Choppy front tires

I've done some searching and can't find an answer to what is causing my problem, 1998 Jetta. Both front tires are "choppy" on the inside tread. I checked them because I have a humming sound that gets worse with speed. The back tires are fine. Don't know when they were last rotated because I just recently bought the car and have only put about 2,500 miles on it. The rear tires appear to be worn slightly more so I think they have been rotated before. Tires are Firestone Firehawk GT's. Here's some pics:





Any help would be appreciated.

Your picture appears to be what is usually called "feathering", and is usually caused from an alignment problem.

So could this be alignment related? The car does not noticeably pull to one side or the other. The tire treads are raised on one side like a sawtooth. One of Oilhammers posts on a recent thread indicated that this could be from the wrong tires being used.

My preference is for Firestone. Buy their lifetime alignment, and take it in every 6 months.

Your tire wear looks like worn struts...http://www.aa1car.com/library/tire_wear.htm This site is not the absolute authority, but is was one I found quickly.

Tony

ralphy6177 said:

So could this be alignment related? The car does not noticeably pull to one side or the other. The tire treads are raised on one side like a sawtooth. One of Oilhammers posts on a recent thread indicated that this could be from the wrong tires being used.

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Yes it could well be an alignment problem, there are other possibilities, but I would go for the alignment first. Likely the alignment shop can take a quick look and predict what the machine is going to say.

I doubt if it is tyre related. Why do you think they may be the wrong tyres?

Humor me: Does the car have a rear sway bar? (i.e. it would be aftermarket rear sway bar).

Joe, I was wondering if it was tire related because I came across this post written by Oilhammer in another thread:

Don't worry about the '06's intake.

You should be able to look at or run your hand across the tire to see if it is choppy.

Here is a pic of what a choppy tire looks like (and also an INCORRECT tire):

Notice on the left part, against the black background of the fender liner, how the tire has a 'sawtooth' look to it. FWIW, pretty much all Bridgestone Potenza tires will do this on a FWD VAG product, the A5s are REALLY bad (one of my customers put them on against my instructions, and they were square inside of 5000 miles ).

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Bigdog, I just looked and don't see a sway bar.

I may go ahead and have the alignment checked since it did have front end damage from an accident when I bought it. There was no apparent impact to the wheels, only the front clip but something may have been affected.

I have some Bridgestone Potenza 009 that are doing the same thing. My alignment is good, I think it is the construction of the tire. Thanks Steve

It is not alignment .
It is call high low spots on tires and gets there from :
1. bad shocks.
2. very soft tires.
Vw is rough car and any soft tire want work on it.
I have same problem on my mk3. I have toyo tires and they are to soft for this car, but ride is good.Had fulda before Toyo and had no problem.
Check your shocks, but you have firestone tires as I can see And I think this is your problem. This tires are not very friendly with VW.

It's called 'cupping', and can be caused by alignment or by your dampers. I had this happen to the rear Michelin X-Ones I had on my car when I had Bilstein TC shocks. They lasted about 85k miles until the rears cupped, and then I would get a vibration/buzzing around the 20mph mark. Shortly after, I picked up a nail and figured the tires were shot anyway, so I got rid of them. But I think in my case it was the stiffer TC shocks and the fact that the tires ran for so many miles that they eventually cupped.

This is also very common on motorcycle tires, especially the front tires. I had the front tire of my Suzuki cup like that as well. Sort of got 'scalloped' patches along either side.

jetta said:

It is not alignment .
It is call high low spots on tires and gets there from :
1. bad shocks.
2. very soft tires.
..

Click to expand...

Directly from Goodyear

http://www.goodyeartires.com/kyt/maintainingATire/#3

"Cups or dips in the tread: WORN PARTS
Cupping (also called dipping) is most common on front tires, although rear tires can cup as well. It may be a sign that wheels are out of balance or that suspension or steering system parts are worn out. "

I am sure you will find the same thing from all the other tyre manufacturers/

Thanks for that link, I am checking it out now. I just rotated my tires last weekend. I noticed that the rear driver side tire had a bit of a flat spot on it. i rotated it to the front and now can hear it when i am driving. (dont really feel it in the steering wheel nor the brakes), but you can hear it. Now I am wondering 2 things:

1) Is it bad to drive with this wheel on the car? it is causing a noise, so some vibration even though I cant feel it. I will have to replace the tires in the spring(I am guessing, just due to wear so that I pass inspection), so I was hoping to just drive with it for another 6 months or so.

2) what would cause it? I originally thought that it might have been from locking up the wheels, but this was on the rear, and only this side. The car is a 99.5 so it has ABS. It sounds like it could be bad shocks, but maybe I threw a weight. I will pull the wheel this weekend to check for evidence of that.

So am I ok to leave the wheel on for a while?

Thanks,
Rick

Those tires will almost certainly do that on that car no matter what. Not a good choice of tire.

However, you need to check the alignment, and condition of the bushings... particularly the control arm's rear bushings and the rear beam's track correcting bushings*.

If the alignment is spot on, those bushings are all good, then try some better tires with a tighter tread block design, and try to stay away from anything directional (because those you cannot cross rotate easily).

*A2, A3, A4, B4, and B5 VAG FWD cars use a 'track correcting rear axle'. What this means is, when you go around a curve, the axle beam steers opposite the front wheels. The faster and harder you turn, the more it steers. This makes the car handle better, but it is also a MUST that not only the bushings be in good condition but also that the rear beam is straight. If anyone puts those stupid full contact shims under the rear spindles to correct the alignment, then chances are about 99.9% that either the rear beam's mounting is not straight, the beam or stub axle(s) is bent, or the bushings are bad. It floors me how many alignment/tire shops do not understand VAG's simple and effective track correcting rear axle, but they sure inflict lots of Fail on these cars trying to correct something without a clue.