Asgor

When about 7000 miles ago I bought my splendidly maintained CPO 04 allroad the car came with a brand new set of Continental ContiTouringContact tires (with the appropriate 97H load rating - in case you are wondering).

Well, while those tires are a bit under whelming in spirited driving, they seem to be quiet enough under normal circumstances. I am puzzled, though, by the way the two front tires are wearing along the inner and outer shoulder - the rear tires don't seem to be affected by this irregularity. As the amount of wear is equal between front tires and between inner and outer shoulders, I doubt that this can be rectified by means of an alignment (but please chime in if you feel otherwise). Rotating the tires back to front only caused the rear tires to start wearing like the front ones that were moved to the back.

In addition, and this is probably the key, all four tires appear to cup noticeably whereas the weight of the vehicle seems to fall primarily on the tire shoulders and the center of each tire is ever so slightly cupping inward. I know that this type of cupping is usually caused by under inflation, but I have been running them at 40psi for the past few months and I am not very willing to go higher as doing so stiffens a bit too much the response of the tires when going over bumps etc. After all, isn't 40psi considered to be on the higher end of inflation?

Is this cupping a relatively normal occurrence with allroads (I know these cars are tire-eaters, but I don't know if the wear is usually distributed evenly across each tire)? If you are using ContiTouringContact tires are you by any chance noticing the same wear pattern? And, lastly, I am open to suggestions as to what could be the cause of this cupping pattern - your collective knowledge is always an asset.

finiki

Even wear all around from 10/32 to 8/32. I suspect the tire construction in your case. I do not accept the suggestion the ar is harder on tires than normal. The excessive wear I have read of appears attributable to modifications, lesser quality tires or bad alignment. Somehow mine seem to be wearing quite normally.

Allroad_RS27

I had the stock for 12K same thing 36/38 front
40/42 rear even wear - no load/load
no H-sports and 1 tire rotation

if your wear is even on both sides of the tire on both tires - maybe you need to find the right PSI for this tires

if your left tire wear is diff. than the right tire maybe the alignment is off a bit

I don't like conti in general

ArchAudi

Are they stock rims?

TomAllroad

Excessive tire wear on the outside and inside at the same time can be attributed to alignment problems. Also once the tire has worn unequal because of low tire pressure it will not become equal again, even if you put the right tire pressure in. Hope this made sense, sorry for my German English

paulroad

with the particular tires you have, 40 PSI is not enough to insure even wear.

Its a simple known fact that Over Inflation causes the center to wear faster and underinflation causes the outside to wear.

If you rears are inflated fine as they wear evenly, so the front with the added weight of the motor need a bit more air.

You may also find with your next set of tires that going to a higher speed rating such as a W or a Z will improve the sprited drives you like to take.

JDNAR

finiki... It's the right tire for ar.. After 35k and I still have 40% left...

Asgor

Yes, they are the "upgraded" 17" double-spoke