Shoulder bads

I have a 1 year old SEAT Altea XL TDI that has done just over 9,000 miles and was recently serviced by SEAT. Everything was fine but they drew my attention to the rear tyres which had excessive wear on the inside rims, something they described as “saw tooth pattern”. It causes excessive road noise (true) and, in SEAT's view, is caused by either: “improper inflation pressures, excessive toe in or driving style.” I wanted this remedied under warranty but SEAT's position is that this comes under the heading of 'adjustments' and as such had to have been done within 6 months/6000mls. It is not something which is easily visible (as it might have been on the front tyres), is not something which I detected driving and is not something one would normally look for so naturally it only came to light at the service - which is 10,000mls or annually. There is a tyre pressure monitor fitted which is supposed to advise any significant change (but despite that I carry a pressure gauge and have checked the pressure on several occasions - they were always fine). I have never driven it hard or fast. I took it to my local tyre fitting specialist that has the equipment for laser wheel alignment check. They made an initial visual check prior to doing the work and stated that, in their opinion, the problem was not wheel alignment. Having seen this effect on tyres before they believed it was either a problem with the rear suspension (bushes perhaps ) or that the rear sub-frame was not square to the chassis.

Asked on 26 September 2009 by

Answered by Honest John
Might be an alignment problem. But might be from straddling metre wide speed cushions with weight in the back of the car. This forces the inner shoulders of the tyres down and outwards on the chamfered edges of the 'cushions' and can rip them to shreds.
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