Author Topic: VW TOUAREG TIRE WEAR (Read 7174 times)

aegean · « **on:** December 01, 2005, 08:11:52 am »

I have a 2004 VW Touareg V8 and have had to discard my stock Continental tires after 18000km. Not normal. I have looked on other forums in the USA and found that many people have faced the same problem without much luck in terms of a solution. Incidentally, the story ids much the same for Cayenne owners as they share 65% body/mechanical parts with the Touareg. I also heard that the first 3000 units of the Touareg had a service bulleting/recall for this very problem, but the dealers I have called are denying this and claim that the tires were the problem. VW is looking at sending me 2-4 new Contis (like I want them if they are the problem, and besides, I already bought Hankook Ice Bear W300's from Tire Trends). I called Customer Service at VW Canada but did not get very far.

Has anyone had the same problems or similar with the Touareg? Any fixes? I love this SUV in terms of looks, drive and size, but the tire thing is problematic(not to mention that the onboard computer and tire pressure guage have caused me to bring it to the dealer for non-scheduled service at least 8 times in the 12 months I have owned it... there, all you "VW has electrical problems"-junkies have your piece of flesh now)... and I thought fuel consumption would be my biggest problem after 5 other problem-free VW's.

$:-\$

ktm525 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 01, 2005, 10:47:30 am »

Perhaps 18k Kms is not all that bad. The stock Continentals on my Passat only lasted about 35k kms. I think tire wear on your T-Reg is realted to a combination of:

1) It's enormous weight
2) The tire camber. I noticed this when I was behind a V8 Toureg yesterday. The tires (mostly the rears) were tipped way in at the top. I bet this is done to maximize the handling albeit at the expense of tire wear.

When I test drove a Touareg I was amazed at it's handling, especially the initial turn-in response for a vehicle that weighs nearly 5000 lbs.

I bet VW has tuned the Touareg for handling over tire wear. Does anyone remember when the Acura NSX first came out? The alignment settings were optimized for handling and this was causing tires to wear out in as little as 8k kms.

jeeper · « **Reply #2 on:** December 01, 2005, 03:43:21 pm »

u must be kidding...!! 18k kilometer in the stock tires and u think its fine??? Come on!!!

I had put 35k in my tires till today and they are still in good shape!!! something must be wrong.

quadzilla · « **Reply #3 on:** December 01, 2005, 04:35:18 pm »

Well if they have the toe-in (I think the is the right word) set at an angle that wears down the edges faster than the rest of the tires then sure they will only last 18K. I've also heard that some of the last gen Nissan 240's (RWD) models had the same issue. Dealers were resetting the offset to 0 degrees to save tires. Its a fine balance.

tortoise · « **Reply #4 on:** December 01, 2005, 04:39:32 pm »

Off-topic, but I like the new sig quad.

Well, to make it relavent, I'd be pretty disappointed with 18km out of tires.

aegean · « **Reply #5 on:** December 01, 2005, 05:00:46 pm »

Quote from: ktm525 on December 01, 2005, 10:47:30 am

Perhaps 18k Kms is not all that bad. The stock Continentals on my Passat only lasted about 35k kms. I think tire wear on your T-Reg is realted to a combination of:

My wife has a 2004 Passat 1.8t 4motion with H rated Michelin MX4's and they hardly show wear after 10,000km. I am not sure what they will look like after 35k. Before the Passat, she had a Golf GLS 1.8t and the t-rated Continentals lasted about 57,000km... returned the lease with them as a matter of fact.

I don't think that it was done on purpose, or it would have shown up on sites like Canadian Driver, Edmunds, Road&Track, etc... It seems more like a latent defect to me until some U.S. lawyer gets one and then latent defect goes class action.

03_ap1 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 01, 2005, 05:07:18 pm »

get your alignment checked for sure

quadzilla · « **Reply #7 on:** December 01, 2005, 05:39:42 pm »

On the Protege5's the OE's were averaging around 30K with highs of 50K and lows of 20K.

We all know that the way a person drives will help determine the max mileage out of a tire. All city or all highway?

Either way, 18K isn't much and is disappointing for a non-high performance tire.

Tortoise: Thanks. I'm going to work on a winter theme for the next one. I miss Utah so I went with those pics.

ktm525 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 01, 2005, 05:41:07 pm »

Quote from: multivisao on December 01, 2005, 03:43:21 pm

u must be kidding...!! 18k kilometer in the stock tires and u think its fine??? Come on!!!

I had put 35k in my tires till today and they are still in good shape!!! something must be wrong.

My BF Goodrich G-Force KDW's 215/50-16 on my Contour SVT only lasted 20k kms till they were bald. My second set lasted 15k kms. $1100 for a set of four each time.

Exactly how are your tires wearing? Feathering on an edge or nice even balding?

03_ap1 · « **Reply #9 on:** December 01, 2005, 06:25:37 pm »

G-Force are high performance tires with low treadwear ratings....you can't compare those to an OE all-season tire.

My ES100's lasted 8K on my s2000 - does that mean the VW wear is normal? No.

wing · « **Reply #10 on:** December 01, 2005, 08:18:13 pm »

You may or may not be able to compare, friends sonata lasted 20k on their OE's and they aren't sporty tires.

aegean · « **Reply #11 on:** December 01, 2005, 09:43:05 pm »

All 4 tires wore nice and evenly. Even the VW Corpoate Rep that was at the dealership last time didn't think it was normal. I am getting an alignment next week and see what happens. Hopefully the Ice bears will wear less. So far they are very sticky.

My driving is moderate by the way, a bit aggressive in terms if speed, but not in terms of ripping around corners or aggressive acceleration.

tortoise · « **Reply #12 on:** December 01, 2005, 10:18:20 pm »

I'm sure you'll do it, but I'd watch the hankooks very closely. If a pair of OEM A/S tires were done in 18k km, it's frightening to think what'd happed to winter tires!

morty · « **Reply #13 on:** December 01, 2005, 11:06:23 pm »

It will be very interesting to see how the W300's stand up to your Touareg "Tire Eater". Please keep us posted on that and how VW deals with the tire issue. Keep in mind that OE tires arent always the longest lasting. The vehicle manufacturer tries to get as low rolling resistance as possible for fuel consumption ratings. Tires take a beating because of this. Combine the suspension and weight of the vehicle and puff go the tires.

Keep us in the loop.

ktm525 · « **Reply #14 on:** December 02, 2005, 10:16:36 am »

Quote from: 03_ap1 on December 01, 2005, 06:25:37 pm

G-Force are high performance tires with low treadwear ratings....you can't compare those to an OE all-season tire.

My ES100's lasted 8K on my s2000 - does that mean the VW wear is normal? No.

The V8 Touareg that I test drove had some mighty big performance rubber on it. They definately weren't garden variety OE all-seasons. A tire that is rated for speeds 130mph+ on a vehicle as heavy as the Touareg is definately a high-performance tire.

Checking a fmaous US based tire site I came up with the OE tires for the V8 Touareg:

1) Continental 4*4 Contact 255/55VR18. Again a V rated SUV tire is high performance tire. I don't think 20k on a set of high-performance tires is unreasonable at all. Replace with a Michelin cross terrain and you will gain treadwear but lose that sharp (for a suv) handling.

From the same website it seems the users survey rates the above Continental at a 4.5 out of 10 for treadwear. Many complaining about fast wear.

aegean · « **Reply #15 on:** December 02, 2005, 07:59:04 pm »

Well, VW Corporate is supposed to be sending new tires. On an other site i read from another Touareg owner that they had put Nokian WR 109V All Seasons and were much happpier with the treadwear. The wear rating on the Nokians is 500?? What ever that means, as well as saying something about "Negative Camber"?? Morty??

morty · « **Reply #16 on:** December 06, 2005, 12:08:25 am »

Treadwear rating is ambiguous, however 500 usually means better than 100,000KM. I would be surprised if you saw that! Negative camber usually refers to the rear tires. On a vehicle with negative camber you will notice that the tires seem to be further in at the top than the bottom. This will cause you to wear more tire on the inner shoulder as they tend to be scrubbed off quicker.

sirAQUAMAN64 · « **Reply #17 on:** December 06, 2005, 12:30:55 pm »

Golf GLS 1.8T's are pretty rare!
I have 16" Michelin MXV4+ Energy tires and they generally last about 60-80K for me - I'm very happy with them.

I've heard of some tire wear on Touaregs, and definitely many of the earlier (until '05MY) SUVs had the same issues with the tire pressure sensor. A nightmare, that fiasco - VW responded with removing the system

and making it optional I believe.

That truck is ultra heavy, but damn I still like it.

At least new tires are en route. Should hope so with the VWs you've owned... is a Phaeton next?

Teammom · « **Reply #18 on:** December 06, 2005, 03:34:24 pm »

I have a '04 Touareg which I purchased from Santa Barbara Volkswagen with 4,000 miles on it. My husband questioned the tire wear on the vehicle when I brought it home and now at 16,000 miles the tires are completely wore out. Wore all the way to the wear bars. I called Volkswagen America and they had me take it in to Ventura Volkswagen to evaluate that something else wasn't causing the unusual wear. VW America just called me back now and said they couldn't replace the tires because tires are not covered under their warranty and that they were not the manufacturer of the tires. The Touareg weight etc. obviously causes the premature wear out of tires. Maybe a class action lawsuit from all Touareg owners is needed at this time.

sirAQUAMAN64 · « **Reply #19 on:** December 09, 2005, 11:37:58 am »

Early Touaregs had so many issues already that tires are probably at the bottom of their list. Many buy-backs, but not for tires I imagine.

I'd try working with them more and see what happens. Maybe cite someone else's case.