Originally Posted by aspen79

A suggestion from an Audi tech. At my dealership, we modify the rear toe specs on A3's to those of a VW Golf to resolve the cupping/chopping issue with these cars. The stock spec calls for quite a bit of rear toe, which is good for handling but terrible for tire wear. At the stock specs, the tires will start to chop by 10,000 miles, even if they've been rotated once already. Our machine measures in degrees, minutes and seconds vs inches, calling for total (stock spec) toe of 25 minutes vs the Golf's 10 minutes. In fractions that's roughly 1/4" stock and 1/16" modified or there abouts. Reducing the rear toe to a setting that's just slightly toed out has, so far, seemed to take care of the problem. Since starting to do this a couple years ago, none of the A3's we've done have had any repeat tire wear/noise complaints.

On tires, only can say to avoid Fusion, Cooper Zeon, or any other similar tire with "chunky" tread. Those seem to cup, chop and wear uneven on ANY car no matter what the alignment.

Also, not all dealerships are created equal. We routinely install tire/wheel pkgs, usually winter tires/wheels and mount and balance summer and winter tires that our customers have shipped directly to us from Tire Rack. No problem. Of course, parts likes it better if the tires are bought from us but our main goal is to keep our customers happy and satisfied no matter what it takes. Unfortunatley, there's some dealerships who don't seem to comprehend that idea (and as an Audi Tech, it pisses me off). In other words, please don't let one bad dealer ruin the reputation of all Audi dealers. Thanks.

Originally Posted by aspen79

The STOCK rear specs are: Camber -1* 20' (* means degrees and ' is minutes) and Toe 25' (total)
The rear camber spec is fine but set the rear toe to 10' total (5' each side). That's STANDARD suspension Golf/Rabbit specs.

Front is: Camber -46' (not adjustable) and total toe of 10' (stock front specs are fine).

As I mentioned, it's the stock rear toe specs that wear the tires. Just tell your alignment guy to ignore the Audi specs and set it up this way. The tires should wear a whole lot better and I've never noticed even a tiny bit of difference in handling, especially the way 95% of the customers drive their cars. Yes, I know a Golf is FWD only but the "fix" applys to both FWD and Quattro A3's.BTW, we have the same concern on Golf GTI and Sport suspension as the stock VW spec for those is also 25' rear total toe. You still need to rotate your tires at least every 10,000 miles (5,000 is better) or the rear tires will eventually start to chop no matter what the alignment is at. This applies to about any independent rear suspension vehicle no matter what the make or model. To be honest, I was the one that told the tech's I work with to change the toe specs. I was a Ford tech for 21 years (up until fall 2007) and the Focus had the exact same problem of tire chopping. They also had a rear toe spec of 25', but Ford revised it to 10' eventually and that solved the problem.