Wanli tyres bald in a matter of weeks

cantdecide

My dad has a Doblo van and he needed a pair of front tyres in or around a month ago (literally a month) and went to a nearby tyre chain and ended up with a pair of Wanli van tyres. He didn't agonise about them he just needed a pair of affordable tyres.

They're buggered.

The driver side could be described as getting on for borderline and the passenger side is flat smooth on the outside and borderline on the inside. I was astounded- I have never seen tyres wear out that fast. I was walking past the van and thought 'I can't believe he still hasn't replaced those...' and stopped as I remembered I'd seen brand new tyres on it maybe 4 or 5 weeks ago.

What recourse do you think he has with the tyre centre?

They do seem to get abysmal reviews in terms of grip and noise and there is a lot of talk about them not lasting very long but this is some kind of wind-up.

colm_mcm

Are they under inflated?

Supergurrier

Something mechanical has to be causing that rate of wear

Foxhole Norman

Supergurrier wrote: »

Something mechanical has to be causing that rate of wear

Yep, have to agree, no tyre that old should be gone like that. There's a deeper issue here somewhere with the van.

CiniO

What mileage did he do in a month time?

Boskowski

How many kilometres have they done? For all we know we know he could be doing Donegal to Kerry and back every day.

Toyotafanboi

i agree with above. there's most likely a tracking/ suspension problem with the van. no way could two new 8mm tyres go to bald in less than a month unless he's doing intergalactic mileage or has another issue at hand.

generally those chinese yokes are like plastic and you can't wear them down even if you try (in my experience).

166man

You sur he was sold brand new tyres...?

CiniO

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

no way could two new 8mm tyres go to bald in less than a month unless he's doing intergalactic mileage or has another issue at hand.

Not all new tyres come with 8mm tread.
I bought a set a while ago which only had 6mm.
It took me 8k km to wear them down to 1.6mm on the front driving on Mayo roads.

And while not too often, but i happens that I do over 10k km in a month.

Toyotafanboi

CiniO wrote: »

Not all new tyres come with 8mm tread.
I bought a set a while ago which only had 6mm.
It took me 8k km to wear them down to 1.6mm on the front driving on Mayo roads.

And while not too often, but i happens that I do over 10k km in a month.

i was using 8mm as a guideline. i forgot you were here to catch me on a technicality.

i would also classify 10k kms in a month fairly intergalactic. that's nearly 400 kms a day, if you take weekends off. in a non commercial capacity, that is very high.

Bpmull

I had wanli on my focus they came new on it when I got it (Id never personally buy them) I got the guts of 30k km out of the front and there was probably still 2.5mm on them when I got rid of then. So Id say it is the van alright and not the tyres.

colm_mcm

They're hardly hiding on the back?

cantdecide

The pressures were 32 and 30. The van has been sitting a couple of hours so cold.

The funny thing is the driver side wheel is measuring just over 2mm or so evenly across. The treads are 'cupping' (a term I've only heard in the bike world meaning that one side of a tread is higher than the other all around the tyre).

It's tracking straight and true on the road with no handling misbehaviour. The last tyres were worn flat and evenly (I was the one who pointed out to him they needed changing) and it passed a CVRT test in or around January with the old tyres.

The van has covered 2k km to 2.5k km on these tyres tops. The van spends most of its time outside my dad's office with just a small toolbox in the back...

I mean even if there was something wrong with the van it's still a lot of rubber loss on both tyres right? I didn't measure the treads when they were new but dammit they were thick chunky treads and they're after evaporating off of both tyres....

166man

But when they were bought they were definitely new? And it's not as though someone could have robbed your dads new tyres and put differnt ones on...?

George Dalton

cantdecide wrote: »

The treads are 'cupping' (a term I've only heard in the bike world meaning that one side of a tread is higher than the other all around the tyre).

The tracking is way off in that case.

*Kol*

He must be out diffin' in his Doblo at night when you are not looking!!! (I know a Doblo is FWD, diffin' in the Doblo is catchy tho!!!)

*Kol*

George Dalton wrote: »

The tracking is way off in that case.

Steering racks in those are prone to having a lot of play. Could be the cause of tracking problems.

cantdecide

166man wrote: »

But when they were bought they were definitely new? And it's not as though someone could have robbed your dads new tyres and put differnt ones on...?

They were brand new and the date stamp is late 2014. Big thick treads.

George Dalton wrote: »

The tracking is way off in that case.

How can it so that badly off and drive straight though? Not trying to be argumentative like

*Kol*

cantdecide wrote: »

They were brand new and the date stamp is late 2014. Big thick treads.



How can it so that badly off and drive straight though? Not trying to be argumentative like

My old Vectra was eating front tyres and driving okay. Turned out the tracking was brutal.

CiniO

cantdecide wrote: »

How can it so that badly off and drive straight though? Not trying to be argumentative like

Your wheels setup could be something like that:

\ /

| |

Front wheel pointing outisde.

Car would still drive straight, and tyres will wear very quickly.

George Dalton

cantdecide wrote: »

How can it so that badly off and drive straight though? Not trying to be argumentative like

It doesn't matter whether the front wheels are:

Tracked straight l l
Toed in / \
Or toed out \ /

The car can still drive straight regardless.

*Kol*

Sounds like inflation tbh.

cantdecide

George Dalton wrote: »

It doesn't matter whether the front wheels are:

Tracked straight l l
Toed in / \
Or toed out \ /

The car can still drive straight regardless.

I'm still confused- why would the left wear so much more unevenly than the right? Surely it would have to be tracking like this surely \ | and if that were the case, why would it drive straight?

CiniO

cantdecide wrote: »

I'm still confused- why would the left wear so much more unevenly than the right?

On top of incorrect toe, it could be incorrect camber on front left wheel.

Surely it would have to be tracking like this surely \ | and if that were the case, why would it drive straight?

In case of tracking like that \ | it would still mean it's toed out. If you kept your steering wheel exactly in centre position, car would drive to the left, so natural thing to do it to turn right a small bit, which would cause you to drive straight with your steering wheel slightly to the right, and having wheels like that \ / (just to the less extent).

166man

Lads in all fairness it sounds like the tyres were incorrectly manufactured. I can't see how even with the tracking way off, Chinese tyres (known for their harder compound) would wear that quickly.

OP, bring the car back to where you bought the tyres and ask them! We can only speculate!

CiniO

166man wrote: »

Lads in all fairness it sounds like the tyres were incorrectly manufactured. I can't see how even with the tracking way off, Chinese tyres (known for their harder compound) would wear that quickly.

OP, bring the car back to where you bought the tyres and ask them! We can only speculate!

With wheel alignment way off, it's perfectly easy to wear a set of front tyres in 2.5k km.

166man

CiniO wrote: »

With wheel alignment way off, it's perfectly easy to wear a set of front tyres in 2.5k km.

I have driven before with wheel alignment out and never had such problems.

I just don't buy that alignment out can cause that excessive tyre wear.

Boskowski

CiniO wrote: »

With wheel alignment way off, it's perfectly easy to wear a set of front tyres in 2.5k km.

I can confirm that from first hand experience. I once had tracking done in a main BMW garage with new quality tyres on them. They were ruined within 4 weeks as they had the tracking done incorrectly. The wheels were basically both pointing inwards like so / \. I got the tracking redone and a new set of front tyres out of them. In fairness to them they owed up to it.

porsche boy

from the wear you described I'd say you have a worn trackrod or trackrod end on the passanger side which has lead to the uneven wear. As this will affect the tracking your dad would have inadvertently corrected the steering to take account of this and has led to wear on the drivers side too. He'll need two new tyres, replace what ever is worn on the steering and have the van tracked.

CiniO

166man wrote: »

I have driven before with wheel alignment out and never had such problems.

I just don't buy that alignment out can cause that excessive tyre wear.

It all depends how much out it is...
My father once had to drive 100km with front wheels toe out by about 50 degrees (25 deg each).
Tyre tread came down from about 7 to 3 within 100km.
You could hear the tyre sqeak all way, and we had to stop every 10 minutes to cool them down.

Cee-Jay-Cee

166man wrote: »

I have driven before with wheel alignment out and never had such problems.

I just don't buy that alignment out can cause that excessive tyre wear.

Then you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. With both front wheels toed in or toed out, the van will drive straight but the wheels are effectively being dragged/scrubbed constantly while driving causing excessive wear on them. Tyre threads are designed to run in a straight line regardless of thread pattern so think of it logically or test it yourself. Get a bike, turn the wheel very slightly and push the bike forward keeping it moving in a straight line and feel the drag on the front tyre. Now imagine that happening on a car at much higher speeds, the rubber will heat up because of the excess friction and warm rubber will wear considerably quicker.

JBokeh

Doblos have something like 14 inch wheels, so he might have put some tyre load rated for something like a micra or matiz on it, which probably weighs as much as the engine in the doblo. I'm not fully clued up on how load rating works, but I think as it increases the sidewall of the tyre becomes firmer, and the compound gets a bit tougher. So something rated for a light car, pumped to 30psi will have the same effect as being under inflated on a heavy machine.

I've a doblo sitting at home, so I can check what load range the tyres are on it for you. I know mine suffered a broken spring, which was broken for ages before I worked out what it was, and she did wear down a tyre pretty quick then

ShaunieVW

I had severe camber issues on my old 530d and went through a set of rears in a month ( less than 1k miles) so suspension issue can really wear a tyre down quickly if it is being dragged or running on a smaller contact patch of the tyre.

goss101

i had a pair of Wanli's on the back of my avensis for over two years and when i went to sell it the buyer asked me were they new tyres on the back!! they still had about 80% of the thread! They seemed like they'd last forever, given they were on the back but i do a decent bit of mileage so i have they say my experience is they are very good in terms of wear, think the garage i bought them in said he puts them on a lot of taxi's. Can't really comment on grip but i heard one review of "Felt like i was driving on wet snot"!!!!

Bruthal

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Then you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. With both front wheels toed in or toed out, the van will drive straight but the wheels are effectively being dragged/scrubbed constantly while driving causing excessive wear on them. Tyre threads are designed to run in a straight line regardless of thread pattern so think of it logically or test it yourself. Get a bike, turn the wheel very slightly and push the bike forward keeping it moving in a straight line and feel the drag on the front tyre. Now imagine that happening on a car at much higher speeds, the rubber will heat up because of the excess friction and warm rubber will wear considerably quicker.

I don't think the tyres would be perfectly in line on most cars anyway. Some small toe out will be the setting on front wheel drive cars I'd say.

cantdecide

Crow was eaten today...

I assumed he'd gotten the tracking done when he got the tyres changed (a reasonable assumption you would think)... he hadn't :rolleyes: He'd try to cut corners and save a few bob and not only was out hella lot, the locknut had come loose probably a long time ago which apparently causes more problems beyond the obvious.

The mechanic gave her the go ahead and Da went back to the garage for more tyres.... and tracking this time.

George Dalton

I hope the Guangzhou Fengli Tire & Rubber Co.,Ltd don't decide to take Boards.ie to court over your baseless and slanderous accusations about the fine products sold under their flagship Wanli brand :pac:

cantdecide

George Dalton wrote: »

I hope the Guangzhou Fengli Tire & Rubber Co.,Ltd don't decide to take Boards.ie to court over your baseless and slanderous accusations about the fine products sold under their flagship Wanli brand :pac:

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