Premature wear on Front tyres

[jmk1]

 

I have just acquired a VW polo.I am really happy with it. Unfortunately it failed its MOT the 2 front tyres inside edges were badly worn but 2/thirds of each tyre had loads of thread on them.I had 2 new front tyres fitted . The tyre fitter tells this is a common fault with all polos.He also said I should expect to lose 25 per cent of tyre life on the new tyres.Balance was ok and tracking was spot on. It looks like i am going to paying out on tyres on a regular basis

VW polo N REG. 1995.52000 miles. Immaculate condition.

Anyone else having these tyre problems with VW POLOs. Any comments would be appreciated  jmk1

[twiglet4frog]

sounds to me like it is a design fault for that type of car, either the tracking is out (check with another garage to be sure) or maybe the camber of the tyre is wrong. Try inflating the tyre a few more PSI to see how it goes (dont exceed maximum) as on normal tyres an increase in pressure causes there to be less contact of the tire on the surface of the road and the areas that do contact tend to be more central rather than the outside edges (except when corning, but the load of the tyre when cornering will always tend to be on the outside edge of the tire that is on the outside arc of the corner) whereas if u decrease the tire pressure(PSI) the surface area spreads out on the road more and the outside and inside edge come into contact and therfore wear more than normal (but also allow better traction)

[cockneyexile]

sounds like your tyre fitter is pulling a fast one.  it would probably be worth you investing in a phone call to vw uk headquaters in milton keynes to see if they are aware of a known manufacturers fault on vw polo tyres. and any way to rectify this problem

[d0gsb0dy]

Unfortunately, it appears to be a failing of that model. If you go here http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm and check your model in the car-by-car breakdown list, you can read all about it. About half-way down in the 'what's bad' write-up.

[Cockney_si]

Yeah good luck with contacting VW headquarters, they usually don't give a stuff.  Polos are poo.

[Cockney_si]

It may be worth your while looking at this website

http://www.carsurvey.org/model_Volkswagen_Polo.html

and seeing if any other Polo owners have had the same problems, or even any other common problems that the Polo has had.

Or you can just ditch the polo and buy a Honda Civic.

[reubenlee]

I have a similar problem on mty pug 306, except it is just on one tyre - about one inch of the outside edge keeps getting bald. The advice that i have been told is that although the alignment and tracking are fine the tracking has probably been changed incorrectly.   Most tyre garages ensure that the tracking is right when the wheels are straight forward and if they need changing they screw a bolt on either side.  The problem is that if they move one side further than the other it still measures correctly BUT when you turn  the wheels move different amounts and scrub the tyres.  What i have been suggested is take it to a dealer (yes scary i know!) they can measure the tracking one each tyer on a plate on teh ground and then they turn them to both full locks and measure it then also.  I'm going to book it in this week, i'm told it should be about an hours labour - which should work out cheaper than replacing the tyre every 6 months!