Entirely Reasonable Tyre Wear...

Ultrasonic

Edit: It, err, looks like I was a total muppet and simply measured the initial tread depth of my tyres incorrectly - see post 10. Thread title edited accordingly!

On 30/11/13 I fitted four new steels wheels with Continental WinterContact TS850 tyres to my Octavia. At this point they had about 11.5 mm of tread.

Today I checked how these tyres were wearing having covered just 2,443 miles on them, and got a nasty surprise. The fronts now have about 8 mm of tread and the rears are very slightly better and just under 8.5 mm. At this rate of wear the tyres will reach their 4 mm minimum tread depth after about 5,000 miles :eek:.

I expected the winter tyres to wear a bit faster than summer tyres, and I appreciate it hasn't been that cold, but can this really be normal? Any chance their initial wear rate is likely to have been high but I can expect better wear from now?

I think I'll have to contact Continental about this but any thoughts appreciated.

I don't drive remotely aggressively, and normally get pretty good tyre wear. For comparison, I fitted Dunlop Sport BluResponse tyres to the rear of my car in May last year, and when I removed these to replace then with my Contental winter tyres the Dunlops had only worn by about 0.5 mm (and these feel like a fairly soft compound tyre, not renowed for high wear).

Iceweasel

There's something far wrong here, Ultrasonic.

I have Conti TS850P on my BMW and they are not wearing like that.

Are you really sure that hey had 11.5mm when new?

That is an amazing depth when new.

Mine were just under 8.5mm new and are now around 8mm after approx 5000 miles.

I suggest you go back to the dealer and check the tread depth on a similar new tyre.

neilmcl

Frankly, and depending where you live, the average temperatures have been far too warm to warrant winter tyres this year so it's no real surprise that they've been wearing quicker than you'd expect.

Do you tend to have a heavy right foot by any chance?

However, if you think you have a case then there is a standard form you can fill in (available from most tyre fitters) with which you can send away, along with the tyres to have them tested at your expense I believe and you'll only get a refund if the manufacturer agrees there's a fault.

Ultrasonic

Iceweasel wrote: »

Are you really sure that hey had 11.5mm when new?

That is an amazing depth when new.

Mine were just under 8.5mm new and are now around 8mm after approx 5000 miles.

Must admit I've gone through the same thought process myself, but I'm as sure as I can be. I remember thinking at the time it was deep tread but they were my first winter tyres so I wondered if this was normal. But it also made me check my measurements at the time as well which is why I thnk I trust them.

I bought the tyres from mytyres.co.uk so I can't just pop back to check. I'd be interested if anyone else has bought any and knows, or has access to some new ones. In case it makes any difference the tyre size is 195/65/R15 91H.

Inner_Zone

I purchased four Continental Winter Contact TS830 in 2011 and another four in 2013, all eight were brand new and had 8mm of tread on them.

Got nearly 30K out of the first set used both summer and winter, fronts were on the legal limit and rears still had 6mm but had other issues (cuts etc).

Second set still not fitted to car as it has been generally too warm.

Ultrasonic

neilmcl wrote: »

Do you tend to have a heavy right foot by any chance?

Nope. See my comments re. the Dunlop tyre wear.

Temperature wise I'd estimate about half of the driving I've done with them has been at temeperatures at 7°C or under, with the vast majority of the rest being at at most 10°C, like today. These are my first winter tyres so I have nothing to compare with, but from what I'd read I thought they wouldn't be expected to wear this badly?

Ultrasonic

Inner_Zone wrote: »

I purchased four Continental Winter Contact TS830 in 2011 and another four in 2013, all eight were brand new and had 8mm of tread on them.

Got nearly 30K out of the first set used both summer and winter, fronts were on the legal limit and rears still had 6mm but had other issues (cuts etc).

Thanks, really interesting to know you got such good life out of them even when using them at summer temperatures.

I'd love to believe I simply measured the initial tread incorrectly, although I'm genuinely struggling to believe I could have been that dumb. (No comments needed .)

Skulls

I thought that all new tyres had 8mm deep tread, my Ultragrip 8's were and are now about 6 mm and on 3rd winter,12,000 miles

Iceweasel

I just checked my trusty analogue 'plunger' type tread depth gauge.

On one side it's marked in mm - and on the other it's in 32nd inches, which is what our cousins in the good old US of A use. The minimum depth in USA is 2/32"

In fact 1.6mm (the minimum tread depth in most countries around the world) is 2/32" - the USA would never use 1/16" would they.

However 11.5 upon 32 works out at 0.35" - which when multiplied by 25.4 gives - 8.89mm

I think you have measured the tread depth in 32ths of an inch.

Ultrasonic

Iceweasel wrote: »

I think you have measured the tread depth in 32ths of an inch.

Nice thinking, and thanks for working that out, but I'm afraid I used a plunger type gauge with two separate scales printed on it rather than a digital one, so I can't claim this as an excuse for reading it wrong .

Looking at the gauge, I now realise that a more likely error is that I read the scale backwards . The scale has marks at 0, 1 and 2 cm, such that 8.5 mm from the 0 cm end is 11.5 mm from the 2 cm end. Doh!

I think right now the only logical conclusion is that I was a total muppet when I checked the initial tread depth :o:o. But this does at least mean that I haven't wasted a lot of money on tyres that wear out in no time, which is what I thought earlier .

Trebor16

Skulls wrote: »

I thought that all new tyres had 8mm deep tread, my Ultragrip 8's were and are now about 6 mm and on 3rd winter,12,000 miles

I measured my Conti TS830's when I bought them and they had 9mm of tread. They are on their 3rd winter now and are down to about 6mm.