Hi all,
Has anyone any experience of stepping, eneven wear, on the inside tread blocks of Continental tyres. This isn't caused by the suspension being out and is possibly a tyre related "fault".
The car in question is the Omega and the front tyres are the ones in question.
Probably one for the tyre experts amongst you.
Regards ...... Robert
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Faulty tracking can cause "steps" in the outer tyre blocks.
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Thanks Roger - thats why I said the suspension/tracking was perfect. What I should have said was that in 20,000 miles the front tyres were perfectly evenly work with the exception of eneven wear in the height of the tread blocks on the inside of the tyres. It seems crazy, but adjacent blocks are actually worn to different heights - a variance of perhaps 3mm. This is more than enough to throw the balance out and need doing every couple of '000 miles.
I'm actually asking if anyone else has seen this before.
Regards ....... Robert
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Had it on the inside edges of the back tyres on my Mondeo a couple of years back, but it had done 300,000m and all the bushes were shot. Not sure what the suspension bush life is on an Omega, on the Mondeo the factory recommend changing them every 30,000. Which means that's when they're completely bushed (sorry), although they will exhibit some signs of wear (which affect tyre wear, and don't I know it) much sooner.
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My Audi A8 had front Michelin Pilot tyres that looked OK on the outside, maybe 3mm left, but when I parked it with the wheels at an angle one day I found the carcass showing on the inside edges.
I paid Audi to check all the wheel alignments (my tyre place wouldn't do it, said it needs a complicated process). The printout showed everything to be fine. The tyre guy said it could happen 'due to power steering'. I think he means that the castor angle (I think that's right) causes the insides to wear on slow speed manoevers. This sounds consistent with your problem.
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Motorbike tyres wear like this on the edges, probably due to high cornering forces. Maybe the pressures need looking at.
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Teehee, you should see the inside of front tyres on my Omega!! They wouldn't pass an MOT I'll tell you that much. Funnily enough i've been on the phone this morning trying to get some decent prices for another set.
The 245/45/17's continental's on the rear end wear very evenly, infact, give the abuse they take, they haven't worn at all. Tremendous grip as well.
The fronts (235/45/17) I have Goodyear Eagle F1's, and the inner part of the tyre is badly worn. This was also the case with the original 205/65/15's, although by the time I noticed the tyres, perfect on the outside, were down to the canvas on the inside!
At the time one of the Kwik Fit guys told me of a customer who had various Omega's and Carltons and he had exactly the same problem and was fed up of splashing out on tyres. He complained to Vauxhall who said it was a feature of the car. The Kwikfit guy adjusted something to compensate for the angle of wear and he never had the problem again. That was a couple of years ago and I cant remember what he altered :(
I have stumbled across 235/45/17 Continental Contact Sport for £102 so thats where I am off to now!
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Hi,
Ah, but the wear is on alternate blocks - i.e some are worn more than others! Weird
Regards ...... Robert
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Had this on a set of Bridgestones fitted to an Alfa 156. Tyres were very noisy, sounded like wheel bearings on the way out. Changed to Goodyear NCT5 & the car was transformed. I always stuck to Uniroyals on my ex police Omega, as if they worked for plod ok by me. Never found any problems.
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I know someone who had a vibration problem on the front of his Omega.
He said the steering geometry was correct, as it had been checked twice by a Vaux dealer.
A lot of shouting, and a THIRD check found the geometry to be out!
Is yours really Ok, robert?
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I hope so - I had it done @ Micheldever tyres on their Star Wars machine! Exactly what symptoms did your mate have?
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His was a heavy judder under braking. Not the same problem as yours, but I'm making the point that he was told his suspension/steering geometry was Ok on two occasions, and found to be duff at the third try.
You've been told yours is Ok on one occasion. Might be useful to get a second opinion? Good luck.
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Where did he get his check done?
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Birmingham/Redditch, or thereabouts. I live further north but, if that's near you, I'll get in touch for the location.
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robert
I'd wonder if this is a problem with worn dampers. I think that's more likely than alignment or faulty tyres. I've seen this 'stepped' wear years ago on small motorcyles and scooters with undamped front suspension. How many miles has the car done?
Regards
John S
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The car has done 80k - but the suspension was completely replaced @ 70k.
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robert
It seems that you'd only get this sort of wear if the tyre was chattering on the road. If new dampers were fitted only 10k miles ago, they are unlikely to be the culprit. I have seen tracking errors cause feathering of outer tread blocks, and I wonder if the wear has started like that and this has caused a vibration that has lead to the uneven wear.
Regards
John S
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Mike Brewer showed this exact problem on an Omega on TV last night. Caused by front wheels 'chattering' instead of accurately following the road surface due to 'knackered suspension'
PB.
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Has anyone got a tape I can borrow? - Missed it!
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No tape, but what I described is pretty much it. The innermost blocks looked like they had been tapered down with a Stanley knife or something.
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Hi,
Was that ALL the innermost blocks? My problem was that alternate blocks were worn/not worn - most bizarre.
In fact I can't understand it all. Ok, if all were worn - but alternate ones! Continental replaced the tyres for me so its a question of waiting and see what happens with the new ones.
Regards
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I am pretty sure they were all worn the same, yes.
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Robert,Have you asked Micheldever foreman/Manager for comments since you had your Omega checked.Have you consulted Conti Technical advice people? They should have a database for such anomalies,other tyre companies I have used have often proved to be surprisingly helpful, if approached in the right manner.
regards
Simon T.
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Thread resurrected in case anyone has any input.
My 98 Omega MV6 (75k miles) had new tyres all round about 8000 miles ago. This was precipitated by a front o/s blow out.
Sometime, probably since then, but maybe before, there is a sort of whine from the front, poss o/s. Also occassionally there is a slight judder when braking, not necessarily harshly. The judder is not through the pedal. The car steers fine and there is no problem other than the noise and brake shudder.
At 5k miles on the new tyres I took the car back and asked them to check the tracking - o/s wheel was "quite a bit out" which they corrected.
But the noise continued. So at 7000 miles I took it in again and had them swap front and rear - they reported that the inside tread of both fronts was wearing quicker than the rest of the tyre (smoother feel to it).
The noise certainly seemed quieter for a few hundred miles, but wasn't completely gone. It's back now, so last weekend I took it to have the tracking checked (which although it was a little out, wasn't regarded as far enough out to require correction), and while it was up on teh ramps the guy checked for bearings by looking for play in each wheel - he said the o/s is very slightly worn but again didn't consider it a problem.
I've read the above post, and another which talks about worn bushes. Anyone got any ideas? Or should I just do what the mech said - wait until it gets really bad and therefore easy to diagnose?
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Sounds like shocks as I tried to say in another thread.
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Sounds like thrust bushes to me, there are two on each side.
When these are worn, they allow the front wheels to toe-out when braking. From MY 2000, the bushes were revised and have nylon wedges integrated into them. Are you bushes the original ones? If so I reckon they'll be pretty shot. Vauxhall Masterfit charged me around £200 to do all 4. Not sure if it's more economical in the long run to replace the whole are inclusing ballkoint and bushes already fitted. But use proper Vauxhall parts, the pattern ones don't contain the (hydroelastic?) silicone oil chambers and are generally inferior.
Have all four done while they're off, as to have 4 done is not too much more than having 2 done.
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Presumably they are dismantling the same bits as for a wheel bearing? I.e. if I had the o/s bearing replaced (been quoted about £130 for that) then the bushes (on that side) will already be accesible...?
Yes, they will be originals... other than exhaust, consumables, and n/s wheel bearing at 25k miles, most things are original...
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Yes mech, that's what prompted me to post - thanks.
btw Sooty the noise is apparent all the time, especially on smoother roads, not just during braking.
Seing as this is largely supposition, would I be best (and safe) to hold off till it gets worse? Whether it were shocks, bushes or bearing? (Presumably I will need new front tyres prematurely though).
Or are there other tests/inspections for each of these components?
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One other symptom of MY bushes being past their best, was the car would feel very harsh when going over small verticle surfaces, such as change of roadway to block paving where this is raised about 10mm, or driving onto a footpath crossing up the low kerb. These were 20x smoother after the bushes were repaced.
I also had the dampers replaced at about 130,000 miles, and had the strut bearing at the top at the same time, cost a lot, and made no discernable difference to anything (ride/comfort etc...)
What I basically did, over a few months was rebuild the front end wear items, as the car had done about £130,000, and I would be keeping it for a few years, so thought I'd spend the money at the beginning of ownership and enjoy it rather than through new money into the car, later in it's life as neccessity/MOTs forced.
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"as the car had done about £130,000,"... I can't afford THAT!! LOL
Ok thanks for advice. Funnily enough I was out today and was wondering to myself whether the front wasn't feeling a bit harsh.
I also analysed the noise a litle more. It is entirely consistent with wheel rotation, sounding like something is slightly oval when it should be round - it's not a whine at low speed at all. It's more like the kind of regular noise when driving over that raised yellow paint lines before a roundabout. As speed increases the frequency of the noise increases, making it into a whirr, or semi-whine...sooo hard to explain!
When it goes in @ 80k for cambelt I think I will get the bushes and o/s bearing done, unless anyone (incl credit card company!) persuades me otherwise...
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