Tire Wear

[jasbluesal]

Do you have any contact information at Land Rover corporate? When I brought my LR3 in for it's 22,500 service I was told "these tires are in awful shape and you need them replaced". I've never been offroad and although I do put on a lot of miles a year, I shouldn't have to be paying $1500 a year for tires.

Thanks!
- Miami

Here's the contact info (but it didn't come from me.. lol)
Landrover CRC
Dan 800-637-6837 (select option #9) then ext. 2946

 

[Cat]

I picked up LR3 from dealer after having new tires installed & front end alignment done (also had brake job done). I could not believe how much difference that it made in the ride of vehicle. I guess tires had worn slowly and I didn't realize how bad ride was & how noisy tires were compared to when I purchased vehicle.

 

[toddjb122]

Got the LR3 back. LR covered the allignment and one of my rear tires. Worked out well as my fronts still have time on them. I put the spare on the rear with the new tire. The best of the rears is now my spare. One was much worse than the other. Here's what one of them looked like;

They also did a pile of warranty fixes and SW upgrades while it was in (air compressor, powertrain SW, rear hatch gas shock fix, key recall, etc.)

So, it was a pain to deal with, but at 24K they treated me well.

 

[cowboydan]

Well this is where I am at. I live in Dallas where customer service at our 2 local LR dealers is nonexistant. So when we purchased our new (2nd) LR we actually drove 8 hours (4 each way) to Tulsa.

My wife armed herself with the pages of this forum and went to the Dallas LR dealer and spoke with the service manager. After a debate, which at one point he said we needed an alignment and it was our fault, then back tracked and said that an alignment would not fix the problem do to the factory spec of the rear camber she left the dealership defeated.

Later today, I picked up the phone and called the LR dealer where I purchased the vehicle. THe service rep there was already aware of this problem and mentioned that they are replacing and doing alignments under warranty for specific vehicles due to this problem. He has passed my information on to the Area LR manager ( not dealership) and will be setting something up for me here in Dallas so that I do not have to drive to Tulsa.

So that is where we are at! Hope it all works out.

 

[LR3_WA]

At ~30k miles I went to the dealer with bad inner wear on three of my Goodyears (not as bad as the pictures posted on this thread). They recommended I pick up new tires and then bring it back for a four wheel alignment.

I picked up the Pirelli Scorpions and like them all around better than the Goodyears. I'll attempt to never drive on Goodyears again.

Took the truck into the dealer for the alignment and as I was pulling in my 'brake pad' light came on. Needless to say I needed a full brake job ($1,200). The dealer gave me the alignment under 'warranty'. Not sure if I received the align for free due to the cost of the new brakes or that they forgot to mention last time that I was in that my brakes were near min ?

After the new tires & alignment the truck is a better drive than the day I pulled off the lot !

 

[hooknows]

I have a brand new LR3 and noticed that if I lower the air suspension to low the rear wheels tow in quite bad. Then I raise it back to normal ride height and there is still a slight tow in. I think I need to have the dealer check this, maybe it is camber/alignment issue?

 

[nwoods]

There has been a recent TSB announced by LR for alignment issues. Check out disco3.co.uk for more info.

 

[pbrover]

Gentlemen,

Bottomline on this topic. Some LR3's came out of the factory having alignment issues with all four tires..period...bottomline! Unforunately, in general, service writers and techs are not aware of this issue and just come up with the "excuse for the day". For the most part the entire auto service industry is like this not just Land Rover.

I noticed my tire issues on my LR3 (HSE7-2005) at 9,000 miles, and the first time I brought this to my services writers attention for the "first" go over by the tech, I got ..."your tires are incorrectly inflated causing this issue".."excuse of day"! So the next week I bring in my LR3 and bring 30 pages of forum information concerning this issue and speak to the service manager (smiling and laughing and not being an asshole). They then pursue the matter and I end up with 4 new Michelin Syncrone tires. This all happened before the TSB bulletin.

Also, in access mode the tires will have towed-in look!

In closing...damn I love this vehicle...just did a 3,000 mile trip through Idaho, Yellowstone, and Grand Tetons with 3 kids....just the perfect machine!

 

[lr3oflansdowne]

Have seen threads regarding uneven/premature tire wear. From what I've read it was mainly due to rear camber, alignment problems, etc. As a preventative measure, would anyone suggest getting these items checked out by the dealer? Currently have only 250 miles on vehicle, but may be stopping by dealer soon for accessories. I wonder how much that would cost, assuming they found out everything was okay and would therefore charge me for the work?

Figured this may prevent future arguments if tire wear did become a problem...or maybe I am just being too paranoid?

just came from NTB to service another car and happen to be talking to a service tech about what it would cost to replace tires on my lr3. I also asked if it was possible to put 255 55 18 rather than the 255 60 18 and said it would be fine. Any way we kept talking and he mentioned that all of the lr3's , RRS, and Range Rovers where coming in around 20-30k to have tires replaced (cupping of tires, uneven wear). What they found was that most of the tire wear was contributed by the weight of the vehicle and not so much as the rear alignment. He recommended that for these trucks, the tire should be checked for balance and rotated every 3k or so to make these tires last a bit longer. I had my rear and front checked numerous times at LR Chantilly and everything was to spec. I was told by the service tech that this is the general nature of these vehicles and that a lot had to do with the weight and that they talked to Good Year and said they realized that the compound on this tire was obviously not the best for this size and weight of a truck. He did recommend Michellins for my next set.

What I am doing in the next week or so is ordering a set of aftermarket wheels and tires and using these for everyday (spring,summer& fall) use, then putting my stock 18"'s back on for the winter months. Anyway good luck and enjoy the truck-I love this truck and its my first. I am a convert from the 91 single turbo supra and lexus ls430, dont know if Ill go back to a car. By the way I have 21k and the original tire though cupped a bit still have a good 10k left. What funny is these eat up faster than my supra and the prices on those tires always left the bank empty, unfortunately tire for these trucks wont be much different. Oh well!

 

[roverman]

No matter what the NTB says, it's an alignment issue. Weight alone does not cause cupping and/or premature inside tire wear. My 5000 lb '99 rr still has the original michelins with about 60000 miles on them and totally normal wear pattern. Weight may be a factor with an independent suspenion, but not all by itself.

Glad you like the LR3, it's a great truck.