Pirelli P6 Front Tire Wear Unusual
 

I have an 2007 A8L
Two sets of front tires have interior wear which has caused me to replace them. I now need to buy a new set of tires.

I had the dealer do the alignment at 44,000miles and they said everything was okay. It appears to be only wearing on the inside of the tire, to the point where the rubber is being chewed up and caused the tire to go flat. This is the second set of Pirelli P6 tires i have put on the front.
I currently have 55,000 miles on the vehicle.
Anyone else having this problem or can point towards a solution?

Its common for any audi with a 4.2L to wear the inside of the tires more frequently. I would assume you keep your air suspension on the lower settings no doubt. The only real way to counter act this is to rotate your tires from front to back every 10k.
The tires will last longer on the third highest setting for the suspension, but that looks stupid IMO.

Hi,

Unless you are racing your car on a track or on the streets, you should be able to get more than 11K miles from your tires regardless of the suspension settings (although they will affect the alignment settings-Toe- Camber and Caster) and assuming that your tires are inflated properly. The fact that there is an excessive wear on the inner edge of your tires means that your wheels aren't properly aligned. Essentially, there is too much negative camber when load is applied (ie when the car is driven) which causes the wheels to lean too much on the inside. Do you know if they checked suspension components before they aligned your wheels? Worn control arm bushings and ball joints, sagging springs etc... are a cause of misalignment. (ie all alignment settings will look fine when the car is on the jack but WILL change once load is applied)
Hope this helps....

^^+1

The alignment guy screwed up and missed something. I had that once, wore a set in 10k miles, bitched and got a free set of tires.

The only problem with your scenario is you CAN'T adjust caster on these cars, the camber isn't individually adjusted either. You can only "equalize" the camber side to side. The 4.2L is heavier so it causes both front wheels to go negative, lowering your suspension will further the issue. When i say you can only equalize the camber i mean both you can only get both sides the same, if you have 1.6 degrees negative camber on the left side, and 1.2 on the right side, you can only get to 1.4 degrees negative camber on both.
This is achieved by shifting the subframe. One of the downsides of the audi 4 link suspension. There are adjustable upper control arms to counter this, but none that i know of that are made for the A8.

Caster will never cause a tire to wear. I did not know camber was not individually adjustable on these cars. Are you implying that front tires have to be replaced every 11K miles or so on all 2007 A8 4.2L?

Go with another tire manufacturer other than Pirelli. Your problems lies somewhat with them.

guys are mixing up Camber and Caster.

No, thats still too fast. It may have some torn upper control arm bushings increasing the negative camber. I know caster won't cause tire wear, thats not what i was saying.
I would say with rotating them every 10k, you could only get about 40K out of a set of pirelli tires. I would take a flash light and look at the upper control arm bushings, i have found they only last about 40-50k on these cars before they fail.
For some odd reason, audi used larger links for the A8, but they used the exact same size bushing thats inside the A4, god only knows why....

left front of tire a8l 2007
 

I know have 80k on 2007 a8l

two alignments,,,one upper arm bushing replacement,,,site visit to dealer/they cant solve,,,left front tire is rubbing on top of arm.....causing inside of tire to wear to cord when 40% of tread is used....

Going to put crayon on under side of the upper arm to prove waring on tire....already have pulled off tire rubber on upper arm...but dealer says...i dont know/????