How quickly do tyres wear?

novemberrain80

born_again said:

novemberrain80 said:

photome said:

Why didn’t you check the depth yourself before he either took them off or before he went away , if you don’t have a depth gauge I would advise getting one , a digital one is around a tenner, a manual one is even cheaper.  

On the face of it it would seem someone has lied to you

why did you need a pair ? What car is it?  How old were the tyres on the car

It’s not always true that cheaper tyres will wear quicker as they could be a harder compound and actually last longer , they just won’t grip as well during their lifetime

I hadn’t measured them because they looked/felt about 5mm still and I knew how little miles I’ve done since my garage measured them, so it hadn’t occured to me they were low at all. When he left, he hadn’t mentioned the tread depth, just said the slow puncture wasn’t repairable and about the perishing he’d spotted on the other tyre. I just believed and trusted him/the company.

Are you measuring where the tread depth wear indicator is, or just anywhere?
As every so far round there is a 2m/m high strip wear indicator.

I had no idea about the indicators, so that’s really helpful thank you - I just look at and run my hand over the whole surface of the tyres. Will have a look for that tomorrow!

Desmond_Hume

novemberrain80 said:

Desmond_Hume said:

Is it possible - yes. 
Is it likely, based on the description you've given - no.

How old were the tyres? Or when did you have them fitted, is probably a better question for now. 

They were fitted new four years ago and I’ve driven less than 5,000 miles in that time.

I'd say it's entirely possible they were cracked and had perished to the point of replacement. Yes 4 years since fiting but hold old were they when fitted. Doubtful they were fresh out the mold. 

I don't think you've been had.  

sheslookinhot

No tyres should see the tread depth diminish by 4mm in around 5,000 miles. 

Was the tread depth really 6mm 1 year ago and were they really 2mm when removed from your car. Unlikely you’ll find out. Maybe a wee lesson to take more of an interest in your tyres going forward.

Manufacture dates will be on the sidewall, so you can check the other two for age.

chrisw

My son's car had 2 new Avon tyres fitted around 3 years ago. He only does about 2000 miles a year so when the Mot flagged up severe cracking on the inside edge I was sceptical. Having seen it, I am shocked by the extent of the cracking.

I can only presume that the low mileage doesn't help.

novemberrain80

Desmond_Hume said:

novemberrain80 said:

Desmond_Hume said:

Is it possible - yes. 
Is it likely, based on the description you've given - no.

How old were the tyres? Or when did you have them fitted, is probably a better question for now. 

They were fitted new four years ago and I’ve driven less than 5,000 miles in that time.

I'd say it's entirely possible they were cracked and had perished to the point of replacement. Yes 4 years since fiting but hold old were they when fitted. Doubtful they were fresh out the mold. 

I don't think you've been had.  

Yeah I can totally believe a tyre could have been perished, despite me not seeing any signs when I checked it. I was just wondering about the likelihood of that much tread depth wearing down in so few miles.

novemberrain80

sheslookinhot said:

No tyres should see the tread depth diminish by 4mm in around 5,000 miles. 

Was the tread depth really 6mm 1 year ago and were they really 2mm when removed from your car. Unlikely you’ll find out. Maybe a wee lesson to take more of an interest in your tyres going forward.

Manufacture dates will be on the sidewall, so you can check the other two for age.

Definitely a lesson in not trusting people going forward, unfortunately I’m a very trusting person and it didn’t occur to me in the moment to ask to see the proof. If he’d mentioned the low tread depth I would have, as I am interested in my tyres and look at them all the time - I’d have said they were still around 5mm. Have also ordered a proper measuring gauge now and won’t let anyone near my tyres without recording all the measurements in future.

novemberrain80

chrisw said:

My son's car had 2 new Avon tyres fitted around 3 years ago. He only does about 2000 miles a year so when the Mot flagged up severe cracking on the inside edge I was sceptical. Having seen it, I am shocked by the extent of the cracking.

I can only presume that the low mileage doesn't help.

Yeah low mileage is terrible for tyres, I had to replace all four 4 years ago for that reason, which is why I so readily accepted that when he mentioned it.

Just confused about the tread depths.

Goudy

Tyres don't really have a "life" just a rate of wear and that differs between car and driver or in some cases can perishing with age before they wear out.

A modern front wheel drive car hatchback will generally wear the front tyres out far far quicker than the rears.
The fronts are driven by the engine, the engine adds weight over the front axle and they do the steering, which these days is almost certainly power steering, plus they handle around 70% of the total braking of the car.

This power steering allows you to move the steering on the spot without any forward/rearward motion, which isn't good for the tyre as it scrubs them against the tarmac.
Without power steering, drivers generally had to get the car moving slightly so they could get the steering wheel to turn, this is generally kinder to the front tyres.

Rear tyres on the same car will wear at a fraction of the rate, they are basically there to keep the cars bum off the road!

Most will find the rears will perish due to age before they wear down to anywhere near the legal limit.
Perishing happens when the rubber compound ages due to weather, mainly the switch from heat to cold and back again and other contaminants they pick up over time, but also kerb scrubbing doesn't help.
Each tyre will have a code on the side wall to show you the date is was produced. It's in a week/year format, so 13/22 is the 13th week of the year in 2022.
Cheaper tyres generally perish a bit sooner as their compounds aren't as advanced as some higher quality tyres.

The type of driving you do will influence the wear rate.
Trekking up and down the motorway at a steady speed is totally different to shuffling around town doing lots of tight manoeuvres like three point turns, more accelerations, more braking and tyre scrubbing going on with one rather than the other.

There are also some other factors in tyre wear.
As already mentioned, wheel alignment is important.
No car is set up with all the wheels centred dead ahead, it would handle really badly and the steering would feel really twitchy.

The manufacturer set in an amount of toe in (wheels pointing inwards) and toe out (the wheels point outwards) on different cars with different drive trains.
They may also set the car up for our roads, roads generally have a crown in the middle and camber off to the edges, so a car that drives on the left might be bias towards steering right ever so slightly to account for the normal road camber

Generally a front wheel drive car will have a certain amount of toe out on the front axle, which does increase wear slightly.
They may factor in some toe in on the rear to help the car track more evenly.
It's worth noting, just one wheel out of alignment will cause the rest to wear faster.
The pulling wheel that's badly aligned will cause all the others to fight against it and drag themselves across the road at a less then perfect angle.

Tyre pressures also play a factor.
Over inflate tyres and the tyre centres tend to bulge and lead to the centre section wearing faster.
Under inflate and the tyre edges can suffer and the tyre thread sags on the road.

Different cars have different suspension set ups and they can cause differing wear rates.
A sporty car might have an advance double wishbone set up that keeps the tyres flat to the road better than some other cheaper options fitted to standard cars that tend to alter the cars wheel geometry when they go up and down more, but the sporty car will probably have a more more aggressive wheel alignment set up to help handling.
 
Also, wear in the suspension parts can effect tyres. Worn shock absorbers, worn suspension mounting bushes along with worn steering components can all cause excess tyre wear.

I tend to agree with the others, one of your tyres was unrepairable and the other was probably perished or starting to perish.
You now have a new set across the axle which is a very good thing for handling and braking.

If you were happy with what you think the old ones worn at, ie evenly across the thread surface, then you probably don't have an alignment or component wear problem and your new tyre won't wear excessively because of that.
If they were suspect in the rate of wear of the thread, ie inner or outer edges worn faster or the thread wearing in a feathered pattern (tread blocks all worn unevenly diagonally), then the alignment and suspension components need checking, otherwise the new tyres will just wear away too quickly.

novemberrain80

Goudy said:

Tyres don't really have a "life" just a rate of wear and that differs between car and driver or in some cases can perishing with age before they wear out.

A modern front wheel drive car hatchback will generally wear the front tyres out far far quicker than the rears.
The fronts are driven by the engine, the engine adds weight over the front axle and they do the steering, which these days is almost certainly power steering, plus they handle around 70% of the total braking of the car.

This power steering allows you to move the steering on the spot without any forward/rearward motion, which isn't good for the tyre as it scrubs them against the tarmac.
Without power steering, drivers generally had to get the car moving slightly so they could get the steering wheel to turn, this is generally kinder to the front tyres.

Rear tyres on the same car will wear at a fraction of the rate, they are basically there to keep the cars bum off the road!

Most will find the rears will perish due to age before they wear down to anywhere near the legal limit.
Perishing happens when the rubber compound ages due to weather, mainly the switch from heat to cold and back again and other contaminants they pick up over time, but also kerb scrubbing doesn't help.
Each tyre will have a code on the side wall to show you the date is was produced. It's in a week/year format, so 13/22 is the 13th week of the year in 2022.
Cheaper tyres generally perish a bit sooner as their compounds aren't as advanced as some higher quality tyres.

The type of driving you do will influence the wear rate.
Trekking up and down the motorway at a steady speed is totally different to shuffling around town doing lots of tight manoeuvres like three point turns, more accelerations, more braking and tyre scrubbing going on with one rather than the other.

There are also some other factors in tyre wear.
As already mentioned, wheel alignment is important.
No car is set up with all the wheels centred dead ahead, it would handle really badly and the steering would feel really twitchy.

The manufacturer set in an amount of toe in (wheels pointing inwards) and toe out (the wheels point outwards) on different cars with different drive trains.
They may also set the car up for our roads, roads generally have a crown in the middle and camber off to the edges, so a car that drives on the left might be bias towards steering right ever so slightly to account for the normal road camber

Generally a front wheel drive car will have a certain amount of toe out on the front axle, which does increase wear slightly.
They may factor in some toe in on the rear to help the car track more evenly.
It's worth noting, just one wheel out of alignment will cause the rest to wear faster.
The pulling wheel that's badly aligned will cause all the others to fight against it and drag themselves across the road at a less then perfect angle.

Tyre pressures also play a factor.
Over inflate tyres and the tyre centres tend to bulge and lead to the centre section wearing faster.
Under inflate and the tyre edges can suffer and the tyre thread sags on the road.

Different cars have different suspension set ups and they can cause differing wear rates.
A sporty car might have an advance double wishbone set up that keeps the tyres flat to the road better than some other cheaper options fitted to standard cars that tend to alter the cars wheel geometry when they go up and down more, but the sporty car will probably have a more more aggressive wheel alignment set up to help handling.
 
Also, wear in the suspension parts can effect tyres. Worn shock absorbers, worn suspension mounting bushes along with worn steering components can all cause excess tyre wear.

I tend to agree with the others, one of your tyres was unrepairable and the other was probably perished or starting to perish.
You now have a new set across the axle which is a very good thing for handling and braking.

If you were happy with what you think the old ones worn at, ie evenly across the thread surface, then you probably don't have an alignment or component wear problem and your new tyre won't wear excessively because of that.
If they were suspect in the rate of wear of the thread, ie inner or outer edges worn faster or the thread wearing in a feathered pattern (tread blocks all worn unevenly diagonally), then the alignment and suspension components need checking, otherwise the new tyres will just wear away too quickly.

Thank you, this is all incredibly helpful and yes, if the puncture wasn’t safely repairable and there was signs of perishing on the other tyre, I’m more than happy for them to have been replaced. My concern/confusion is simply that when they emailed their report over it didn’t mention any of that and simply said the tyres were replaced because they were worn to 2mm. I’d never knowingly let my tread depths get that low and wish the guy had shown me, so that I can understand how I’m checking them wrong…and of course the confusion with losing 4mm of tread in so little miles (actually less than 400 miles when I checked), but if that’s possible then I accept that.

born_again

Tyres have a shelf life of 10 years. 

https://www.protyre.co.uk/car-help-advice/tyre-care/how-long-should-your-car-tyres-last

While MOT on private cars does not have a actual life on them, other classes do at 10 years.