Xantia Tyre Pressures

rory_perrett · Post by **rory_perrett** » 07 Jun 2009, 12:20

I always ran my 2.1td Xantia hatch on Goodyear Hydragrip and latterly Excellence 205/60-15 tyres with a pressure of 35psi or 2.4 bar on the front. Used to get about 25,000 miles out of them before the outside edge of the nearside tyre started getting iffy and I‘d replace them both.

Been running the Goodyear Excellence at the same pressures on the front of my Xantia Hdi for 19,000 miles and I notice they are giving the appearance of being run over pressure. The centre of the tread depth is down to 1.9mm at the edges it is around 3.4mm.

Does anyone have any experience of this or a clue as to how much over pressure a tyre needs to be to have this effect? Would a 10 – 15% change in pressure make a difference or does it have to be more or less?

Rory

firstrebel · Post by **firstrebel** » 07 Jun 2009, 21:09

Do you drive the car 'enthusiastically'? The reason I ask is that it sounds similar to an anomaly we found with the 2.0 Vectra's at work when driven in that manner.

When accelerating briskly through the gears the front of the car lifts and this lightens the load on the front tyres. The edges of the tyres do not have the same contact with the road and the centre of the tyre does most of the work and so wears quicker.

The transfer of weight to the back is normal with FWD cars but I have not heard of this happening so accutely with any other make of car, so far.

Bob

VertVega · Post by **VertVega** » 07 Jun 2009, 22:31

There seems to be tyre over-inflation but how is it possible with 2.4 bars?
I use 2.3 in front tyres and I don't think 2.4 would cause a big harm.

rory_perrett · Post by **rory_perrett** » 07 Jun 2009, 22:33

Interesting thought but I don't think I would describe myself as that enthusiastic and I wouldn't have thought there would be that much difference in the way I drive my Hdi as opposed to my 2.1td. Most of my miles are fast flowing A roads or motorway.

Rory

firstrebel · Post by **firstrebel** » 08 Jun 2009, 09:29

How accurate is the tyre pressure gauge you use? Is the wear on the inner edge the same as the outer edge?

Bob

KP · Post by KP » 08 Jun 2009, 10:53

I would agree that there is possily hard acceleration going on for that kind of wear or you should maybe drop the tyre pressures by a about 2 psi to get them to wear out a bit more even. I saw this on one of the tyres on my old 1.9td in about the same milage and i did accelerate hard sometimes in that due to the nature of its commute at the time

Post by **RichardW** » 08 Jun 2009, 12:15

Curious... I looked back in my blog the other day and see that I replaced the front tyres at 63k, and noted an odd wear pattern whereby they were worn in the centre, even though I was sure I had not run them over pressure. I'm pretty sure they were Goodyear Excellence tyres

maybe they just don't suit the front end of the Xantia HDi

addo · Post by **addo** » 08 Jun 2009, 23:41

Could it be they're designed for a rim slightly wider, and thus "ballooning" slightly across the contact patch? There seem to have been massive increases to normal rim widths here, in recent times.