Tyre Wear

[LAQ7]

Well after a month of back and forth my local Audi dealer and Audi America both said I have to pay for the new tires myself. They will only do the alignment for free. And on top of that they will keep and drive my car for the first 300 miles and then check the alignment again to see if anything goes wrong......so I guess I am paying to be their guniea pig......what bs.....since I don't have a much of a choice and don't want to spend my valuable time on this nonsense I am paying.......so I will see what happens now when it gets to about 5000 miles on these new tires......they are goodyears by the way...

[Quacker]

Originally Posted by OilBurner

OK - I read this entire thread through yesterday and have been giving this a lot of careful consideration before posting this reply.

Tyre wear is a very difficult thing to compare especially across different brands of tyre fitted to different brands of vehicle. There must be literally 100's of variables at play given that scope.


snip
. Furthermore people on here have compared the Q7 to Land Rovers, Land Cruiser Amazons and the like. Have you seen the tyres fitted to those things? I've been looking at all such large cars on my 85 mile trip from Winchester to Bristol this morning and the tyres on ALL of them wouldn't look out of place on a transit van; whereas the tyres on most Q7's I've seen wouldn't look out of place on a saloon car.

While the Land Cruiser has less of a low profile tyre I can assure you that the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, BMW X5 and Mercedes ML and GL have directly comparable tyres, weight, performance and handling to the Q7. They do not and have not in my hands, worn their tyres out every 10,000 to 12,000 miles. The Range Rover did 35,000 miles hard driven before it wore its first set out. The X5 Sport did 22,000 miles on a set of very low profiles. The ML was on its first set when sold at over 20,000 miles.
And yes, I have and do drive Transit vans, Mercedes, vauxhall, Renault and Fiat vans regularly as well as Range Rover, Land Cruiser, Mercedes GL and sundry Japanese vehicles as well as having owned various cars such as Golf GTi's and Jaguar XK8's fitted with Pirrelli P Zero's.

Bottom line is.......... none, absolutely none, wore all four of their tyres out like the Q7 even after checking its alignment and driving as if perpetually on ice.

It is rather patronising of you to try and deflect this problem onto the owners as if they all lack experience and a mechanical apptitude. It is this very long experience that makes this car's tyre wear rate so unacceptable compared with anything comparable on the market today that I have experience of, and that's a huge lot.

[Choch]

Been following the thread with interest.
My Oct 07 Q7 has just clocked up 10000 miles. I had the front tyres changed by the dealership FOC after 5000 miles, with their well practiced speech ringing in my ears "on this occasion we will change the tyres FOC but we will not be able to do that again...".
I'm calling on them again this week to see if they've changed their position as the second set now need replacing.

It would be really good if they could do something about the fuel economy too (max avg 22 mpg - 3.0TDI). My 4.2 Land Cruiser beat this motor hands-down. Big mistake!

[996CAB]

Originally Posted by frizz

My Q7 has just covered 16,000 miles with no tread wear at all on the outside edges, despite the previous owner running the pressures too low (36F 38R) for the first 6,000 miles. I have 295 35 R21's which should be run at 44F 49R and rekon I have another 6,000 miles left in them.
I have met two other Q7 owners who remarked on the excessive tye wear on the outside edges, one of which took his car back to the dealer only to be told, '' that's normal''. I advised him to look at this site.
This has to be something to do with the factory settings (camber or tracking).
I must admit, I did look at the Q7 forums to see if there were any major problems with these cars before commiting to buy and also chose S/hand to ensure I was not buying one with this inherent problem.
On the whole, I am very pleased with the car. I just wish I had looked on the RRS forum Before I bought one last year. Dreadful cars with so many problems, awful customer care and the dealers try to fob their customers off with any excuse but fix it. The Q7 is in a different league altogether.

Not sure if this thread is still going...I have 16K on my Q7 which I bought new in May 07 and tyres are good as new. My suspension is lowered and I am riding 22"....I have always rotated front to back every 5k miles and keep PSI as follows - I check PSI once a month and it is always OK...no loss;

fronts: 45PSI (recommended is 44PSI on 21" however I have a lowered suspension which is tilted slightly forward)

rears: 49PSI (suspension is toed in slightly)

I also own other cars - some high performance cars - and will state that tyre PSI is often the main course for high tyre wear. It is just not worth getting bothered about any other points...i.e the weight of the car, your driving style, type of road etc. Just check your PSI regularily and ensure it is optimum.

As a side issue, check out a 997 C4 Cab and you will find it needs 40PSI or more on the back and that car weighs almost 1 ton less than the Q7 so why is anyone on this forum running their rears as low as 38PSI on a 2.5 ton SUV?

The Q7 is a heavy beast and anyone who thinks they will be OK on less than 38PSI regardless of how many passengers you regularily carry needs a reality check!

just my 2 cents worth...!!!

[a8 tech]

good reply and very true

[Sportingmac]

Hi 996CAB

Agree with you on pressures. Since changing my fronts at 11k we (dealer and I) agreed to set the PSI to 42 all round. Seems to be working out quite well. Just back from a 3000 mile tour around Italy and 2000 Miles around UK and they still look like new. Very happy. Interestingly - when I talked to a few of my German friends who also have Q7's - they report no major problems with their tyres.

Also - one of my rears is still looking good from new - it has done 17.5k miles now - will likely need a change around 20k. The other rear was changed at 7k due to a bloody big bolt stuck in it.

What I have noticed is that the user handbook recommends max PSI (44 & 48) all round whatever the load - definitely a difference from the fuel cover settings. Wonder if that is the problem - wrong info?

Who did the suspension lowering for you? What is your impression of ride quality? Certainly looks good though.

[996CAB]

Originally Posted by Sportingmac

Hi 996CAB

Agree with you on pressures. Since changing my fronts at 11k we (dealer and I) agreed to set the PSI to 42 all round. Seems to be working out quite well. Just back from a 3000 mile tour around Italy and 2000 Miles around UK and they still look like new. Very happy. Interestingly - when I talked to a few of my German friends who also have Q7's - they report no major problems with their tyres.

Also - one of my rears is still looking good from new - it has done 17.5k miles now - will likely need a change around 20k. The other rear was changed at 7k due to a bloody big bolt stuck in it.

What I have noticed is that the user handbook recommends max PSI (44 & 48) all round whatever the load - definitely a difference from the fuel cover settings. Wonder if that is the problem - wrong info?

Who did the suspension lowering for you? What is your impression of ride quality? Certainly looks good though.

Sportingmac,
thx for your response.

My Q7 was lowered by Project Khan...see www.projectkahn.co.uk. The work was done as part of the prep by Audi before I took delivery.

The car drives like a dream and handles very well indeed though the tyre PSI needs to be on the higher end else you feel the tyres 'rolling' round tight bends.

The ride quality is perhaps 15% - 20% harsher however that is still silky smooth to me compared to some of my sports cars!!!

I will do same again.

[dvdsam0]

G'day
I'm glad to see the Q7's tyre wear issue is not uncommon. My Q7 came with Goodyear Eagle F1 (235/60r18) tyres which have not lasted 20 000km. I have tried the negotiation bit with Audi Australia before when the info display on my TT fizzled; without joy (I note that this has been a class action issue in the States).
So I have decided to sacrifice the sporty looks for a more durable tyre. My experience with Cooper tyres on my 4x4 fleet has been excellent (well over 50 000km per set), I am going to try the Zeon XST 255/55R18's on the Q7. Has anyone else tried these?

I shall keep you posted.

[SimonW]

Originally Posted by dvdsam0

G'day
I am going to try the Zeon XST 255/55R18's on the Q7. Has anyone else tried these?

dvdsam0,

I have just put on 274/45 20" Cooper Zeon XST, replacing all the originals after 15,000. Only really the front edges had gone (rears were ok).

The Cooper tyres feel like the Wranglers on my Discovery 3, so more insulating on bad roads, a little less sporty although no more tyre noise really despite the chunky tread.

They were "only" £560 for four, fitted.