Brandon@Baak2Basics

A few years back I bought some new wheels for my allroad. Mercedes monoblock reps with Kumho summer tires. Gave the car the good ol' 402 mod at the same time. The rear tires were gone within a couple months, completely bald. I figured it was an alignment issue that was made more apparant by the new 402 mod and my soft summer tires. So I threw the stock wheels back on. Same thing. Then it came time for winter, no issues with the winter setup (16" steelies with firestone winterforce tires). After that came the 17" A6 wheels (cheaper than buying new tires for the 19's because these wheels came with fresh rubber). Burned throught those quickly.

Enough is enough. Time for a major overhaul.
Sent the car to NGP and had them do the following:
Replace tie rod ends
Replace control arms (meyle OEM 12 piece kit)
Mount and balance fresh rubber on my new 20" wheels
Alignment
Oil change

Now a little over a month later and less than 4,000 miles on the car (know this because of the oil change sticker) and the rear tires are completely bald. WTF!!!!
Asked NGP to send over my spec sheet. Everything is in Audi spec except my camber (which I knew about at the time they did the alignment) camber is 2* all the way around.
With camber like that one would expect some uneven tire wear but here is where things get odd.

My front tires appear to have very little if any wear (as they should with only 4,000 miles on them)

The resr tires are completely bald, no tread whatsoever and it is an even wear. No "camber wear" as you would expect, but completely even wear and straight up bald.

So instead of sending the car back to NGP to check the alignment I decided to do some research. Google search found multiple threads on several different forums where people are having the saem issue. Some complain of the Right rear tire having excessive wear, Some say it's the entire rear. Some have 402'd some are still stock height. Some have aftermarket wheels while others still have the stock wheels and tires.

So my question to you guys is "Is this a known allroad issue?"

Also is there a fix for this?
Maybe a bad bushing in the rear?
Too wide of a wheel tire combo?
Bad rear differential mounts, Diff low on fluid?

I would really like to fix this problem so I'm open to any all all suggestions (best if you have had personal experience with this problem).

Thank you

Mr. Timewise

Any chance the hand brake on the rear is dragging a bit? I'd think this would cause the brake pad to wear rather than the tires, but you never know. Your problem does suggest that the rear wheels are dragging, thus producing excessive wear on the rubber.

How about the transmission's rear output differential? If that differential is holding the rear drive back you may be dragging the two rear tires. How many miles on the car overall? Tiptronic or manual transmission?

My Tiptronic transmission output rear seal was leaking hypoid gear lube oil so I had to change that seal. See this link on the A8 Tip seal replacement. The allroad Tip transmission seal replacement is essentially the same.

http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articl...placement.html

Could a leaking seal eventually cause the output differential to bind a bit? I don't know, but maybe, just maybe. ????

Brandon@Baak2Basics

6 speed manual. Seals are good. Brakes are fairly new and everything looks fine. No odd rotor spots or pad wear

Singlespeeddad

I can probably help but I need more info so a couple of questions:

1) What kind of wear do you have?? Inside more?? Center?? Outer??

2) Drag your hand across the tire from side to side & forward/backward...Does it feal "rough" in any direction????(like dragging a feather backwards on your hand)

3) Did you use the same brand tire that wore out in both cases??

4) What tire pressure do you run??

5) Was your vehicle aligned in position 2?? do you normally drive in pos 1???

horkn

wearing out tires in 4-5k is way too much. My new when I bought it in Sept General Altimax tires have 5k on them now, and they look like new yet.

Brandon@Baak2Basics

Pics
Front driver





Rear Driver



Front Passenger




Rear Passenger

Brandon@Baak2Basics

Just checked the tire pressure...... EXACTLY 38 psi all around.

Kristopher

Are you finding that it's the case when there is less sidewall there appears to be accelerated wear?
And that the opposite is true in that the more sidewall the tire has results in decreased wear?

I really doubt your rear brakes are over-biasing, so something tells me your AWD system turns the fronts and rears at a different rate. And the reason the more sidewall helps is that it may be more forgiving for speed-related tolerances...?

I'd look into whether TIP vs M/T have differing ratios as a start. Maybe, at one point, the gearing has been inadvertently swapped?

Mike B

Here's another possibility...
Perhaps there is something wrong with the rear differential which is not allowing enough slip on one wheel during cornering. That would cause one wheel or the other to partially drag during every corner.

badroadsinmtl

Exact same problem I had this summer. I also had 402 mod down to 20mm. My rears were the same shape as yours. Was told the alignment was off and all the wheels were not balanced. I then removed the 402 mod, purchased new tires and re aligned (level 2) and balanced all four corners. Also added H-Sports sway bars. So far so good.