Tyre wear advice needed

[phillj]

Guys

I have recently purchased from a MB franchised dealer a 2006 W203 180k advantgarde estate fitted with the sport pack. Its running on 225/45 r17 continentals on the front, my query is how they are wearing. Both front wheels are wearing much more heavily on the outer edge, the car steers straight and true and I'm very pleased with the car overall, however it's been back to MB for their opinion on the wear they say it is acceptable my opinion is it's not as i'm going to have 3-4mm of tread left on the inner/middle and nothing on the outer and at approx £100 per tyre thats unacceptable.

Can the experts out there confirm this wear pattern is normal?

 

[duncanh]

My W203 has always worn the tyres on the outer edge. When he first set of tyres were worn out at about 20K miles (3mm on the inside, nothing on the outside), I sent it to the dealer to get fixed. They did a four wheel geometry check and pronounced that it was OK. I have lived with the situation for nearly 7 years and 175K miles. The potential cost of getting MB to look at it again was prohibitive (especially as they probably would do nothing useful for the money).

I did consider Wheels-in-motion http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk, but the distance put me off. If I find a reason to be in his neck of the woods I might consider it. Given the mileage of my car, I will probably need new suspension parts soon. That would be a good time to get it rechecked.

I have noticed over the years that the nearside tyres wear more unevenly that the offside, the front more uneven than the rear.

 

[Rory]

Guys

I have recently purchased from a MB franchised dealer a 2006 W203 180k advantgarde estate fitted with the sport pack. Its running on 225/45 r17 continentals on the front, my query is how they are wearing. Both front wheels are wearing much more heavily on the outer edge, the car steers straight and true and I'm very pleased with the car overall, however it's been back to MB for their opinion on the wear they say it is acceptable my opinion is it's not as i'm going to have 3-4mm of tread left on the inner/middle and nothing on the outer and at approx £100 per tyre thats unacceptable.

Can the experts out there confirm this wear pattern is normal?

I have a late 2004 C270CDi Avantgarde estate on standard suspension and 16" wheels.

My front tyres wore in just the same way as you describe, with NSF wearing slightly more heavily the OSF. I don't use the car much, and when I do it's generally for long steady motorway runs. So I got 40K miles out of the fronts, but I only changed them because the outer edges were bald and it looked bad - once away from the outer edge the tyres had plenty of tread left. I had advisories at the last 2 MOTs about it - they tyres can be bald on the edge and are still legal (but as I say, they looked bad to the casual observer).

My tyres were still measured as 4 & 5 mm in the centres - if yours are down towards 3mm then MB recommend changing then at 3mm anyway, but even if you go to 2mm the last mm wears off quicker, so there's probably not a huge amount left in your tyres even at their best case.

If you're happy with the way the car runs then I would leave it alone. I've read horror stories of W203s being messed up. Apart from anything else, you could easily spend a couple of hundred pounds on alignment so even if you think you're only getting say £70 of wear from £100 tyres then you've got to go some just to get the alignment cost back.

I thought about trying to get my tyres turned around on the rims but it turns out that even non-directional tyres mostly have an inner and an outer face. :wink:

 

[jberks]

Are they worn on the inner edges too?
Normally tyres on sports setups wear more on the inner edges than the outer due to them being cambered slightly in at the top to give better grip in corners, so outer edge wearing only is odd.
However if they are wearing at the edges more than the inner 3/4, then this is a textbook sign that your tyre pressures are too low. By increasing the pressures over your current settings by ,say, 2psi you'll increase the load on the centre and take the load off the edges, reducing the outer edge wear rate.

 

[Micman]

Guys

I have recently purchased from a MB franchised dealer a 2006 W203 180k advantgarde estate fitted with the sport pack. Its running on 225/45 r17 continentals on the front, my query is how they are wearing. Both front wheels are wearing much more heavily on the outer edge, the car steers straight and true and I'm very pleased with the car overall, however it's been back to MB for their opinion on the wear they say it is acceptable my opinion is it's not as i'm going to have 3-4mm of tread left on the inner/middle and nothing on the outer and at approx £100 per tyre thats unacceptable.

Can the experts out there confirm this wear pattern is normal?

Hi there, sounds like I have the same car, only a saloon version.

What you are describing sounds perfectly normal to me.

Mine had Continentals all round when I bought it and as you say the outer edges on the front tyres do wear more than the rest of the tyre.

I increased the tyre pressures and run it around 40psi which really helps give a more balanced wear.

Also, I changed tyres to Michelin Pilot sports when they needed doing - these are a much better wearing tyre, are quieter and don't suffer the edges wearing as much as the Conti's did. - In my opinion anyway.

Also, don't panic and rush out to buy new tyres if just the outer edge is wearing low - the law is you must have 1.6mm of tread across the central three quarters of the breadth of tread and round the entire outer circumference of the tyre.

 

[hawk20]

I have the 211 series E estate and recently raised this same issue with my local MB dealer. Wide tyres and power steering all contribute to this problem. Apparently it is 'normal' for them to wear more on the outside.

But Jberks point is good. Low pressure certainly ups the wear on the outside edge.

I've done 13,000 on the front tyres and they reckon only another 2k miles left before sensible to change. Back ones hardly worn.

Yet on the S320cdi, I went through rear tyres about every 11,000 miles and when I complained to a contact at MB -who also had an S320cdi- he congratulated me. "Well done", he said, "best I've ever got is 9,000 miles from the rears".

 

[Alex M Grieve]

I have the 211 series E estate and recently raised this same issue with my local MB dealer. Wide tyres and power steering all contribute to this problem. Apparently it is 'normal' for them to wear more on the outside.

I too had this advice on a W211 E 320 CDI AG. The recommendation was to wait until the new tryes were fitted, then have the geometry checked.

As the car was to be changed soon thereafter, I didn't, but the advice sounds consistent and sensible.

 

[Neo4]

Hi
I had a 203 (saloon) for 4 years before I changed it for a W211 estate last year. I found that the 203 tended to wear out the tyres faster than my current car (exactly as everyone else have described above). I had to change 2 tyres every year (roughly 10-12k miles). The 211 has done just over 20K with the same set of tyres and I reckon there is another 3-4K before I need to change. I was told that the 203's have an issue with alignment and tend to cause more wear, this could be true. Jberks has a good point, with the 211 I have been keeping an eye on the tyre pressure as I am doing more miles/motorway journeys.
Hope this helps

Cheers
Pete

 

[Rory]

I've done 13,000 on the front tyres and they reckon only another 2k miles left before sensible to change. Back ones hardly worn.

That's a very odd pattern and rate of wear on a RWD car - are the tyres the same size all round, perhaps they were rotated at some point?

 

[moosehead]

I have exactly the same set up on my 203 estate (sport pack and 225 / 245 spilt tyres). The fronts always seem to wear on the edges. This is the same for the original Continentals and now the Kumhos. I've had the fronts tracked separately and then 4 wheel tracking at Micheldever last time round but it makes no difference. That said I get 26-27K from the fronts for both the Contis and Kumhos. Interestingly the Contis only did 15K on the rear and Kumhos 20K.

 

[jberks]

Hawks point about power steering is a good one that I'd forgotten.
Mercs have a really good turning circle (one of the best) but on full lock the wheel is angled quite steeply. If you're doing a lot of car park work and tight turns, twiring the wheel round, this can cause outer edge wear. If you're doing more motorway work, you're less likely to see this issue.

 

[Micman]

Hawks point about power steering is a good one that I'd forgotten.
Mercs have a really good turning circle (one of the best) but on full lock the wheel is angled quite steeply. If you're doing a lot of car park work and tight turns, twiring the wheel round, this can cause outer edge wear. If you're doing more motorway work, you're less likely to see this issue.

Totally agree that power steering has alot to do with the outer edges wearing.

On some of my older cars I used to flip the tyre on the rim when the outer edge wore down to give more lifespan.

Unfortunately this is something I can't do anymore as my Mercs tyres are directional with a determined outside edge! Can't help thinking the manufacturers did this on purpose to make us all spend more!

 

[EGBM]

Topical thread for me, this. Just bought 4 new tyres, fronts were worn very heavily on the inside compared to the rest of the surface so it's off for a 4 wheel alignment when it has its MoT next week. The advice I've received on another thread indicates too negative a camber.

If I can get anywhere near 27K for a pair of fronts I'll be happy.

 

[phillj]

Thanks for all the replies and advice, makes interesting reading

So to summarize from your comments it appears the tyre wear I'm seeing is pretty common, just for clarification re questions from some replies my tyres are only showing excessive wear on the outer edge and the car steers and handles very well, also the comment about more wear on the outer edge of the nearside front is true for my car
I will try the suggested increase in tyre pressure from what MB recommend , perhaps this will help. I may also try a different brand when the current ones need changing, which may not be long!

 

[merc07]

I have a W203 2007 220cdi with sports pack and had the same problem. Wheels in Motion fixed it for me in the end. The car has now done 11k on new front and rear tyres.

I have been taking regular tread depth measurements, fronts are wearing evenly, should be ok for 25k, rears should be good for 20k.

Take a look at this thread....

http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=51517

 

[Andrew23]

Whilst not necessarily "good", it is reassuring to know I am not alone in getting short life from my tyres.

I had a new NSR fitted to my 02 C220 CDi around 9K miles ago. Had a Conti fitted, as I thought they were a good tyre. It is now down to 1.6 on the inside edge. Some contributory factors may be that I had broken springs on the rear for a bit and I do tow a caravan. Also had to disable ESP and "spin" a bit to get up my drive a couple of times when the snow was here. The car is Avantgarde spec and has non-Merc alloys (Fox). I always look after the tyre pressures (very important when lugging a 'van).

What brand do Merc recommend and, more importantly, what brand(s) do the forum members recommend?

Thanks in advance.

Andrew.

 

[television]

Always a hard subject. It was not that long ago that all new MB's came with Conti or Michelin.

All of the new cars this month in my local dealer had the Michelin Contact fitted, 3 months back they had mainly Bridgestone.
Excluding camber wear any rapid wear I would look to see if the tread is feathering, that shows that the tracking is out.

 

[HJHPH]

Just replacing all four on my wifes C220 Sports Coupe. I think the rears have done around 30k, the fronts much less but will check the original invoice for the last set of fronts. National in Winchester have priced matched the best tyre place around and then offered Bridgestones for the same price as Continentals, 225/45/17 91W £100.78 a corner all in. A good deal I am informed?? Still another £400 gone
Will be interesting to see how they wear as they are supposedly last longer. Will keep you informed.
Paul.

 

[hawk20]

That's a very odd pattern and rate of wear on a RWD car - are the tyres the same size all round, perhaps they were rotated at some point?

Never been rotated AFAIK. Wear pattern seems to be similar to other posters.

 

[television]

Never been rotated AFAIK. Wear pattern seems to be similar to other posters.

My wide rears do not last long Hawk, I do not bother to check the mileage they go so quick