VW Passat estate tdi 57 plate - Tyre conundrum

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Thu 9 Aug 2012 09:38
VW Passat estate tdi 57 plate - Tyre conundrum - arsenalboy

I am new to this forum and posted this yesterday I think in the wrong place, apologies to those who have already read it

Hi Guys (and girls!) need some advice please.

I have a 57 plate vw passat estate tdi which I have owned from new. Last October I needed two new front tyres and went to a national chain. I purchased one new and had the spare as the second tyre, which was new and unused. The purchased and spare were same manufacturer and markings i.e., identical, although obviously manufactured a few years apart. Also had the tracking done.

Left the tyre centre and hadn't driven more than 100 yards when I knew there was a problem, the car was pulling strongly to the left which it had never done before. So I went straight back in and the manager took over. He checked the tracking again and said it was spot on. He switched the two front tyres over and asked me to try it again, this time it was perfect, carried on straight with hands off the wheel. I was puzzled as what was wrong and how it had been corrected but thought no more of it.

Within the same week I had 4 new fuel injectors replaced under the VW safety recall and ever since then my fuel economy has worsened by nearly 10%. I have never known whether this is a tyre problem or the new injectors.

Fast forward to this week and the car has just had service and on the paperwork they give tyre tread wear for all 4 tyres for outside, inner and middle. The good news is that all 4 tyres are wearing evenly across each surface.However, the front left has worn 1mm more than the front right?

Is this the cause of my lack of economy and is it all linked to the problem when the fronts were both replaced?

Any thoughts would be really appreciated.

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Thu 9 Aug 2012 10:19
VW Passat estate tdi 57 plate - Tyre conundrum - gordonbennet

I doubt very much that swapping sides was the cure for the pulling, unless directional tyres fitted the wrong way (doubtful with OE), more like unequal pressures or the lad didn't track it properly first time, could the manager have quietly rechecked the tracking without you knowing?

Similarly i doubt that this scenario would account for 10% fuel increase, unless you had fitted drastically different tyre types, eg offroad.

Is the car a 2.0 litre Diesel, if so a mate of mine had that engine in a Toledo DSG thingy, and despite his very correct (almost pedantic) driving the thing only managed around 35mpg at best, dealer as expected no more use than a chocolate teapot, he got shot and bought a Diesel Jetta instead which comfortably exceeded 50 all the time.

Edited by gordonbennet on 09/08/2012 at 10:20

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Thu 9 Aug 2012 10:34
VW Passat estate tdi 57 plate - Tyre conundrum - arsenalboy

I doubt very much that swapping sides was the cure for the pulling, unless directional tyres fitted the wrong way (doubtful with OE), more like unequal pressures or the lad didn't track it properly first time, could the manager have quietly rechecked the tracking without you knowing?

Similarly i doubt that this scenario would account for 10% fuel increase, unless you had fitted drastically different tyre types, eg offroad.

Is the car a 2.0 litre Diesel, if so a mate of mine had that engine in a Toledo DSG thingy, and despite his very correct (almost pedantic) driving the thing only managed around 35mpg at best, dealer as expected no more use than a chocolate teapot, he got shot and bought a Diesel Jetta instead which comfortably exceeded 50 all the time.

Yes it is the 2.0 140 tdi.

As regards the consumption, it averaged 45/46 before tyre change and dropped immediately to 42/43 after the tyre change. This is not based on £'s spent or trip computer but real spreadsheet calculations.

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Thu 9 Aug 2012 10:34
VW Passat estate tdi 57 plate - Tyre conundrum - skidpan

Don't know about tyre conundrum, this muppet posted this on Motoring Matters yesterday, got his answers and thanked everbody, now its new and on technical.

Obviously a troll, he should be banned.

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Thu 9 Aug 2012 10:51
VW Passat estate tdi 57 plate - Tyre conundrum - Peter.N.

I would disagree with the tyres not causing it to pull to one side from my own experience. About four years ago I bought a well secondhand Citroen XM estate, from the time I had it the steering pulled or wandered to the right, I checked for suspension for damage and alignment and could find nothing wrong, this year for the MOT I had to replace one front tyre.. guess what, it now steers in a perfectly straight line. The reason I never suspected the tyres was that they were new Goodyears when I bought the car. The n/s tyre had also worn considerably more than the o/s, in fact the o/s was still OK for the MOT, the n/s was illegal.

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Thu 9 Aug 2012 10:59
VW Passat estate tdi 57 plate - Tyre conundrum - arsenalboy

Don't know about tyre conundrum, this muppet posted this on Motoring Matters yesterday, got his answers and thanked everbody, now its new and on technical.

Obviously a troll, he should be banned.

I did put an apology at the very beginning of this thread and did state I posted it yesterday elsewhere. But as I stated I haven't used this forum before and upon reflection it was in the wrong place.

I did get answers but my last post was unanswered and that is why I thought it was in the wrong place.

My concern is fuel consumption and whether it was linked to the tyre problem, I received no answers to the fuel consumption only comments on the tyres.

Yes I did thank everybody for the comments but if you read my post my question wasn't answered.

Sorry you think I am wasting peoples time.

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Thu 9 Aug 2012 13:42
VW Passat estate tdi 57 plate - Tyre conundrum - thunderbird

Don't know about tyre conundrum, this muppet posted this on Motoring Matters yesterday, got his answers and thanked everbody, now its new and on technical.

Obviously a troll, he should be banned.

I did put an apology at the very beginning of this thread and did state I posted it yesterday elsewhere. But as I stated I haven't used this forum before and upon reflection it was in the wrong place.

I did get answers but my last post was unanswered and that is why I thought it was in the wrong place.

My concern is fuel consumption and whether it was linked to the tyre problem, I received no answers to the fuel consumption only comments on the tyres.

Yes I did thank everybody for the comments but if you read my post my question wasn't answered.

Sorry you think I am wasting peoples time.

You now have 2 identical threads running, why?

If you wanted info about fuel consumption start a new tread.

Normally the moderators delete one and you loose your answers.

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Fri 10 Aug 2012 14:00
VW Passat estate tdi 57 plate - Tyre conundrum - Peter.N.

Its unlikely that the tyres would appreciably effect your fuel consumption unless they were so far out of alignment they were being ripped to bits.

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Fri 10 Aug 2012 22:32
VW Passat estate tdi 57 plate - Tyre conundrum - arsenalboy

Its unlikely that the tyres would appreciably effect your fuel consumption unless they were so far out of alignment they were being ripped to bits.

Thanks Peter.N

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