Tire Wear

[Chung]

Since the brain trust here knows way more about cars than I do I thought I might ask a question about tire wear.

My tires are shot and I didn't even notice :doh:. It is the inside of my front tires and by worn I mean it is like my car was only driven on the inside of the tire.

Audi redid my alignment when they replaced my gas tank in January. The car would pull to the right a bit (depending on the road) but I think I am over sensitive to the pulling because no one else who has driven the car has noticed even if I point it out to them.

I have been told the the upper control arm on the right side is worn but I don't think that explains my wear on both sides.

My question is do you think Audi just messed up my alignment big time or do you think my tires were already gone and I just didn't notice?

When my car is in for the DRC I am going to have the control arms in the front replaced and maybe the back as well.

[ben916]

Do you have a photo of the side of your car?
Assuming you are on the recalled version of the DRC, you might be riding "buckin' bronco style" like me where the ass end is about 2"-3" too high.
Did Audi do an alignment at the time the DRC was recalled/replaced?
I ask because I remember reading conflicting stories of yes or no on the alignment.

Sounds like control arm fever in Seattle soon @ University...
Then head on over to pick up some Super Sport and beat the crap out of them!

[Chung]

I actually am going in for the new suspension on Tuesday so I am stil running on the old DRC. Audi did an alignment when the replaced the gas tank and the more I look at this problem the more I think they just grossly misaligned my car. It was also the first alignment I have ever had that I was not given a report with the measurements. I tried the best I could to see if there was any rubbing but could not see any evidence of it.

What has me a little scared is how quickly my tires went (I think 5000 miles). It is very difficult to see the magnitude of how bad the tires are without lifting the car and looking at the inner portions of the tire so I don't know how long they have been bad. Just turning the wheel you can see it is wearing unevenly but not that the belts are exposes.

I have a trip planned to drive the north cascade hwy saturday so I am rushing new tires onto the car. My debate right now is do I:
A. Move the old rear tires to the front, put two new ones on the rear and make my drive, have Audi replace the DRC and redo the alignment and then put the new front tires on. (in theory saving my new tires some wear)
B. Just put four new tires on and make the drive hoping a couple hundred miiles don't kill the new tires.

When i added the control arm work to my order on Tuesday Barrier told me that i needed to have an alignment, which of course I told them to bill Audi for it since they were already replacing the suspension and they would need to do and alignment any ways.

[vitalian]

Chung, I am by no means an expert like some of the guys on this forum, but based on what you're describing my gut instinct is that they screwed up the alignment. The other possibility you note (i.e., that the tires were already shot when they did the alignment in January) would mean that they performed an alignment without notifying you that your tires were shot, which seems less likely to me, although certainly not impossible.

As you note, Audi must pay for a new alignment when you get your DRC recall done. However, I would confront the dealership with the following points:

1) If they screwed up the alignment, which seems like the most likely scenario, they should own up to it and get you some nice new tires, either for free or at least at cost;

OR

2) If they didn't screw up the alignment but allowed you to drive away on tires that were obviously shot without saying anything about it, they are borderline criminally negligent and should be reported to the BBB.

My two cents.

Keep me posted, as I have used Barrier for service as well.

[ben916]

"facepalms himself"

Duckwingduck had a high speed issue with the original DRC where it was shot/broken and the car had massive inner tire wear.
http://www.rs6.com/showthread.php/15584-Oooops.....?p=132572&viewfull=1#post132572

[Chung]

Holy crap. I am renting a car for my trip. Thank for helping to find that thread. I think my search for tire instead of tyre might have been my searching issue.

I did leave a message with the service manager asking about the alignment etc.

[SteveKen]

I'm betting it's the upper control arms. I can visually see that mine are torn in places and have the same issue.

Instead of replacing the entire arm, I'm replacing the bushings since I've got the press to do it.

The C5 cars are notorious for this.

[Chung]

When the control arms were check the upper right side was bad but the others were ok. It didn't explain why both tires wore the same way. I think it might be time for me to invest in a garage. The wear on my tires look exactly the same as the thread that Ben pointed me too.

You guys should get together and write an ebook for RS6 owners. I would buy it and you could probably get 5 or 6 other RS6 owners to bite :). Plus with the huge potential market for all 700-800 cars you could make potentially hundreds of dollars to cover at least one tank of gas.

I am really glad my turbo hose came off now. I would have never known and probably cause more damage to my car (just trying to stay positive).

[JSRS6]

I'm betting it's the upper control arms. I can visually see that mine are torn in places and have the same issue.

Instead of replacing the entire arm, I'm replacing the bushings since I've got the press to do it.

The C5 cars are notorious for this.

And those bushings are cheap! As are the lower inners.

[SteveKen]

And those bushings are cheap! As are the lower inners.

I think they uppers are like $22 each so you can do all four for less than one new replacement UCA. Provided the outer joints are in proper order.

[mmaturo]

Control arms go fast on these things and they need to be properly installed to not add to faster wear of the bushings (tighten when loaded, not when wheels are hanging in the air). I ate these things at 20K intervals or less. But only symptoms was really just clunking not a degrading in the ride.

But to your tire wear question as i think the only long timer on this thread RS6s just have a lot of camber period as designed and they eat the heck out of the inner edge...there is zip you can do about it and was that way from the beginning. All you can do is watch them carefully after about 10K on a set of tires. Tires only average 12 to 16K on this thing. The outside edge will look great but you can be on the cords and not know it. Even turning the wheel all the way one way its hard to see. On a lift is the quickest check. Its mainly the fronts so moving the rears to the front and back at very regular intervals spreads out the wear evenly so you are not buying tires two at a time and have issues with tread depth differences.

PS (added edit)...tire wear has nothing to do with the DRC either...I had three sets of those but that just makes the ride like a floaty Buick and like a boat off the line with nose up and the opposite when stopping. When it goes you know it. Easy test is to press down on a front fender...if it just comes back up all is good...if it bounces...its going. If you start to feel the car really floating over interstate control joints or rises and/or doesn't feel planted in sweepers but loose its time to check it.

You may be on to something with the e guide but honestly you can find a lot by searching here. RS6s are all very predictable and the same stuff fails over and over. Or makes the same noise, creak, groan, thump, clunk...just be descriptive.

[Chung]

Here are some photos of the tires. I am dropping the car off at Audi tomorrow and hopefully while I am on vacation everything will be fixed.

[hahnmgh63]

My car is lowered but I still got a little over 25K with regular rotations out of my Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3's. Chung I would definitely take your car to Truline for the alignment, one of the best alignment shops in the NW. They have a shop in Seattle & another in Bellevue. http://www.trulineseattle.com/

[Chung]

After my DRC is replaced that is exactly where I plan to take it. Byron always did the alignments on my old S4 and they were always perfect.

[papadoc]

I agree with Mark, now at 107K on my car, a number of tire changes, in every instance the inner aspect of the tires wear well before the mid or outer aspect. Wear bars on outer tread would suggest a lot of wear to go with the inner rim wearing bald. Alignment spot on. It would seem as though the camber sets us up for this, unless you beat the heck out of the car on corners to evenly wear out the outer rims! Tire wear does depend of course on the tire; PS2s are great for grip but I never got 20K from them, and have switched to the Continental Extreme Sport, which seems to have a longer tread life. New set on my Titanium RS6+ wheels courtesy of Mark :-).

[ravenna]

It also could be the "knob" issue..
check this storie.. page 3 more pics :http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=89329&start=30

[kevin]

It also could be the "knob" issue..
check this storie.. page 3 more pics :http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=89329&start=30

I was wondering the exact same thing

[JSRS6]

It's definitely the right spot on the tire...

[papadoc]

Well I'll have to check for the knobby, but my wear was more gradual and not as discrete as the pics. But that is good info nevertheless; that knob will be gone in the future!
BTW, my car is not lowered, still with DRC, and perhaps this is worse if you've gone away from the DRC...

[mmaturo]

It also could be the "knob" issue..
check this storie.. page 3 more pics :http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=89329&start=30

I can 100% say no that this is NOT the reason for the inner wear. That list in there is incorrect in part for one tire listed since people are not paying attention to ordering the RIGHT tire for the car. The Michelin PS2s work just fine in 19" if you get THE tire made in particular for the RS6...it is buried in the order guide as are specific version for other high performance cars...and if you order it on-line from Tire Rack and Discount Tire you are likely to get the wrong one. I have posted the correct version many times here. ANY tire that has the rim protector extension in the sidewall rubber on the inside of the tire will rub the suspension and sure enough the regular PS2 does have it and indeed rubs. Please note this is a 19" wheel problem not 18". I knew it with one turn of the wheel with a wrong tire (as no matter what when we ordered 4 we got three right and one wrong...the wrong one does work on the back though in a pinch) ...I doubt anyone would ever drive around long enough and not know it though...the rubbing is incredibly obvious. To work all the way through the sidewall it had to be obvious...a slight graze would not continue to dig deeper and deeper. Anyway trust me its not the alignment or the suspension...5 1/2 years and every part replaced that has anything to do with the front geometry more than 3 times and 6 sets of tires tells me that...the car drove dead straight...i had the camber checked as this came up waaaayyy back when (do a search) and it was right on the low end of the spec actually on my car so it is set to do it. It obviously helps with the corning so makes complete sense.