Audi A6 (2000) 17" wheels - uneven tire wear

"Anit Patel" wrote

Has anyone mentioned alignment to you?

Cheers,

Pete

Thanks for the response. Yes, the dealer mentioned alignment but only in reference to changing four wheels. Unfortunately, I have limited dealer choices. I guess I will have to put my foot down and have him do alignment only.

"Anit Patel" wrote

Well, if your alignment is out of whack, then it is possible that all four tires wore out unevenly and should be replaced. I was just saying, make sure you get that alignment done before you ruin another set of tires.

Not sure how much tread you have left on those tires, but with quattro, the tread depth should be pretty close between all 4 tires, so that is probably why your dealer is recommending you get 4 new ones. You shouldn't just put on 1 or 2 new tires with 10mm of tread while the other 2 have 5-6mm or less. It's bad for your torsen differential.

Cheers,

Pete

I had a 2000 A6 4.2 with 17inch wheels and 255/45 tires. I loved that car. Before I sold/gave it to my son-in-law, I replaced all four tires. They had about 65K miles on them and where still useable. I rotated the wheels (front to back on same side) every 10,000 miles or so, and they wore evenly. I have never had uneven tire wear on any Quattro (5) that I have owned.

If you need new tires, be sure to have an allignment done when they are mounted. Otherwise, your problems may continue.

Dave RS6

According my manual for a quattro A4 it is ok to have tyres with different tread depths as long as they are of the same make,type and tread pattern.

Richard

"Richard Goulding" wrote

But my '01 A4 quattro manual also states: "When replacing tires, use ones with matching tread depth."

I'm sure some amount of depth variance is not going to cause much harm. I was just referring to more extreme cases. In any way, with quattro (torsen), all tires should wear very evenly so normally you'd be replacing all 4 at the same time, unless you got a puncture that was beyond repair.

Cheers,

Pete

There are four things that come to mind. Most likely the wheels were not properly aligned when the new tires were installed. Secondly is there may be worn componets in the suspension and thirdly some tires are know for their odd wear patterns.... or fourthly... the tires may all be defective.

All that the dealer said was I need four wheels and tires replaced. They gave me diagnosis that wheels (rims) are bent causing tires to wear uneven. I find it difficult to digest that four rims can be bad.

"Anit Patel" wrote

That sounds suspicius to me. Do you feel any vibrations on the steering wheel at highway speeds? It takes skills to bend all 4 rims together and in a way that they'd cause uneven tire wear.

Cheers,

Pete

In this area bent rims are common if you drive in areas with a lot of railroad crossings and potholes large enough to swallow small children. That being said it is easy enough to diagnose bent rims.... when they are on a tire balancing machine you can see them "wobble" as they rotate. If a rim is bent you have two choices. You can live with it or replace it. A tire with an abnormal wear pattern will often continue to wear improperly even if the cause is corrected.... that is just how it is. If you choose to replace the rims..... if you want AUDI rims go to e-Bay.... aftermarket rim you can order from anywhere.

This raises a question....... If the rims were bent why were you not told when the new tires were installed?

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