A4 Eating tyres

Ban Ki Moon

I recently had my car tracked and balanced because I could see that the front tyres were wearing at the outside
Got a flat today and discovered that the inside of the tyre has been wearing and is now f**ked ,Both of them.

http://i29.tinypic.com/2hx1u8h.jpg
http://i32.tinypic.com/v5ikc6.jpg

The tracking and balancing were only done about 3 months ago and the car has only been driven about 3 or 4 thousand kilometers since and mostly only around town.The car felt perfect to drive but only just in the past few days there was a slight shake in the steering at 100 kph

Anybody got any idea why this is happening?

djimi

How hard do you drive?

coronaextra

something seriously wrong here, what suspension set up are you running?
the garage who did the tracking should have copped that something is wrong!

Ban Ki Moon

djimi wrote: »

How hard do you drive?

coronaextra wrote: »

something seriously wrong here, what suspension set up are you running?
the garage who did the tracking should have copped that something is wrong!

Its driven easy

Not sure about suspension setup, Never being modified or anything

bmstuff

http://www.procarcare.com/includes/content/resourcecenter/encyclopedia/ch25/25readtirewear.html

I'd say control arm bushings. Get the suspension inspected anyway.

mickdw

I will just check the workshop manual to see if that model of A4 has the complicated wheel alignment setup. If it has, It is likely that the Alignment guys are making a balls of your setup. It may require a 'raised toe' check as many vw/audi models require. This would be especially important when rebuilding after crash damage or even after replacing worn suspension components

Edit:
From checking the manual, yes that car does require a raised toe check. Best to book it in to main dealer, ask them about raised toe or 'constant s' as its refered to in the manual just to be sure they know what they are doing. Of course make sure you have no major wear in suspension joints before doing this.
Basically what this raised toe test does is check toe-in at normal suspension height & also with suspension raised 60mm apprx. If all is well, toe-in will change v little. If this setting is out, as the car raises up & down, the toe will change. This all means that if someone aligns the car without knowledge of this, they are possibly doing more harm than good & your car might appear like it has bent suspension to them as they wont understand where the error is. Adjustement of front alignment must be made at the trackrod & at points shown below

sundodger5

Looks more like a camber problem as i cant see any feathering on the tyres.
But as mickdw said some of the audi's have a non standard set up.
I know you said the tracking was done 3 months ago but the question is how many miles have the tyres done and were they new when the tracking was done?

mathepac

Hmmmm, Nankangs wearing badly on the inside and outside would indicate to me that the toe and camber adjustments and maybe even tyre pressures are questionable. Most of these tyre places haven't got a clue what they are doing. Unless there is obviously strange tyre wear when buying new tyres, tell them to leave the "laser alignment" alone.

Fortunately you spotted it as that seems to be some of the steel belt coming through. The only good news is that they are budget tyres and shouldn't cost too much to replace, although I accept they should not be destroyed.

PaulKK

Something like that happened to me with a passat, I had a worn balljoint and it wore heavily on the inside.

I suspect there is something else at play there though.. your camber looks like it must be borked, its toed out way too much.

http://driftjapan.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/toe-in-vs-toe-out.jpg

bazz26

Had a similar problem on my S40 recently, ended up being the lower control arm bushings on the wishbones.

Deadly Dave

You should check the wheel bearings for play and check for work shocks too.

bazzachazza

I have 50000k on my Conti SC2's and they are still legal so something very wrong here with you set up.

DaveJac

does the car drive ok, as in if you let go of the steering wheel will it continue in a straight line or will it vere off to one side, if it goes to one side its probably your tracking if not its probably camber, the majority of cars dont have camber adjustment so if your camber is out it means something is worn or bent out of shape the car may appear to be driving ok as in not pulling to the left or right, Is the car making any knocking noises from the suspension

Ban Ki Moon

DaveJac wrote: »

does the car drive ok, as in if you let go of the steering wheel will it continue in a straight line or will it vere off to one side, if it goes to one side its probably your tracking if not its probably camber, the majority of cars dont have camber adjustment so if your camber is out it means something is worn or bent out of shape the car may appear to be driving ok as in not pulling to the left or right, Is the car making any knocking noises from the suspension

Handles perfectly no problems at all!

JHMEG

Get the tracking etc done again, sounds like it might have been done incorrectly.

Failing that check suspension arms for wear - sagging suspension will wear tyres on the inside - but I suspect the tracking etc wasn't done right to begin with.