awdinut

I am a sedate driver, and I has the car aligned by a VERY good shop before I got the tires, did rotations, but tires are copletely worn out. My last set of DWS tires got 40K.

Anyone else experience such a short life with their DWS Conti tires ?

Panelhead

With a wear rating of 340, getting 40K out of your other set was very good. The crazy run flats on my wife's convertible lasted 20K. And it is 1500 lbs lighter and she drives very sedately. I hoped for 40K.
I only expect 40K from the 600 rated tires on my A8. Air pressure, alignment, driving habits all can shorten tire life.

mishar

It could be that those tires where sitting in some storage for years before they sold them to you. You should complain about that. Probably directly to Continental. You can't be the only one with this problem.

mishar

DWS wear rating is 540. DW's 340.

1Wasserwerks

I was warned from a fellow Audi owner (A4) that these cars like to go through tires pretty quick. Not sure if it is an Audi thing or an AWD thing.

03_AR_CO

I never had a shot life span like that on the DWS tires. I have them on both of my A8's, 10K mi on one set and 20k mi on the other, still looking new. Got 50k mi on allroad with them. You mentioned a good alignment was performed, what tire pressure did you inflate them to? Under inflated can certainly cause premature wear.

Panelhead

I searched, the DWS are not available in the 19 inch size for mine. Only the DW.

Brozee

Nope, I've had two sets hit at least 35k. One set was on my 2007 A8L W12, and the other was on the 05 A8. I got a reimbursement to the tune of $60 +/- per tire (4) for them not hitting the 45k mile rating from Discount Tire. I've had that discount applied almost every-time I buy tires as they never seem to last as long as they are rated for; at least on these cars. The Michelin Pilot Sport A/S + 2's had to have the same thing done. Before I traded in my 2007 A8 W12 I put on Nitto Motivo tires, they seemed to be wearing very well.

TSHong

I would say it is premature to replace at 20K. Were the tires wearing evenly across the tire?
Also our A8 are heavy with AWD drive so they are not set up for long wear but I would have a tire expert look at that.

Side note, a tire that has been on the shelf for a little while will actually last longer that a fresh tire. It takes around 6 months for a tire to fully cure.

MP4.2+6.0

Yes, generically 20K is short for an A/S tire on a D3, W12's included. For a straight high performance summer, believable, but not particularly an A/S.

But then as I read/think about it, first thing I see in your sig. it is a 2004. W/ miles and general wear and tear, all kinds of secondary stuff/possibles in here. And alignment new from a quality shop, doesn't mean 1,000 miles, or even down the street later, you didn't hit a pothole. Or, any other driver out of your presence. Had to have the 2013 Q5 aligned (and some wheels refinished) at like 10K miles, after the wife played parking by Braille a few too many times. Also doesn't preclude a part was worn WHEN it was aligned, like an upper front control arm. If that happened, it just builds the misalignment caused by the wear into the settings, and if the part gets replaced mid stream of tire life, it actually unintentionally throws off alignment.

Thus on yours as a 2004, I would put all the usual suspects on the list: alignment hard hit after it was first set, misbalance later on after first done, worn parts replaced after earlier alignment but w/out new one, tire pressures, front upper arms, sway bar links, etc. By now you have to start looking perhaps at the other components, including the heavy lower arms. If you didn't get 4 wheel alignment, issues can be in back too.

FWIW, having seen heavier wear creep in on my 2000 A6 4.2 later on, in general it was some shot suspension part or series of parts, maybe mixed in w/ some alignment issue (either direct, or caused by the worn parts) and perhaps aging tires. Periodic rotation--like switching to snows--can actually kind of mask it some, if you do that. Gets harder to figure out which corner(s) have the bigger issues if tires get moved around periodically. It did on the 2000 A6; after having done most of the suspension, when I finally got to inner tie rods that ended up getting all back to normal, less wear, last of subtle highway shimmy you can confuse w/ either minor balance or minor rotor warp, etc.