Tyre usage - Advice please

Culchie

4 brand new tyres put on the car last June (€99 each.....Dunlop).

Surely they shouldn't need replacing again (they do !!) ..... done about 14,000 miles on them.

Audi A6, if that makes any difference.


Advice please, should I be challenging the tyre supplier, or is 15,000 miles a reasonable lifetime for tyres?

thanks

bazz26

It depends on your driving style and habbits. Also depends on the roads you driving. I think you should be getting more than 14k out of a set of tyres though.

Whether you have a case against the supplier is another thing though.

mike65

Are the tyres wearing in a safe uniform fashion on all corners?

Unless there is a pretty obvious defect on all the tyres you wont have a cat in hells chance of challenging Dunlop!

Sounds like you are a "press-ahead" kind of driver who likes cornering at speed!

Mike.

greglo23

on a front wheel drive car like yours you should get at least twice the life out of the rear tyres as the front. dunlops were never great for wear but their good for grip. pirelli tyres are about the same. audi a4`s have a tendency to wear the front tyres as they have 4 balljoints on each side and these wear out very quickly. the track rod ends also wear out quicker than most other cars. the early models even had a callback on these. not as bad as the laguna 2 though. the balljoints on these dont last even 30,000 miles !!!

css

What model Dunlops? What sizes too?

BrianD3

Check your tyres for a treadwear number, the tyre should say "treadwear 280" or whatever on the sidewall. The higher the number, the longer your tyres should last. Treadwear numbers usually vary from 150-400. My parents' car has Pirellis with treadwear 180 on it, these are wearing very quickly and the fronts will probably need replacing before 15k miles. Whereas I had Champiro GTs with treadwear 260 on my car and the fronts lasted 40k.

Also, as already stated, type of driving/driving style is a big factor in how long tyres last. And if the tyre pressure or tracking is wrong the tyres will wear unevenly adn prematurely.

BrianD3

ifconfig

Do any of you folks inflate your tyres at service bays on forecourts
in petrol stations? Do my shame/embarassment I've never done this
and instead mostly have relied on my mechanic to check pressure
at the service interval. At a recent service he told me that my tyres
were wearing because I wasn't maintaining them at the correct pressure
range.

So, is there anyone here skilled and articulate enough to summarise
in a few points how to inflate tyre and check pressure using the supplied
gauges at a forecourt service area ?

--ifc

ds20prefecture

ifconfig wrote:

...summarise in a few points how to inflate tyre and check pressure using the supplied gauges at a forecourt service area ?
--ifc

If you read the owners manual for your car there will be a page showing the correct pressures for your tyres in both atmospheres (BAR) or pounds per square inch (PSI) for your car laden and unladen.

- Undo the dust cap over the valve for your tyre
- press the head of the air filler firmly over the valve - you might hear a little air escape. If it's a lot, press harder.
- press the trigger. You should hear the air fill.
- Watch the guage until it reaches your desired pressure then release the trigger
- remove the head of the air filler.
- Replace the dust cap
- repeat for each wheel.
- Check your spare also.

CJhaughey

IMHO get a digital gauge, they are only about 10 euro and make the job a lot easier and more accurate.

greglo23

first off you can`t trust the pressure guages on most forecourts they get banged around so much so buy yourself a pressure guage in any of the car accessory shops. your car has a specific pressure for front and back which will be listed in your owners manual and depending on the model on the door pillar or the fuel cap cover. then its just a matter of removing the valve covers and inflating the tyres to the correct pressure with the tyre inflator and checking them with your new guage. correct tyre pressures are very important as they determine the amount of grip you get on the road. over-inflation is as bad as under-inflation. average pressure for most standard cars is 30 psi front 28-32 psi rear.

Captain Trips

CJhaughey wrote:

IMHO get a digital gauge, they are only about 10 euro and make the job a lot easier and more accurate.

I've heard different that the digital ones are less accurate but are easier and cheaper. The analogue ones are more expensive and more likely to break but more accurate - BUT THAT'S WHAT I'VE HEARD!! So it's not gospel!!

A bit of advice which I found out recently: the reason nitrogen is used more these days is that it is more resistant to changes in volume (gas expansion) with temperature.

So, e.g., the recent temp rise to 13-14 deg and back down to 3-4 will have more of an effect on O2 pumped (at the filling station) tyres than the nitrogen ones from tyre fitters. Nitrogen pumped will hold pressure longer over time.

Alun

A bit of advice which I found out recently: the reason nitrogen is used more these days is that it is more resistant to changes in volume (gas expansion) with temperature.

So, e.g., the recent temp rise to 13-14 deg and back down to 3-4 will have more of an effect on O2 pumped (at the filling station) tyres than the nitrogen ones from tyre fitters. Nitrogen pumped will hold pressure longer over time.

You not seriously suggesting that the stuff that comes out of the air pumps at service stations is pure oxygen do you? Apart from it being very expensive it's also highly inflammable.

Air is mostly nitrogen anyway, about 78% by volume, in fact. The O2 content is about 21%, and the other 1% is CO2 and other stuff including argon.

The reason given for filling tyres with pure nitrogen is apparently that it permeates through the rubber more slowly than oxygen. Sounds like technology overkill to me.

BrianD3

TBH I don't think a 10 euro pressure gauge from Halfords is going to be any better than a gauge on a garage forecourt. I've actually found forecourt gauges to be quite consistent eg I might check my pressures at 3 garages and all will give the same reading to within about 0.5 PSI.

But I never have to check tyre pressures anymore now that I have a car with tyre pressure monitoring. Seems to work quite well too and will give a warning if the tyre is down by a couple of PSI.

BrianD3