Unusual tread wear with W203 rear tyres

[hawkinsd]

W203 220CDi 2005. After only 12k miles i'm again having to replace my rear tyres and i'm more of a sunday driver than boy racer! I fitted branded tyres, Goodyears but the wear rate is alarming. What i really concerned with is the sharp 1mm lip that developed on both rear tyres on both the inner and outer edges, this started to appear very shortly after having them fitted. Tyre wear is even across the whole width of the tyre. I have had 4 wheel alignment done!
Any ideas what sort of mileage i should expect? and why is there a lip developing at the edges? Thanks in advance

 

[Xtractorfan]

12k is a small mileage for rear tyres, I would have the alignment checked again, try a different garage this time, Is the lip on the tyre feathered? ..this would indicate that the rear tyres were scrubbing or pulling against each other.. ask around a few of the local garages about 4 wheel tracking/alignment, or even a few of the local bodyshops, these guys always know and use the best.. also have your wheelbase measured and checked.. car on level ground..measure from centre of rear wheel to centre of front wheel..both sides should be the same..most bodyshops have a measuring gauge for doing this..

 

[television]

If the tyres are feathering the some thing is very wrong

 

[hawkinsd]

please can you help me understand what feathering is on the tyre? as i say i have a lip around the entire trye inner and outer, is this feathering?

 

[television]

Feathering is when there is a thin slither of rubber, either on the inside edge or outside edge of the thread pattern,, you can feel it by brushing you hand over the tyre lightly, this indicates that the tyre is scrubbing the tread off

 

[jberks]

Not sure what you mean by a lip - do you mean a hight or lower edge?
Also, people are quick to say what mileage you should get from a set of tyres but whilst 20-30k can be normal, so can 9-12k. It all depends on what the tyres are doing. A Merc CDI is a heavy car with lots of torque. Cruising down motorways, where all the tyre is doing is maintaining a speed with occasional lane changing, then yes 12k is awful.
But, if your daily commute involves a lot of stop-start, queing and slow crawling, then, given that the rear tyres are spending all their time, tying to beat the inertia of a heavy car, backed by a high torque engine. Throw in a few roundabouts, hills and corners and 12k is actually not that bad.

 

[hawkinsd]

thanks for your email. I live in Basingstoke, roundabout city....they are everywhere so maybe this accounts for the wear however do a fair bit of motorway driving but the higher % is in town!
As for the lip around the egde of the tyre that worries me, its a lip that is higher than the rest of the tread. The lip is on both edges on both tyres. The tread wear is even across the tyres. Tyres pressures checked twice a week. The Goodyear Eagles F1 GS D3 that this is occuring with have a solid shoulder area what ever that means,
I will try and take a photo of the lip and figure out how to attach it to this thread.

Dave.

 

[television]

For a photo,, click the manage attachments and go to were you keep the pictures on your computer, find the picte and click on it, then open, then up load in the attachments menu, when done it, the picture number will come up . You can go to preview to see and test





when you take the pics of the tyres use a small file setting

 

[simon winn]

Take your car to Micheldever tyres - pretty near to you I think. They are a very proffessional outfit and have set up a few Porsches for me in the past (they have the laest in alignment setup). They are also probably one of the cheapest tyre providers.

 

[jberks]

As for the lip around the egde of the tyre that worries me, its a lip that is higher than the rest of the tread. The lip is on both edges on both tyres.

What you are saying then is that there is an ridge around the outer edge of the tyres that is less worn than the centre?
This is generally not caused by any setup issues. These cause more rather than less wear and I can't think of a scenario that could wear the centre and leave the outer edges. Suspension issues normally have the opposite effect, scrubbing the edges off whilst leaving the rest of the tyre in good condition.

I suspect that the tyre pressures are simply too high. They may be correct and within spec but I generally find I still have to adjust mine from time to time to even out the wear. On standard settings the edges of my tyres will be long gone when I still have 4mm left in the centre - hence I tend to run a couple of psi higher than the quoted figure (though still less than the max load/speed values).
Higher pressure= more wear towards the centre, lower pressure = more wear at the edges.

Do get it checked to be safe but dropping by 2-3psi may well resolve things.

 

[SQ_W211]

I think the only time inner part of tyre will wear is when you have too much air pressure. I have never come accross this before though. It could be dodgy set of tyres.

 

[moosehead]

I always use Micheldever for tyres and alignment. My W203 230 V6 would only do 14-15K with Contis on the rear. I've been running Kumho KU31's for the last 2 years and these give me 20K and TBH the performance is just as good. The rears always wear perfectly evenly although the fronts wear a bit on the shoulders but I understand this is fairly typical. Both the Contis and Kumhos seem to acheive 26-27K on the front which is a bit odd compared to the 5K difference between the two makes for the rears.

 

[hawkinsd]

I have attached the photos of the wear. You can clearly see the ridge on the edge of the tyre.

 

[rf065]

What pressure do you run the rear tyres at?

Russ

 

[hawkinsd]

I have attached the photos of the tyres

 

[rf065]

Do you use the same pressure gauge and know if it is accurate?

It looks to me as though the centre of the tread is wearing more than the outside edge or shoulders. That is caused by too-much air pressure, or over-inflation. When too much air is in a tyre it begins to bulge just like a balloon -- it gets rounder and this forces the edges of the tyre tread to lift and receive less wear than the center area.

What doesn't add up though is that I would have though it would take more than 33psi to do this to your tyre and the centre of the tyre would wear very quickly too. I'm sure someone else will add to this soon now that the pictures are up.

Russ

 

[hawkinsd]

I use the local supermarket petrol station air, maybe the gauge is off. i have attached a full tyre photo. what do you think?
thanks

 

[rf065]

I would say of the two wear indicators showing, the one nearest the centre is more worn than the other one, so I would guess, over inflated.

Russ

 

[hawkinsd]

many thanks for your input. I will buy a pressure gauge to get a more accurate indication of the pressure. Dave

 

[rf065]

many thanks for your input. I will buy a pressure gauge to get a more accurate indication of the pressure. Dave

Also check inside the fuel lid, on mine 33psi is for high speed or high load use, 30psi is recommended for normal use. There should be a low and high pressure recommendation, if the guage you have been using has been accurate, try the lower pressure & see how that goes with the new tyres.

Russ