Chris Brown

I have a 98.5 2.8Q (UK spec + extras) with just over 17,000 miles on the clock. The front tires are down to about 2mm tread (the legal limit here is 1.6mm) across most of the width, but on the outside edges they vary from almost bald to shiny !<p>One local dealer tells me "It's power steering" but another tells me the tires are "f***ed" (to use his words) and should be changed sooner rather than later.<p>This leads to the question, what should the tire wear on a set of P6000's be like at 17K and is extreme feathering of the outside edge usual ?

G. Hale

I have pretty bad wear on the inside edge of mainly the rear tires. Mine are 235/40 R17 P7000SS, but I think that it was caused by them being balanced improperly when the were installed on the wheels. The place I had to install them only put weights on the inner side of the wheels, and said that the outer edges didn't need weights. Because the wheels didn't have a lip for the weights, I asked if it didn't require stick-on weights. They said they could put them on their but that they weren't required. After I noticed a wear on the inner edges (too late by then), I did have them balanced at my Audi dealership, who correctly put the clip weights on the inside and the stick-ons on the outside. That immediately reduced the tire noise some, but it's still pretty bad from the uneven wear.

Chris Brown

I'm convinced my uneven wear is due to bad balance. My dealer did a nice job in the PDI, but I think I may have shed a balance weight since then, I get vibration at 80mph. I'm waiting for my local tire shop (the one who suggested changing the tires) to finish setting up an account with Volks Finance (Yup, it's on contract hire - how else d'ya think I'd afford to put 40,000 miles a year on a 2.8 Quattro ?) and I'm getting them changed and balanced properly.<p>Thanks for the feedback,<p>Chris.<br>98.5 2.8Q<br>

Keith J

The only good thing about the not-so Goodyears is their wear. At 32k i cannot see any abnormal wear. Very even wear, less than expected. Now wet grip on the concrete roads is horrible. Dry is fine on the street<p>Keith