WLZ

I have a 2021 Audi Q5. The four tires tread depth was all 7/32" in April 2022 with mileage of 11254, three 6/32" and one 5/32" in April, 2023 with mileage of 21682.
Today (June 27, 2024) with mileage of about 23270, after a brake fluid change at an Audi dealership, I was told and shown the two rear tire tread depths are 2/32". Is it even possible for a tire to lose 4/32" and 3/32" in just about 2 months with only less than 1600 miles of unchanged driving habits and road conditions but only lost 1/32" or 2/32" in a year with more than 10000 miles?

GeriatricSQ5Guy

Given your dates, it was well over a year when you only traveled 1700 miles. Maybe you meant the date of 21682 mileage was Aprile 2024 instead of 2023. Regardless, reducing that much in such a short mileages seems questionable, unless the car was out of alignment for some reason or was driven particularly hard. Or, there could have a been a mistake in doing the measurements.

WLZ

You are right, I mistyped the year. It was 11245 miles at 2023 and 21682 miles at April of 2024.

Wires

Which tires do you have? Ours came with Pirelli PZeros, and it ate the tread at about that rate. The were 100% bald in the rear (no tread) by 43k miles, and that was with swapping in winter tires for 1/2 the year.

WLZ

The tires are Pirell Scorpion Zeros.The strange thing is it was about 1/32" ~ 2/32" for ~10,000 miles each year for two years, and suddenly 3/32"~4/32" for 1600 miles for past two months for two rear tires only. Maybe as GeriatricSQ5Guy said, out of alignment could be the cause?

Wires

Those were the tires we had, and the exact same experience. Car had no alignment issues, this was just a tire issue. When they make tires, it's not a consistent material throughout. They put different compounds in layers as well as strips for different purposes (water grip, corner grip, etc).

Last spring I put those tires on, they had about 1/32" above the wear bars. That should have been good enough for them to get us through the summer and be at the wear bars by fall. When I pulled them off in the fall, there was ZERO tread on the rears. They were 100% bald (no wear tread, no wear bars, just slicks).

I have no idea what Pirelli puts for material on those inner layers, but it melts like butter, and I'd never put those on again.

WLZ

Very interesting!

383vett

Get your own tire gauge. They are very inexpensive and you won't have to rely on some tech measuring a wear bar.

Wires

Oh I have one. I was just saying the tread was a 1/32" above the bars (so 3/32" total?) which *should* have been fine for the 1/2 year summer season.

A4Audi4Fun

Any chance your tires had been over-inflated so that only the middle section was touching the ground. You say you have a tire guage so is the tread depth the same across the whole width of the tire?