Car tyres, wear; camber, toe in/out

Followed the thread from renton with interest. Have a s/h Octavia on a 60 plate (bought last year).
The front tyres were new when we bought it (they’d worn to limit) but I assume the rears (Dunlops) might be original. It’s now just shy of 30k.

Been noticing quite a lot of feathering / fluttering tyre noise of late, possibly from the back – kind of like a slightly open window buffeting..

Checked the rear tyres the other day, and was taken aback to see the kerb side (at least) sidewall looked a bit perished/cracked) (guess could have been kerbed previously) but looking on the treads, they were very worn on the inside of both rears, and there was a perish / crack running all the way round (as far as I could see) both rear treads.

Took to garage, they have put two new rears on (Uniroyals, nothing fancy) and I’ll be keeping an eye on the wear (probably get the tracking checked later in the year).

Long drive today – Perth and back – and was bit taken aback to feel the car was – not so much nimble as almost light – kind of unstable if that makes sense. Could just be better grip on the rear I suppose but not convinced .

May be one for trail_rat here – half tempted to get the track and camber looked at, but how do I know what it should be, and I’m then thinking maybe it will just – if altered – make it worse. It was also pretty windy today and that’s what it felt like, a bit, driving (didn’t get that in the old Saab – it was going nowhere in anything less than a Force 8).

Possible the tracking is out? Camber as well? I’ve no idea how the car was driven before, it was from somewhere outside of Glasgow originally, then through in Edinburgh for a while.

Have you checked the tyre pressure?

Might be worth getting the tracking done mate. Mine feels loads better and less prone to tramlining since having it done.

Vw/Audi/skoda are known to feather inside edges of rear tyres due to suspension design.

I had a new set of tyres put on the back of a cmax once and it felt exactly like you describe. It took a while for the tyres to settle in and it was fine.

tyre pressures checked – not every week – bad – but from time to time and they’re usually pretty good.

renton — where did you gets yours checked, in the end?

I’d taken the car round to Wisharts who’re really good – they’d given the car a once over when I bought it; but obviously they didn’t check track or anything. MOT was ok in January as well but not setting much by that.

50+ mpg for todays 300 mile round trip, happy enough with that (old man’s driving style I suspect).

tyre pressures checked – not every week – bad – but from time to time and they’re usually pretty good.

Have you checked the pressures of the new tyres? Don’t just assume they’re correct.

Oh, I see what you’re at — will do that. Would be surprised if they were wildly out – but you’re right, don’t assume 🙂

I got mine done at a place down in the Midlands whilst I was down there. Place I always use. Jefferies tyres.

Get tracking checked but as per renton that platform is renound for buggerin rear tires by feathering due to design.

How ever they are not rain experts you fitted are they ?

I fitted a set of uniroyal rain experts to the van. In the dry they feel uneasy – to the point i am actually considering changing them.

As for what it should be – settings will be in the service manual for your car.

Dealers are usually pretty good with the settings if you call and ask.

How ever you shouldnt need to know – any garage worth its salt will have autodata which has most car info in.

Trail rat. I’ve just put a set of rainsport 3 on the front of my mondy and they feel absolutely fine.

A proper wheel alignment centre will be able to do a check for you, about £40-50 and takes 1/2 hr or so. They have all the factory specs so will in no if it’s within tolerance. They’ll check tracking, toe, camber etc.

thanks folks.
renton – ah, thought you’d maybe got them done up here.

trai_rat – thanks mate. the wear profile is a whole shoulder gone, the noise sounded that could be feathered as well. Garage I reckon is good; they point blank refused to fix the Saab (and they were right); so I reckon they’ll be fine once I get it sorted.

hm. Rain Experts I’m sure they are fella – that sounded good and spec for economy, noise and the rest looked OK. Today was dry, and they felt – well, squirmy – I’m fine with that on the MTB being used to crap, narrow tyres for decades, but on motor, not so much..

Rainsport 3 are not rainexpert though renton.

And yes squirmy is how id describe them , its just made the front end unsure….and the van was planted before on chinese ditch finders.

In the wet they are great though, i guess the clues in the name.

Ah righto.

Do they need to be xl load rated for a van ?

Maybe run 2-3 psi extra.

Yeah mines are 86s on the van.

Had new rear tyres on Ceed on Sat – Kwitfit said the wheels need aligning.
Didn’t get it done there and then as I thought I’d shop around – been stung by them in the past.

Anyway, phoning around various garages most only do fronts aligned to back.
Halfords do all 4 for £39.99 (front £29.99) – most are £30-35 for front only and the few that do both are £30 an end. Too good to be true?
One place asked if it was a fixed rear axle meaning they can’t be adjusted anyway apparently.

When I leave go of the steering wheel it def pulls to the left so no doubt it needs doing…the fronts are newish and replaced by the same place (not Kwikfit) at different times.
The rears taken off were the originals on a 59 plate car so had done 45k miles but didn’t look very obviously evenly worn to my (untrained) eye.

Local place to work checks first but does toe-in toe-out to the rear for £27….worth a go?

We’ve got a wee dude in a tiny workshop that’s literally a lift, a PC, some lazorz and space to walk around, he does nothing but tyres and lazoring… Not really any more expensive than other options, so no reason not to go all the way I reckon.

My actual-garage guys did it with string or, I don’t know, guesswork and squinting or something after I got the shocks and springs done, and it was pretty much completely wrong