Front Tyres - different wear

[SteveoM]

15k miles of magical driving in and I now need to get new boots. Rear tyres coming off were both 3.8mm across the whole tyre, right front 3.4mm across the whole tyre, left front 1.1mm inner and 2.0 middle & outer.

I had laser 4 wheel alignment checked just before Christmas and it was spot on. Any ideas / thoughts on why such significantly different wear on just one corner? Pressures regularly checked.

I mentioned it to Audi yesterday at its service and was met with shrugged shoulders. Perhaps it's just extra load on roundabouts?

Wondered if anyone else noticed different wear / any thoughts?
Cheers

[RS Owner]

The fronts (both of) wear a good bit quicker than the rears on mine. Was the same on previous B7.
I do a front to rear swap midway through the wear cycle.

[Brooner]

What make are the tyres as i have found in the past pirelli's are shocking and wear very fast
The wear might be down to you driving style if your pushing the car hard into the corners it will scrub more on the outer and inner as the trye flexes

[Jools]

I recently had my tracking done after finding my NSF wearing a lot on the inside edge.
I had a four wheel align that showed both front and rear were out, the front more.

After the alignment the steering was noticably lighter.

One thing the mechanic did say was, a four wheel align starts with the rears relative to the drive train. Then align the fronts to the rears. That way you don't end up with all four wheels aligned but car is then crabbing down the road sideways. If it is, the camber on the suspension will still cause the tyres to wear unevenly. It's all a matter of trig.

He also agreed with me the number of pot holes and speed bumps was keeping him in beer!
And we're all paying for it.
Remind me again, what do we pay road tax for?

[RS4John]

It's curious to get more front tyre wear because the marketing blurb for the RS4 B9 indicated that there was a rear-drive bias for the Quattro setup so if that was the case the rears would wear more rapidly.

[SteveoM]

Thanks for comments. Original boots - Conti’s. I’ve really enjoyed them and popped another 4 on.

Remember Pirelli’s on by B8 RS4 not lasting well and the Bridgestones seemed poor in the wet.

As an aside - after a service this week I noticed they’d switched me from variable servicing to fixed. Gave them a call and apparently it’s a new policy to switch all cars over! I did point out another Inspection service in 8k after just having had one seemed a little overkill. Taking it back next week for it to be switched back...

I’m sure they have the interests of Audi’s across Kent at heart and not their own back pockets...

[Markp]

It's curious to get more front tyre wear because the marketing blurb for the RS4 B9 indicated that there was a rear-drive bias for the Quattro setup so if that was the case the rears would wear more rapidly.

Faster front wear is normal for a RS even with rear bias, unless you do lots of motorway driving, or regularly accelerate very hard. On normal twisty roads, and with sensible spirited driving the front takes significantly more load in both cornering and braking.

[RS4John]

The RS4 though is 'proper Quattro' with a Torsen centre differential so unless tweaked (as Audi's blurb claims) tyre wear is even across both axles. All the 'proper quattro' Audi vehicles I've owned have worn all 4 tyres out pretty evenly.

The current RSQ3 Performance idea of Quattro is predominately front wheel drive with a Haldex clutch device at the back that wakes up if it senses that the front wheels are rotating faster than the rears...

[Markp]

The RS4 though is 'proper Quattro' with a Torsen centre differential so unless tweaked (as Audi's blurb claims) tyre wear is even across both axles. All the 'proper quattro' Audi vehicles I've owned have worn all 4 tyres out pretty evenly.

The current RSQ3 Performance idea of Quattro is predominately front wheel drive with a Haldex clutch device at the back that wakes up if it senses that the front wheels are rotating faster than the rears...

Quattro just distributes power. It doesn't lighten the front end loads from braking and cornering significantly. So drive to the front plus these loads = faster wear. Most people find it is even or faster in the front.I have done over 150k miles in fast 4 WD cars and all, with the notable exception of a 4WD 911 (which carries much more weight over the back and is rear biased) have got through front tyres quicker than rears. But is does depend on the roads you drive, and how you drive.