Tire wear

Paul_PA

Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2003
Location
NE PA
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI Dark Green
I'm wondering if its my Jetta or all of them that uses up tires fast. The most miles I got out of a set of tires is around 16,000. And that was on 60,000 mile tires (Goodyear American Eagles from WalMart). Is this atypical of Jettas.
 

Old Navy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 15, 2001
Location
Ozark Hill's in Missouri, USA
TDI
None now, .
A neighbor today was making the same comment about his Toyota. Seems he is buying the low rolling restance tires that have a Max inflation of 44 psi then only running 30 psi to soften the ride. This would cause premature tire wear and possiable sudden failure.

I explained to him he as under inflating the tires 30% or more just to get a soft ride from a tire not designed to give a soft ride. If he bought a tire designed to give good soft ride with a max pressure of 35 psi he could easy get 60-80k mile on a set tires. Then if you run them at 32 psi, you are less then 10% under max loading, have soft ride and long wearing tread life. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

Bookerdog

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2001
Location
St. Louis, MO
TDI
2000 Golf GL TDI - BLACK
How many miles on your Jetta? Ever done anything to the suspension? Do you rotate your tires? Do you get them rebalanced occasionally?

The usual suspect in poor tire wear on older cars is the suspension. It wears out so gradually, that after 80 or 100k miles we think it always felt like that and there is nothing wrong. But fact is, your original shocks probably started leaking somewhere between 50 and 75k miles. The struts last longer, but still will be gone by 80 or 90k.

It's a testament to the VW that you can be driving around essentially on springs with very little damping and yet the car still corners great. However, without damping, your tires are skipping across the ground rather than making smooth constant contact.

Steering components also can start to wear and add more "wiggle" to the front tires' traction. Ball joints, tie rod ends, control arm bushings all can get a little loose, and loose means that the tire is gonna wash a little on the road surface.

I'd say it's time to spend some cash and treat yourself to a new suspension. Danix is selling a full set of A3 Bilstein TC shocks and struts for A3's for $200 plus shipping. Find somebody to install them with some new strut and shock mounts and you'll be good. Oh, and while they're at it and will need to do an alignment, have 'em install new ball joints and possibly outer tie rod ends. You'll spend $500 overall and feel like you're driving a brand new car.

The rest about rotation and occasional rebalancing is just common sense for taking care of any tires. Just about every place you go these days for tires offers lifetime rotation and balancing. You just need to add that to your schedule every 10k or so.

Sidenote on the tires, I myself have never been a fan of Goodyears, they wear too fast and perform too poorly for the premium price that they charge. I can't give you a specific long mileage preference because I've never owned a tire I've been blown away by, I just know that I've been very unimpressed with Goodyear.
 

Paul_PA

Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2003
Location
NE PA
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI Dark Green
This has been a problem from when I bought the car new. The first set on the car lasted 15,000 miles and then I got Copper Cobras which lasted about 15,000 , then I got Michelin Pilots and the lasted 15,000. The ones that lasted the longest, 16,000 miles were the Goodyear American Eagles. I get them for around $70.00 at WalMart. So I don't think its and issue of worn out parts because its been a problem since new.
 
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