Excessive tyre wear!

[sendwongy1]

Hey Guys,

I have noticed recently that my front left tyre has been wearing quite quickly. However, when I washed my car today I was surprised that the same front left tyre has worn to the 20% mark. Now according to some of the posts on this forum I believe that a unever tyre wear can cause problems with the AWD system. My car is due for it 30,000 service in about 2-3 weeks. Will it matter it I leave the matter for a few weeks or should I seek advice from the dealer straight away. I have had two rotations and alignments done on the car already and the car seems to be pulling left but the tyre people still have not been able to fix this as they said there was something that cannot be adjusted with the alignment. Do any of you have any suggestions on my problem? Are any of you experiencing any problems with tyre wear?

regards

Eugene

[barrysharp]

Eugene:

I have no experience with XC70 tire wear issues like you have described -- my XC70 arrives May.

A "a stitch in time saves nine" is what comes to my mind. If you haven't already contacted your Volvo tech shop then I would do so as I can't see that it would be a waste of time. If necessary bring your 30K service appointement forward as 2-3 weeks is insignificant.

What is it that the tire people say can't be adjusted ? This sounds strange to me.

If this problem bothers you then seek expert advice from the Volvo techies.

If front left tire is wearing substantially faster than the other three then there's certainly something wrong and it should be corrected -- and maybe can be done under warranty as you've less than 50K miles and probably have owned car less than 4 years.

Is the left front brake caliper's pad dragging on the rotor maybe ? Jack car up at left front and make sure wheel can rotate freely without any real resistance.

[Willy]

Hello Eugene,
Volvo's with Visco-coupled AWD systems are not happy with uneven tyres, the Haldex cars don't seem to care (they can also be dragged off with 2 wheels on the ground it seems).
I don't know what model yoy drive, so ...
All the best,
willy

[Falron]

Eugene,

I had exactly the same problem as you describe - don't bother taking it to Austral to try and get it fixed they are not professional enough to know what the problem is. In fact they may have caused it! After three attempts at Austral and a complete set of stuffed tyres I finally ended up at Bob Jane at Michelton where they did a full four wheel alignment. The tyres are now wearing perfectly. In fact I will get three times the life out of this set. You may well find the right rear is out. This can cause the wear on the front. I now suspect that Austral adjusted the front alignment to try and correct for the uneven wear but of course just made things worse.
Almost all vehicles with independent suspension require 4 wheel alignments - with the alignment carried out in relation the the centre of the vehicle.The wheels must be aligned at the same time - its not good enough to align the front then turn the car around and do the rear because this only aligns across the axles and not the relationship from front to rear.

By the way I complained to John at Austral that my traction control was not working and requested that it be checked whilst the car was in for some other warranty work. When I collected the car John said the XC's don't have traction control!!!! when I showed John the product sales brochure he changed his mind and said maybe they do after all..... but the service department don't have the equipment to test this feature. Beware of Austral Volvo service......

When you take your car in you might like to ask them about the traction control

I hope this helps save some money and frustration.

Vince

[baz957]

sendwongy1
The initial Scorpions on my car had the outer wear, that was caused by tire defect. Also seen various tire shops with different alignment results. Depends on alignment machine calibration. Do think that there is nothing in the front end alignment that can not be adjusted !!!
Good Luck !
Atlas.

[sendwongy1]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the replies. Vince I actually did all my balances and alignments with bob jane at Magregor. But it seems that the results are the same. The front tyre is still wearing very unevenly and they assured me twice the alignment was right but the car still pulls to the left. I have to agree with you that the service at Austral has dropped a bit considering they are now servicing Jaguar as well, its like a circus over there in the mornings. I think they just dont have the manpower to handle all the workload of Porsche, Volvo and Jag.  But I am bringing the car in for a service next week and going to talk to them aboout the tyre wear and traction control http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif issue.

regards

Eugene

[aimee]

:mad: My Volvo xc90 2003 (47K) needs 2 tires once again...for the 5th time!!! I'm so at my wits end with Volvo...i'm about to file a lawsuit. I've been in a battle with volvo for 2 years now..I GOT A LEMON..THATS WHAT I GOT!!!

[geo]

Guys,
When I complained to the dealer about aparent uneven tyre wear, he said and I quote, Left hand front, thats normal.
Whether it it torque related, or a feature i do not know.
I have swapped wheels front to back at 6K miles, diagonally at 12 K, front to back again at 18, doubt if the set will make 24.
so it is a known problem, and the V70 courtesy car I had showed the same pattern at 4K.

[Willy]

I believe tyre wear is indeed (but of course not exclusively) torque related. I am convinced that some drivers don't realize that launching a car with a lot of torque (from stand-still) causes some slippage (and wear) of the tyres.
Willy

[Jonliv]

and if they are the stock Perrilli's
seems to be that no one has found them to last very long...

[al_roethlisberger]

and if they are the stock Perrilli's
seems to be that no one has found them to last very long...


What is "very long" on average?

The STR is rated with a 65k mile warrantee.

[funglenn]

My terrible tire wear was caused by too much play in the rack and pinion system, which the dealer replaced at 30k miles! Great to have that part replaced, but all the dealer said about the tires was Opps sorry about the tires our detective part destroyed... they are not our problem and I had to pay for them out of pocket! :mad:

[Jonliv]

What is "very long" on average?

The STR is rated with a 65k mile warrantee.


I only got about 33K out of them. I did replace them 'early' but only because I live in New England and didn't want to go through the winter on them.
I probably could have gotten another 7K miles out of them.

From what I have read, seems my experience is on par with others.