[dmn100]

Just checked my front tyres on my up! white and noticed that they are starting to get quite low on tread. I think they are on just shy of 1.5mm. The trouble is the car has only done 14000 miles and I thought tyres should last quite a bit longer than this. My car came with the Continental Conti Premium Contact 2s (185/50/r16).

Does anybody know if this is normal? I did check the pressures and all tyres were out by about 4psi so have pumped them up to the correct pressures as indicated on the sticker on the filler cap - 29psi fronts and 26psi on the rears. Probably should have checked before really but just assumed that this kind of thing would be correct on a new(ish) car!

 

[Night Owl]

Front wheel drive ....slightly low tyre pressures....14000 miles is pretty good in my opinion.Forgive me if I have miss read your post but it seems to suggest that this is the first time you have checked your tyre pressures.When your car is new from the dealer, of course the tyre pressures should be right....but the seal between tyre and wheel rim and valve can never be perfect, and they will lose pressure. Good practice is to check pressures weekly.Same goes for oil level...water level and lights.

If I get 14000 miles from my tyres I will be well pleased.

Go well.

 

[Itzben]

Crickey I no what Im doing tomorrow at work when I finished work haha

 

[Night Owl]

Forgot to mention....of course if you have low tyre pressures not only will they wear out more quickly...you will also use more fuel....higher rolling resistance! Go check Folks!

Go well.

 

[Ecksile]

Just checked my front tyres on my up! white and noticed that they are starting to get quite low on tread. I think they are on just shy of 1.5mm. The trouble is the car has only done 14000 miles and I thought tyres should last quite a bit longer than this. My car came with the Continental Conti Premium Contact 2s (185/50/r16).

Does anybody know if this is normal? I did check the pressures and all tyres were out by about 4psi so have pumped them up to the correct pressures as indicated on the sticker on the filler cap - 29psi fronts and 26psi on the rears. Probably should have checked before really but just assumed that this kind of thing would be correct on a new(ish) car!

If your tyres are at 1.5mm then they are illegal.

Must be at least 1.6mm throughout a continuous band in the centre 3/4 of the tread and around the entire circumference.

 

[ducatikid]

Walk round your car before you drive it every day.

Check tyre pressures every week and before any high speed journey. If you don't you may die. Your insurance may be invalid. You may kill your family and friends or someone else.

Read your car manual twice, front to back.

 

[Heartagram]

14k is decent on unmaintained tyres. Usually you can squeeze a bit of extra life out of a full set by switching fronts for rears. But I'm not a fan of that myself, not that I can on mine as the wheels are staggard.

 

[DoubleDub]

But I'm not a fan of that myself, not that I can on mine as the wheels are staggard.

Don't know what you mean with that comment Heartagram, the front and rear wheels are identical, so why do you think you can't change them, what do you mean by staggard?

 

[DoubleDub]

Forgot to mention....of course if you have low tyre pressures not only will they wear out more quickly...you will also use more fuel....higher rolling resistance! Go check Folks!

Go well.

Also if under inflated they will wear towards the outside quicker than in the centre [And vice-versa if over inflated]

 

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I echo Night Owl's advice, check pressure at least once a week if you're doing regular stints in the car.


I generally only drive on weekends but still check every other time I re-fuel. The Alfa Romeo garage that I recently used (that I am in the process of complaining about to the OFT) changed 3 tyres on my car (one to which I am dubious about) and didn't inflate them! should be 2.4/2.2 front and rear, checked them after getting my car back and they were all 1.8! Shockingly awful, so I wouldn't take anything as given.



Also agree with ducatikid, your insurance may be invalid if you have an accident have tyres that are incorrectly inflated. Also, coming from previous experience, one of the first things the police will do if you're involved in an accident will be to check your tyre treads/ pressures (I wasn't involved in an accident but I was a witness to a small collision and saw them doing this to both cars involved).
Edited by: Fidel_Castronaut

 

[Zigster]

I would be pretty disappointed with only 14,000 miles from a set of tyres for a low powered car like the Up. I would have guessed at more like twice that.

I've just checked wear on my family car, a Volvo XC60 (didn't seem reasonable to check the wear on the Mii because I swap between winter and summer tyres so not sure how much mileage is on each). After 12,000 miles, they have over 5mm of tread left so about half worn assuming they started off with 8mm and I'll replace them before they get to 2mm - I should be able to get about 20,000+ miles before replacing. And the factory-fitted tyres on it are notorious (from reading the Volvo forums) for wearing quickly.

I would have thought a big, heavy car like that (with a huge amount of torque) would be heavier on tyres than an Up.

 

[_1S_]

Just checked my front tyres on my up! white and noticed that they are starting to get quite low on tread. I think they are on just shy of 1.5mm. The trouble is the car has only done 14000 miles and I thought tyres should last quite a bit longer than this. My car came with the Continental Conti Premium Contact 2s (185/50/r16).

At 1.5mm they need to be replaced, legally immediately, but definitely before the monsoon season

Those tyres are notorious for wear.
They drive really well, but they'll wear quickly.

Autobild in Germany had a tyre test where these scored worst of all tyres tested !
They had a predicted thread life of 15400 km - yes, that's even less than what you got !

Does anybody know if this is normal? I did check the pressures and all tyres were out by about 4psi so have pumped them up to the correct pressures as indicated on the sticker on the filler cap - 29psi fronts and 26psi on the rears.

The sticker pressure is already way too low - certainly for the lower profile tyres.
If you even below that, it'll make matters worse.

I expect VW to increase these recommended values in due time - they wouldn't be the first manufacturer to do so.
It'd save a fair bit of fuel - and tyres !

I'd recommend going no lower than the VW recommended pressure for a fully loaded car.
Even if you're riding around alone without any cargo.


Don't be shocked, but I'm running 43.5 psi F / 41 psi R .
(the CNG version is some 200 lbs heavier than the petrol up)Edited by: _1S_

 

[_1S_]

Some of the results from the Autobild test (195/65/15)

Tyres tested :

And the results of the wear tests (in km) combined with the cost (in ‚¬ per 1000 km)