Driving home tonight with my 5 year old son I felt the rear of the car become unstable whilst doing 50 mph on a country road. Pulled over and found the near side tyre to be flat. Having overcome the swollen nuts issue (another story) I got the wheel off to find the inner side was down to the wire. No damage from nails etc... Replaced wheel with space saver and drove the 2 miles home. Checked the other rear tyre tonight to find it's also bald on the inner edge plus showing wire and cord. Not good.

Car had new Scorpions when bought second hand from dealer some 10,000 miles ago. Still under warranty and I don't believe it's fair in this instance to claim that tyres aren't under warranty as I don't think this is really a tyre issue.

Any guidance is welcome and do you think it's fair to expect some support from the dealer who set up the vehicle? Front tyres are also worn on outer edges but I'd put that down to cornering (although I'm far from being an aggressive driver).

2012 4.4 TDV8 Westminster

Last edited by JJ on 30th Sep 2015 4:46am. Edited 2 times in total

You need to have a 4 wheel alignment done, would be worth checking the rear joints to make sure they are all ok before having it done

It sounds like your rear bushes are shot, or, the suspension is damaged (unlikely, but a consideration), either way there is something not right at all and I would get it checked asap

Do you know the history of the car? cos if it's the 2012 you've listed below, I would suspect that it's had a knock at the rear and some thing is bent. I would take it to another LR specialist, play dumb and ask why it has eaten your tyres, then you'll have the ammo to hit the dealer with. Is it just the one tyre or are both worn? If it's one then you have defiantly got some thing out of alignment, good luck  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!

Very much seems like its had a bump to me too! If it was 10yrs older i would suggest the bushes were cup put but at 3 yrs old! Get the alignment checked first sir

Good luck and please let us know your results

Thanks guys. Car looks to be in good shape underneath so I think a dunt is unlikely albeit I'm now a bit concerned.

The wear on the internals of both rear tyres is symmetrical (ie the tyres are worn to a similar extent albeit one is now flat) and similar story on the front tyres although it's on the outer edges in that case.

They changed pads, disks and tyres before I picked it up so I suspect it's not been set up correctly by the mechanic. They had also forgotten to properly set up the tow bar hence my doubts. The car has only done 36k so I hope it's not wear and tear!

Will keep you updated.

A lucky escape, and yes disappointing that the tyres should be so worn and worn unevenly, but seriously do people not at least look at their tyres once in a while?

A timely warning that we should all do that more often I suspect.

MW Car history includes: LR Series 3, RR Classic x 4, LR 101, Discovery 1 and 2 and now FFRR.
Yes I'm a masochist....

Sounds like alignment / geometry. My Bro had the same on a brand new X5, it was a long way out even though the car was brand new. BMW sorted it and replaced all 4 tyres for free at 4600 miles as it had all but eaten the things.

Just because a car is newish doesn't mean it was ever actually right. I'm in a loaner 15 plate Sport at the moment (Brake hose recall) and with less than 2000 miles on it the steering wheel is cocked off to the right. I doubt it was ever correct TBH.

That sounds like someone had the manual upside down when it came to suspension setup time, I would say that you've a strong case for new tyres x4 on the stealer, as it's not normal ware and tare. It's a mechanical fault, or should I say it's the fault of the mechanic, sorry I mean spotty technician (mechanic's are older and wiser), who has played with the settings and got it all Pete Tong. Either way you could argue that the car was not set up properly, and therefore not fit for purpose and under the sale of goods act I want your shirt

But I think that "ear wot's caused this?" might get a reasonable response, before you call toys r us, sorry injury ambulance chasers (I always get them mixed up ). And assuming that it's come from a disreputable LR main stealer, you could always talk to Ryan (L/R customer relations, is on this forum, has his very own spot)

Good luck  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!

They're roughly set up when they leave the factory. But the original selling dealer is supposed to have a 4 wheel alignment done as part of the PDI (because the suspension settles during delivery). Like a lot of things on PDI's some dealers cut corners and don't bother doing the more time consuming bits of it. So then the car runs around with bad geometry for months even years until some one decides to have it checked and/or gets fed up of replacing tyres.

Headlamp is another thing dealers often don't bother with at PDI, it only gets adjusted 3 years later when the car has it's first MOT!

---and whilst the car has been dragging itself along, with poor alignment, (each wheel has been trying to stretch the car wider...) -your mpg will have been worse, so when its time for a bit of free alignment, and tyres, i'd top it off, with a tank of fuel.....if you want to give some good praise and customer feedback...

when i got mine, i drove it for a day or two, then treated it to a 4 wheel align, and it was much better, steering, and ride...

You're not running on 22's by any chance are you?

I had the exact same thing happen to mine on Pirelli's. Thought there must be something amiss so had everything checked and in the end the only thing we found was the tyres weren't rated highly enough for the FFRR (load wise).

Moved to Hankooks with a 114 (from memory) load rating and the car felt so much better - like chalk and cheese - without any other alterations.

The rear of the FFRR sits with a bit of negative camber so puts extra strain on the inner wall. On normal profiles this is simply absorbed but on 22s the wall is so low there is no spare to dissipate the deflection - something has to give. This is of course just MHO which is often wrong - just ask SWMBO

UPDATE. Need the car for work so got four GG's fitted yesterday and will get a third party to check alignment tomorrow then discuss with the dealer. The front tyres weren't too bad but the rears are both shot. I don't have time to mess around and wait on feedback from the dealer re them fitting new tyres but I still want to challenge the poor alignment.

mike whiskey wrote:

A lucky escape, and yes disappointing that the tyres should be so worn and worn unevenly, but seriously do people not at least look at their tyres once in a while?

A timely warning that we should all do that more often I suspect.

MW

RiccartonRR wrote:

You're not running on 22's by any chance are you?

I had the exact same thing happen to mine on Pirelli's. Thought there must be something amiss so had everything checked and in the end the only thing we found was the tyres weren't rated highly enough for the FFRR (load wise).

Moved to Hankooks with a 114 (from memory) load rating and the car felt so much better - like chalk and cheese - without any other alterations.

The rear of the FFRR sits with a bit of negative camber so puts extra strain on the inner wall. On normal profiles this is simply absorbed but on 22s the wall is so low there is no spare to dissipate the deflection - something has to give. This is of course just MHO which is often wrong - just ask SWMBO

UPDATE. Wheel alignment was badly out and symmetrically so. Time for conversations with the dealer.