15-05-2011, 06:40 PM
OK here goes . .
I'm aware I'm not alone (by a long way!) in experiencing rapid and uneven rear tyre wear on a new model Berlingo, it's proving a little frustrating so I thought I'd share our experiences in the hope that it may be of interest to anyone else, and especially in the hope of reading about anyone having a positive outcome such that subsequent rear tyres have worn unevenly and lasted well.
Here then is our story:
We brought our MK3 Multispace XTR 110 HDi new in september 2009 as it seemed to us to be pretty much the perfect vehicle for our varied needs. It now has 25K miles on the clock and has gone into the dealer today for it's second service and to investigate the suspension again.
From new we soon became aware of a pronounced rattle on rough surfaces; at the first service the dealer fitted new heavy duty rear shock absorbers under warrantee - which made no difference whatsoever, it still rattled. They will investigate this further this week and tell me that there are other possible solutions. It's hard to tell if this is from the front or rear so I'm unsure whether or not it might relate to the rear uneven tyre wear.
At around 20K miles I was concerned to see that the rear tyres were badly worn with around 1mm of tread around the outside edge while 4mm or so remained on the inner edges - with the passenger side tyre slightly worse than the driver's side.
The dealer took the vehicle in for checking of the geometry and pronounced it to be 'within specifications', yet was unable to tell me what those specs were or what figures had been measured on our vehicle.
I accepted this at the time as being an unpleasant and unanticipated feature of the car, and from talking to other people and searching the internet it became apparent that a lot of other owners are experiencing this and that a lot of them are just putting up with it.
The more I thought about it the less I liked it - surely Citroen would not knowingly design the suspension such that it wears out rear tyres faster than any other front wheel drive car we have experienced in 30 years driving?! The other problem is that at that wear rate it will cost close to £600 every 12 to 18 months on tyres alone at our current mileage. This all seemed pretty unreasonable so I rang the dealer again - they were aware of the uneven wear issue but very reluctant to have the car in for any work, as apparently their experience from talking to other dealers was that they didn't feel that there was anything they could do that was guaranteed to solve the problem.
At this stage the car had done 4.5K on the new rear tyres and already they were showing measurably uneven wear, so I rang Citroen UK in Slough, to be told categorically that the car should NOT wear out rear tyres unevenly; that the dealer must follow all the tests requested by Citroen's technical department and then go on from there. Another call to the dealer, and while they are reluctant and not confident of success they will go through the required tests while the vehicle is in this week.
Watch this space . . . .
I'm aware I'm not alone (by a long way!) in experiencing rapid and uneven rear tyre wear on a new model Berlingo, it's proving a little frustrating so I thought I'd share our experiences in the hope that it may be of interest to anyone else, and especially in the hope of reading about anyone having a positive outcome such that subsequent rear tyres have worn unevenly and lasted well.
Here then is our story:
We brought our MK3 Multispace XTR 110 HDi new in september 2009 as it seemed to us to be pretty much the perfect vehicle for our varied needs. It now has 25K miles on the clock and has gone into the dealer today for it's second service and to investigate the suspension again.
From new we soon became aware of a pronounced rattle on rough surfaces; at the first service the dealer fitted new heavy duty rear shock absorbers under warrantee - which made no difference whatsoever, it still rattled. They will investigate this further this week and tell me that there are other possible solutions. It's hard to tell if this is from the front or rear so I'm unsure whether or not it might relate to the rear uneven tyre wear.
At around 20K miles I was concerned to see that the rear tyres were badly worn with around 1mm of tread around the outside edge while 4mm or so remained on the inner edges - with the passenger side tyre slightly worse than the driver's side.
The dealer took the vehicle in for checking of the geometry and pronounced it to be 'within specifications', yet was unable to tell me what those specs were or what figures had been measured on our vehicle.
I accepted this at the time as being an unpleasant and unanticipated feature of the car, and from talking to other people and searching the internet it became apparent that a lot of other owners are experiencing this and that a lot of them are just putting up with it.
The more I thought about it the less I liked it - surely Citroen would not knowingly design the suspension such that it wears out rear tyres faster than any other front wheel drive car we have experienced in 30 years driving?! The other problem is that at that wear rate it will cost close to £600 every 12 to 18 months on tyres alone at our current mileage. This all seemed pretty unreasonable so I rang the dealer again - they were aware of the uneven wear issue but very reluctant to have the car in for any work, as apparently their experience from talking to other dealers was that they didn't feel that there was anything they could do that was guaranteed to solve the problem.
At this stage the car had done 4.5K on the new rear tyres and already they were showing measurably uneven wear, so I rang Citroen UK in Slough, to be told categorically that the car should NOT wear out rear tyres unevenly; that the dealer must follow all the tests requested by Citroen's technical department and then go on from there. Another call to the dealer, and while they are reluctant and not confident of success they will go through the required tests while the vehicle is in this week.
Watch this space . . . .