MOT FAILURE

Vantastic2 · Jul 10, 2016

Bit of a shock when I took my cali for it's first MOT back in March to be told it failed the MOT due to tyre wear on one rear tyre !
There was under 20,000 miles on the tyres but the inner edge on drivers rear side exposed the tyre fabric showing steel make up and it was less than 1 mm wide around circumference of the tyre approx. 25mm in,i did not spot this as I have mud flaps. The other tyre was going too, so played safe and had them both changed..
You cannot have any tracking done to rear wheels which is so annoying, back in 1977 (showing my age now)
I had a car with same problem but could and did ' shim ' the wheels which would align them as you would with tracking on front wheels !
So it would be interesting if anyone else on here has had the same problem ! might be best if one can remember to have wheels alternated after say 10,000 miles time ?
( sorry taken so long to do this thread as my Mum was in hospital-stroke,now in a home )

Loz · Jul 10, 2016

Would the Pedders HD Spring kit (or similar) for the rear help by raising the back end and improving the camber angle?

Hotel California · Jul 10, 2016

Sorry to hear you failed MOT , but i you fail to pass due to bad tyres i would be embarresd telling this .....thats the one of tbe easyes things to check yourself and one of the most important things on a car.
Your 2,5 ton verhicle only makes contact to the ground on those few square cm....
Rotating tyers and swapping to winters done by yourself as i do is a good way to follow up tyerwear .
Checkking tyre state and pressure once a month and before every big trip is essential.

Pineweasel · Jul 10, 2016

I've just replaced my rears at 34000 miles for the same reason. There was still around 4mm of tread but the inner edges were completely gone. The guys at the tyre shop told me it was common in many VW models, for some reason.

Hotel California · Jul 10, 2016

"Tyre wear is common" .....hmmm
How many still have all things like wheel size , tyre brand , suspention as they came original?
Everyone has diffrent loads in theire Cali...
Everyone drives diffrent...

estresao · Jul 10, 2016

There should be a reason in your case, did any mechanic have a look to that issue? I've got no idea, but guess there is something like suspension, wheel alignment etc.. with need some fine tune

Rich20 · Jul 10, 2016

The moral of this story must be to get down on your hands and knees to properly inspect the tyres at much more regular intervals. Thankfully the tyre has not caused an accident by a blow out. Why it has worn so badly is a concern which hopefully will get resolved.

Borris · Jul 10, 2016

I seem to recall reading somewhere on this forum that excessive tyre wear on one rear wheel is or has been a not uncommon issue on Calis. This issue may have been rectified now however it might be worth a quick search.

I haven't done very many miles in our Cali yet so have no real experience of tyre wear on the Cali but my initial thought when reading this thread was that to only get 20,000 miles from the tyres on a three tonne vehicle doesn't seem surprising to me. I will be interested to see what mileage other owners have achieved.

Airhoguk · Jul 10, 2016

I'd go and get the wheels fully checked on a four wheel laser alignment rig. There is adjustment although sometimes it may involve the use of a file. I had it done on a RWD car a few years ago and from the factory there was adjustment of up to 15mm required.

Zebedee · Jul 10, 2016

Zebedee recently had his first MOT as well. We didn't fail but we were handed an advisory notice for all four tyres. We have done 24,000 miles but I have only had the tyres about 18 months due to punctures. I have Continentals so not particularly cheap tyres! Commiserations.

rod_vw · Jul 10, 2016

The toe-in/out of the rear suspension is adjustable via eccentric bold adjustment on the inner end of the rear wishbones.

The figures may well be a toe figure (total) 10′ ± 20′, camber -30′ ± 45′ and castor 4° 20′ ± 40′ but always check with a dealer before having changes made. I think the latter two dimensions are fixed by body / suspension components and not adjustable.

Rod

AlanC · Jul 10, 2016

I was just about to say that you can have the rear wheels tracked. I used my local larger KwikFit depot that has a computer laser aligning setup. Cost about £65 and the trained tech will align all four wheels. I am sure there are other companies that do it to.

Having said that my van also failed on rear wheel wear last time and the local dealer said T5s do tend to wear the rear tyres on the inside edge.

Alan

gear box oil · Jul 10, 2016

Find reputable tyre and exhaust centre with a good reputation they will be happy to check your tyres. That said you should check them once a week pressure, condition and tred make sure the wear is even. If you can't do it get someone who can. Also the condition of your tyres will get you a nice fine and some points. If they feel its not road worthy they may confiscate the vehicle. Compare all that to the price of a checkup and a tyre.

thesquirrelpatrol · Jul 11, 2016

I had to replace my front tyres after only 8000, would not recommend the nankang 255/45r18s that were fitted to my sportlines when I bought them. Very poor. Replaced them with falken so which seemed much better.

when I spoke to tyre dealers I was a bit taken aback when they said that it was quite common to only get 8-10000 out of a set of tyres. I had factory fit 16" alloys on my previous transporter which were fairly new when I bought it at 3 years old, had it 5 years, 25000 miles and they still had life in them!

estresao · Jul 11, 2016

21000 miles in a year and still no need to change them

estresao · Jul 11, 2016

BTW I've cross swapped them when around 10000 and I'll do it again to wear all tyres equally.

sbmcd · Jul 16, 2016

Vantastic2 said:
Bit of a shock when I took my cali for it's first MOT back in March to be told it failed the MOT due to tyre wear on one rear tyre !
There was under 20,000 miles on the tyres but the inner edge on drivers rear side exposed the tyre fabric showing steel make up and it was less than 1 mm wide around circumference of the tyre approx. 25mm in,i did not spot this as I have mud flaps. The other tyre was going too, so played safe and had them both changed..
You cannot have any tracking done to rear wheels which is so annoying, back in 1977 (showing my age now)
I had a car with same problem but could and did ' shim ' the wheels which would align them as you would with tracking on front wheels !
So it would be interesting if anyone else on here has had the same problem ! might be best if one can remember to have wheels alternated after say 10,000 miles time ?
( sorry taken so long to do this thread as my Mum was in hospital-stroke,now in a home )

The rear wheel alignment can be adjusted, I took my van to a 4 wheels alignment centre when I noticed the rear NS tyre wearing on the inside, that wheel was 0.5 deg out, not much but enough to cause uneven wear.

DavidofHook · Jul 16, 2016

There does seem to be a lot of weight on the back of a Cali, unsurpringly. Just looking at it it seems lower at the back than the front whereas you expect it to the reverse with that great heavy engine at the front. Hence the tyre wear at the back?
Having said all that, my fronts went at about 20000 which I replaced with Michelins, not cheap much much better the old Continentals. With the Continentals whenever I took off from rest my front wheels would skid however soft I was with the pedal. With the Michelins this does not happen.
(I know that someone is going to tell me that the skidding was my fault and in theory it was but it does not happen with the Michelins :happy