Check Your Tyre Wear - Near Miss

[RS6 Cat]

I managed to get away luckily at the weekend.
I knew all 4 tyres were just about onto the wear markers and was planning on changing up next month.

Last weekend I was out a drive with wife and baby and suddenly 10psi on nearside rear, I pulled over and the inside of the tyre was through to the canvas/thread and the tyre wall had split.

Not what I was expecting as the outside and middle tread looked fine.

Recovery truck later and the mechanic pointed out all 4 were showing thread on the inner edge.

4 new Perrelli P Zeros (£1000) later and all good but this could have been a different story if one had a blow out at motorway speeds.

I’m booked in to have the geometry looked at as it is obviously running too much negative camber.

Lesson learned, always check the inside of your tyres aswell.

[Saudirick]

Just out of interest, why did you go with Pirelli P Zero? The Michelin PS4 is a far superior tyre and will transfrom the handling of the car. I have never heard of the inner wall shredding on them either but have heard a few horror stories of the P Zero

[wildbore]

Or it could be you drive regularly over speed cushions while straddling them along the centreline of the car - that will rip up the inner edges of all four tyres if you do it often enough - and, if you go over them at speed, that can push your alignment out, too, further exacerbating the problem.

[RS6 Cat]

Just out of interest, why did you go with Pirelli P Zero? The Michelin PS4 is a far superior tyre and will transfrom the handling of the car. I have never heard of the inner wall shredding on them either but have heard a few horror stories of the P Zero

I like the angled look of the side wall on the P Zero compared to other tyres. I don’t really feel I need to transform the handling, I mainly do motorway miles and I have a Caterham 7 for scratching that handling itch

[RS6 Cat]

Or it could be you drive regularly over speed cushions while straddling them along the centreline of the car - that will rip up the inner edges of all four tyres if you do it often enough - and, if you go over them at speed, that can push your alignment out, too, further exacerbating the problem.

Nothing to do with driving style. Looks like similar issue with other RS6’s & Subarus going by the forums.

[SasaRS6]

I put michelin ps4. Suggested by guys from this forum. Great tyre. But this tyres of yours looks like you drive it over 30.000km. This car need to have good tyres, so 20.000km is maximum for any tyre if you want to be calm. Dont buy expencive cars if you cant afford proper maintaince and tyres ( i am speaking generally, not to you).

[wildbore]

Or it could be you drive regularly over speed cushions while straddling them along the centreline of the car - that will rip up the inner edges of all four tyres if you do it often enough - and, if you go over them at speed, that can push your alignment out, too, further exacerbating the problem.

Nothing to do with driving style. Looks like similar issue with other RS6’s & Subarus going by the forums.

I admire your self-assurance.

But, somewhat ironically, the picture you posted is *exactly* the type of damage done by speed cushions, and not tyre alignment. Look at how the wear indicators are even across the tyre and the inner shoulder is chewed up; if that was a camber adjustment issue, the wear would be tapered across the width of the tyre and you wouldn't see the tearing of the rubber on the edge.

[RS6 Cat]

Well you might have a valid point as there are speed cushions on the entrance to the street, I'll maybe try a different approach with the new ones now fitted

[MikeFish]

I had the exact same issue on my Alfa. Low tyre pressure warning when doing about 80mph. I slowed down and pulled over the first place that I could but the tyre was already <beep> at this point. These were Michelin PS4Ss. This is a common issue for lowered cars that have no camber adjustment. Being aware of this from previous experience Ion my RS4 and RS6 amongst other cars I checked regularly and had a new set of tyres waiting to go on. I thought I had another few weeks before needing to swap them but still got caught out.
Anyone with lowered cars please check the inside edge regularly. When mine went I still had 6-7mm of tread on the outside edge and toward the middle so a normal quick check wouldn't have shown the issue.