. Is it out of alignment or should I change my tyre pressures, think they are currently on 55psi. On the images below you can see the wear on the old tyre and the wear starting to appear on the new tyre.

Sorry they are 255/45/18 on a California Ocean

View attachment 46849 View attachment 46850

55psi is too high for 255s that's the pressure for the skinnier tyres, should be about 45 I think for that size - look in the drivers door shut, it should list all the pressures for the various sizes.

The wear looks about right for someone who doesn't drive like a granny in a place where there are lots of roundabouts assuming the second picture is front nearside.

Ocean Spirit · Jun 29, 2019

I wouldn't say its right but I would say its common.
Though in truth, once the wear pattern starts to look this bad the rest of the tyre wasn't far behind in residual rubber hitting the wear bars for me. So although I'm not pleased to see it, even if it wasn't like it the front would have needed replacing soon after. Could it be the adblue, water tanks and loaded kitchen plus the driving force of the front that is responsible?

TripleBee · Jun 29, 2019

You may check every car and in normal conditions you will see that the (for you guys in the UK) front left tyre wears the fastest, and often the nearside even faster. Especially when they drive "sporty".
Or in your and our case (for other Europeans, it's the front right tyre), due to the heavy overall weight of the vehicle, and/or driving "sporty" too: roundabouts at normal car speed, turns a little too fast, for the vehicle, ...
And our weight (80 kg of diesel, 30 kg of fresh water, a whole kitchen unit with a loaded fridge, ...) is also on the left side of the vehicle.
It is just the sum of all the factors that will give us this pattern on tyre wear. Wether you like it or not.

Richard Hurst · Aug 4, 2019

Update. Had a proper wheel alignment done today on a Hunter system and it showed my rear wheels were out of alignment so it was pushing my fronts out so causing that outer edge wear. Hopefully all sorted now.

TripleBee · Aug 4, 2019

Good to hear. Well, not good to hear, but if it is sorted, your tyres will wear more normal now.

B J G · Aug 4, 2019

The wider the tyre the more prone they become to outer tyre wear due to suspension caster angle effectively tilting the wheel onto its outer edge. Over inflating will make this more of a problem.
With wide and low profile tyres now being either directional or having an outer side it is no longer possible to turn the tyre on the rim to get a few more thousand miles out of them.
Big downside of the current 'bling' trend for big wheels.

This caster action can be seen on full lock quite clearly.

TripleBee · Sep 15, 2019

This is my tyre wear (left front and LHD).
Those Bridgestones have equal pattern from the middle, so you can see that the outside of the tyre is worn more than the inside. The right tyre is a little more worn, but that is from driving on the other side of the road as you UK ladies and gentlemen.