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Unusual rear tyre wear on my Skoda Octavia - is this a fault?
I bought a new Skoda Octavia Estate 2.0TDI CR 18 months ago. I'm very happy except that for the last 6000 miles or so there has been a steady increase in road noise from the rear tyres. I had the tyres checked at a local tyre fitter who showed me that the inner 40mm of both tyre shoulders were almost completely worn and unevenly so, whilst the rest of the tyre tread has at least another 15,000 miles left. He checked the tracking, camber and toe-in and were all well within the tolerance zone.
I then contacted my Skoda dealer who said that they were aware of the phenomenon. Apparently an internal Skoda bulletin advised of an adjustment to be made to the rear camber to the maximum allowed within the tolerance. The car would need to be sent to a specialist to check all 4-wheel alignments. Catch 22 says that as it will be an adjustment it fell outside the warranty and I will have to pay for it.
I then contacted my Skoda dealer who said that they were aware of the phenomenon. Apparently an internal Skoda bulletin advised of an adjustment to be made to the rear camber to the maximum allowed within the tolerance. The car would need to be sent to a specialist to check all 4-wheel alignments. Catch 22 says that as it will be an adjustment it fell outside the warranty and I will have to pay for it.
Asked on 18 August 2012 by IM, Blandford Forum
Answered by
Honest John
I have heard of this before on VAG cars. It might be an alignment problem, it might be suspension bush or pinion wear, or it might be due to rear brake bias. Normally something like 98 per cent of a car's braking is on the front wheels and a bias valve is installed in the brake line to prevent the rear wheels locking up prematurely. But if this isn't quite right the rears will lock up, imperceptibly to the driver, yet causing strange wear patterns at the rear. I don't think the problem is sufficiently widespread with VAG cars for VAG to put its hand up.
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