Outside edges of tyres bald - dealer says "normal"

[fly]

I have a 3 year old Mercedes EQC (40k miles) with Michelin Pilot Sport 4 SUV tyres (1.5 years old / 15k miles).
All 4 tyres are excessively worn in a thin strip on the outer edge, but particularly the front tyres and especially passenger side.

The front passenger tyre is now completely bald in a thin strip on the outer edge, but around 4-5mm remaining over the rest of the tyre.

It just went for a service/MOT at a main dealer - they said all suspension/wheel components look good and alignment is perfect. They recommend replacing the tyres but do not see any cause for concern and say it's not unusual for the tyres to wear that way.

I know it's an excessively heavy car (2,500kg) and high torque (760Nm - which I do make full use of occasionally) so I don't expect to get huge mileage from the tyres, but I don't know why they'd be wearing out on the outer edge so much faster.

Any advice?

[the cueball]

I'll go with, What do roundabouts cause? for £200 please.....

[Jimjimhim]

Take it to a garage with a Hunter alignment machine and get it checked.

[E-bmw]

fly said:

I know it's an excessively heavy car (2,500kg) and high torque (760Nm - which I do make full use of occasionally) so I don't expect to get huge mileage from the tyres, but I don't know why they'd be wearing out on the outer edge so much faster.

Any advice?

The laws of physics apply.

Tyres wear when they are under stress & wear where the slippage is occurring.

Roundabouts taken with reasonable speed is the biggest cause of the wear pattern you describe & 2.5 tonnes in a corner will 100% do this.

[Super Sonic]

I love roundabouts too

[fly]

the cueball said:

I'll go with, What do roundabouts cause? for £200 please.....

More like £620 for a pair, but yes I get the point.

[some bloke]

Are you running the correct tyre pressure? Wear on the edges could indicate low pressure.

[cerb4.5lee]

Both our old GLC350d and our current GLE400d have worn the outside edge off the passenger front tyre over time as well. Maybe it is just a thing with Mercedes SUVs?

BMWs always wear the inside edges off in my experience in comparison too.

[otolith]

the cueball said:

I'll go with, What do roundabouts cause? for £200 please.....

The wear patterns on a pile of dead tyres in a Swindon tyre fitters were testament to this.

[XJSJohn]

otolith said:

the cueball said:

I'll go with, What do roundabouts cause? for £200 please.....

The wear patterns on a pile of dead tyres in a Swindon tyre fitters were testament to this.

pretty much the same here in MK.

[E-bmw]

cerb4.5lee said:

Both our old GLC350d and our current GLE400d have worn the outside edge off the passenger front tyre over time as well. Maybe it is just a thing with Mercedes SUVs?

BMWs always wear the inside edges off in my experience in comparison too.

BMW wear pattern as mentioned is the rears, which is different and due to BMW deferring towards higher negative camber to try to reduce outer edge front wear IIRC.

[cerb4.5lee]

E-bmw said:

cerb4.5lee said:

Both our old GLC350d and our current GLE400d have worn the outside edge off the passenger front tyre over time as well. Maybe it is just a thing with Mercedes SUVs?

BMWs always wear the inside edges off in my experience in comparison too.

BMW wear pattern as mentioned is the rears, which is different and due to BMW deferring towards higher negative camber to try to reduce outer edge front wear IIRC.

I've always got it on the fronts and rears in mine, but I do appreciate that they're set up like that though in fairness. My current F82 M4 wears the inside edges on both the front and rears for example. The E90 330d was terrible for it too.

[John D.]

I had similar with the Mrs' company car X3. Nearside front is like this. No other tyre worn unevenly.



Kwikfit said there was no problem. Was surprised they didn't want to sell another tyre tbh. Few weeks later it was in with BMW for a service and they made no comment either. I know it's the roundabout tyre but I've never seen anything like it. Would have replaced it on my own car that I pay for the tyres on.

[Panamax]

Jimjimhim said:

Take it to a garage with a Hunter alignment machine and get it checked.

Yes, that's what I'd do. Worth the cost when balanced against another set of tyres. Some cars do tend to take the edges off tyres but OP's description sounds a bit extreme.

[VeeReihenmotor6]

IMO it's roundabouts at speed or roundabouts at a speed that seemed normal, perhaps keeping with the flow following an average 1.5ton car but as yours is 2.5ton the tyres wear quickly on the edges.

The dealer has already checked your bushes and alignment. You could pay out for a Hunter alignment but I think you're probably heading for a loss on that path.

[Sheepshanks]

fly said:

More like £620 for a pair, but yes I get the point.

This 'scares' me as looking at getting an EV to do towards 20K/yr and I've noticed they're often on daft tyre sizes. A set of tyres every year will make quite a dent in petrol savings. Current car does 2yrs on 17" CrossClimates, last set cost £500 a year ago on a Costco deal.


I used to have a C Class diesel Merc and that scrubbed the edges off its fronts. I didn't use the car much and they were like that for a couple of years without comment, but I changed them in the end as they looked bad when people approached the car even though they still had 4mm in the middle.

[fly]

Sheepshanks said:

fly said:

More like £620 for a pair, but yes I get the point.

This 'scares' me as looking at getting an EV to do towards 20K/yr and I've noticed they're often on daft tyre sizes. A set of tyres every year will make quite a dent in petrol savings. Current car does 2yrs on 17" CrossClimates, last set cost £500 a year ago on a Costco deal.


I used to have a C Class diesel Merc and that scrubbed the edges off its fronts. I didn't use the car much and they were like that for a couple of years without comment, but I changed them in the end as they looked bad when people approached the car even though they still had 4mm in the middle.

Well, I wouldn't recommend an EQC. It has many positives and I really enjoy driving it, but it's completely let down by the range. Under 130 miles in winter. Absolutely hopeless.

As far as tyres go, to be fair, there are decent cheaper options. I just like the Michelin PS4.
A lot of new SUVs have ridiculous sized tyres, not just EVs. Used to have an XC40 T3 that was also 21" and tyres were £330+ each, although obviously wore down a lot slower than the EQC.

PS4S tyres for my C63 with 18" wheels are less than half the price (and wear evenly despite taking bends/roundabouts a fair bit faster - and it has higher range than the EQC in winter, despite 14mpg).

[Jimjimhim]

VeeReihenmotor6 said:

IMO it's roundabouts at speed or roundabouts at a speed that seemed normal, perhaps keeping with the flow following an average 1.5ton car but as yours is 2.5ton the tyres wear quickly on the edges.

The dealer has already checked your bushes and alignment. You could pay out for a Hunter alignment but I think you're probably heading for a loss on that path.

For the low cost it's well worth getting the car properly check on a Hunter, the dealer has probably done very little to check the cars alignment.

[M4cruiser]

Sheepshanks said:

This 'scares' me as looking at getting an EV to do towards 20K/yr and I've noticed they're often on daft tyre sizes. A set of tyres every year will make quite a dent in petrol savings. Current car does 2yrs on 17" CrossClimates, last set cost £500 a year ago on a Costco deal.

My EV is on 215 / 50 x 17 W. Not too "daft" I think? £130 for a decent brand.

[cerb4.5lee]

fly said:

Sheepshanks said:

fly said:

More like £620 for a pair, but yes I get the point.

This 'scares' me as looking at getting an EV to do towards 20K/yr and I've noticed they're often on daft tyre sizes. A set of tyres every year will make quite a dent in petrol savings. Current car does 2yrs on 17" CrossClimates, last set cost £500 a year ago on a Costco deal.


I used to have a C Class diesel Merc and that scrubbed the edges off its fronts. I didn't use the car much and they were like that for a couple of years without comment, but I changed them in the end as they looked bad when people approached the car even though they still had 4mm in the middle.

Well, I wouldn't recommend an EQC. It has many positives and I really enjoy driving it, but it's completely let down by the range. Under 130 miles in winter. Absolutely hopeless.

As far as tyres go, to be fair, there are decent cheaper options. I just like the Michelin PS4.
A lot of new SUVs have ridiculous sized tyres, not just EVs. Used to have an XC40 T3 that was also 21" and tyres were £330+ each, although obviously wore down a lot slower than the EQC.

PS4S tyres for my C63 with 18" wheels are less than half the price (and wear evenly despite taking bends/roundabouts a fair bit faster - and it has higher range than the EQC in winter, despite 14mpg).

If you can get them, it might be worth running all season tyres? We had all season on the GLC350d from the factory, and they basically lasted forever almost(50k miles for the fronts and 75k miles for the rears).

I've struggled to get all seasons for the GLE400d though, because the rear tyres on that are 325/35/22, but I do think the odd tyre manufacturer are trickling them through for it now to be fair. The rear tyres don't last long on that annoyingly, and the worst set I had on it(Continentals) only lasted 3 months/6k miles!