unevenly worn tyres - how much of an issue?

[jimmy156]

EDIT: Title should say worn!

I replaced the front tyres on my golf as the inner edges had heavily worn more than the rest of the tyre, and got a 4 wheel alignment done.

I am now getting a distinct drone at over 40mph

Garage states that the rear tyres are also worn unevenly, and having corrected the tracking at the rear has now put the alignment out of step with the wear pattern, which is causing the drone. This ties in with the alignment data and notes from a previous service about the tyres.

The rears have plenty of tread across the width of the tyre. Other than the annoying droning noise (and it is very annoying!) is it actually an issue to run these tyres for a little longer? Will it cause any issues with wet weather performce or handling etc.

[trickywoo]

I doubt there is much if any adjustment on the back of a golf.

I’d say the drone is the new tyres on the front. What brand did you go for?

[jimmy156]

They certainly claimed to make some adjustments to the rear! The print out showed various things changing!

New tyres are Goodyear Eagle F1. On the rear are PS4's

[832ark]

The new ones should’ve been fitted to the rear and the rears rotated to the front.

[jimmy156]

832ark said:

The new ones should’ve been fitted to the rear and the rears rotated to the front.

Everywhere seems to have stopped doing that in my experience!

[832ark]

jimmy156 said:

Everywhere seems to have stopped doing that in my experience!

Maybe fitters have got lazier!

[trickywoo]

jimmy156 said:

New tyres are Goodyear Eagle F1. On the rear are PS4's

It’s not that then as the F1 is one of the quieter tyres.

[Super Sonic]

jimmy156 said:

832ark said:

The new ones should’ve been fitted to the rear and the rears rotated to the front.

Everywhere seems to have stopped doing that in my experience!

They did it at my local KF when I asked them to two months ago.

[MustangGT]

Drone could be a wheel bearing.

[jimmy156]

Super Sonic said:

They did it at my local KF when I asked them to two months ago.

I found places used to default to it, but recently don't (and I forgot to ask)

[jimmy156]

MustangGT said:

Drone could be a wheel bearing.

It sounds a lot like a bearing, but it 100% coinicided with the tyre change, and the garage told me the wheel bearings are fine. Wouldn't be the first time a garage was wrong about something though!

[softtop]

I was desperate and ended up with a cheap tyre on a Bank holiday, think National tyres, don't do 'normal' brands. About six months in, the drone started, turns out it was that tyre wearing unevenly. My test would be to put the spare on each corner and test accordingly, choose the same piece of road for comparison.

[jimmy156]

So replaced the OSF wheel bearing and problem solved.

New question, can the action of replaceing the tyres (removing the wheels) cause a wheel bearing to become damaged. Both my front wheel bearings have been replaced and both seemed to fail after having new tyres fitted. Car is high mileage, so not unexpecetd to need to replace them.

[GreenV8S]

jimmy156 said:

can the action of replaceing the tyres ... cause a wheel bearing to become damaged

Unlikely. Removing and refitting a wheel doesn't do anything unusual to the bearings.

[jimmy156]

GreenV8S said:

Unlikely. Removing and refitting a wheel doesn't do anything unusual to the bearings.

Thats what I assumed... Just bad luck then I guess!

[Pickled Piper]

Swap the fronts and rears. See if the noise changes.