Bad tire day

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Well i apparently picked up a railroad spike in my A4's right rear tire today on Rt 35 near Chillicothe Ohio. Cruising along around 70 mph and hear a whack whack and my wife said what the heck was that and i initially thought it was an expansion joint until about a mile later there was the unmistakable sound of something getting ejected and rolling its way around and out of my wheel well and a slight pull to the right. I immediately pulled over and sure enough the tire was going down fast. Well [censored]. I quickly pulled the spare tire out (thank god Audi still puts a spare in and not Run flats or tire goo and a pump) and got it changed with the assistance of Jackson county's finest keeping the traffic off me and continued to my daughters college softball game. Good news is she pitched a great game only giving up two hits in a 8-0 mercy run rule game. Bad news is the tire is toast. Btwn the first and second game i ran down the auto zone and grabbed a tire plug kit in just the off chance that it might have been temporarily fixable as im never thrilled about running a spare tire but i quickly realized there wasn't a chance as the tool in the kit to clean out the hole slipped right in and barely touched the sides of the hole. Upon arriving home i took the tire to the garage and lubed up with glue and crammed 3 of the plug into the hole and it is still slightly leaking air. Tires have have 35k on them and around 4 to 5/32 tread left so i guess my options are buy another Pirelli P7 and have it shaved down, or 4 new tires.... both options suck. The car specs a 245/40/18 tire and there really are not a lot of options out there.
 
Those aren't cheap tires. I picked up a set of Michelin A/S 3+ from Costco when they were on sale, a tad under $700 til all the taxes kicked in. There was a $70 rebate and it came with 1 cent tire installation. They also do a 5 year road hazard warranty which if you had it would have covered the tire. 4-5/32's is near toast anyway. For snow driving 5 or more is good, for rain, it's 4. You do find them on craigslist or eBay, but they usually want something like 1/2 price for a tire that has 6-7/32's and if you consider it worn out at 3-4/32s, that's not a lot of thread considering the mounting/balancing cost. You're basically paying more than half for 1/3 life. You mind as well just get a new set.
 
Check out bestusedtires.com

They have quite a few P7s in your size. A few nearly new pairs and some singles in varying tread depths. Free shipping. I have bought many tires from them and never been disappointed. Search by size and then narrow down by manufacturer.
 
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Those aren't cheap tires. I picked up a set of Michelin A/S 3+ from Costco when they were on sale, a tad under $700 til all the taxes kicked in. There was a $70 rebate and it came with 1 cent tire installation. They also do a 5 year road hazard warranty which if you had it would have covered the tire. 4-5/32's is near toast anyway. For snow driving 5 or more is good, for rain, it's 4. You do find them on craigslist or eBay, but they usually want something like 1/2 price for a tire that has 6-7/32's and if you consider it worn out at 3-4/32s, that's not a lot of thread considering the mounting/balancing cost. You're basically paying more than half for 1/3 life. You mind as well just get a new set.


What do you think of the Michelin A/S 3+?
The Pirellis are OK and this original set has been fine but in the past i've had problems keeping Pirellis balanced. I had a new set installed on my 2015 TDI Passat and it took three tries to get a set that would stay balanced.
The A4 is my wife's daily driver with 95% highway miles, and it will never be tracked, and the hardest it ever gets pushed is when i'm attacking the WV Turnpike on our way south 4 or 5 times a year.
I had always kept Michilens on our GMC Denalis and Accords in the past. I moved away from them when the roaring noise in the Accords became unbearable and started using Pirellis for the feel and quietness.
Im intrigued by the vredestein quatrac 5 and their snow capabilties but have seen some comments on howling which would be a no no as i really want a quiet tire as the A4 is a very quiet car when it comes to wind noise and i couldn't tolerate loud tires
 
Originally Posted By: AndyinAL
Check out bestusedtires.com

They have quite a few P7s in your size. A few nearly new pairs and some singles in varying tread depths. Free shipping. I have bought many tires from them and never been disappointed. Search by size and then narrow down by manufacturer.



That's a pretty nice looking site. $60 bucks shipping included is hard to believe. http://www.bestusedtires.com/one-used-pi...2-tire-61821-28
The Audi manual states that all tires should be at least 4/32 of each other, which is not really all that strict. But then a page later seems to contradicts itself, i think, and says if new tires are added to the car they should be be a set of two on the same axle so whatever that means.
 
I am guessing your the manual covers both the FWD and all wheel drive models. If you dont go for one used tire, you could buy 2 new tires of your choice, install on the rear and burn through the 2 best P7s on the front in short order and replace with 2 more new ones later (assuming you have a 2 wheel drive version and Audi's ABS isn't super sensitive to F/R tire diameters). I dont mind mismatched brands on a driver but you may be opposed.
 
If you get a used P7 be aware that it is offered in a couple different load ratings. Probably not super critical in a stop gap situation like this but just a heads up. Some are 93, others are 97 load rating.
 
Originally Posted By: dbias
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Those aren't cheap tires. I picked up a set of Michelin A/S 3+ from Costco when they were on sale, a tad under $700 til all the taxes kicked in. There was a $70 rebate and it came with 1 cent tire installation. They also do a 5 year road hazard warranty which if you had it would have covered the tire. 4-5/32's is near toast anyway. For snow driving 5 or more is good, for rain, it's 4. You do find them on craigslist or eBay, but they usually want something like 1/2 price for a tire that has 6-7/32's and if you consider it worn out at 3-4/32s, that's not a lot of thread considering the mounting/balancing cost. You're basically paying more than half for 1/3 life. You mind as well just get a new set.


What do you think of the Michelin A/S 3+?
The Pirellis are OK and this original set has been fine but in the past i've had problems keeping Pirellis balanced. I had a new set installed on my 2015 TDI Passat and it took three tries to get a set that would stay balanced.
The A4 is my wife's daily driver with 95% highway miles, and it will never be tracked, and the hardest it ever gets pushed is when i'm attacking the WV Turnpike on our way south 4 or 5 times a year.
I had always kept Michilens on our GMC Denalis and Accords in the past. I moved away from them when the roaring noise in the Accords became unbearable and started using Pirellis for the feel and quietness.
Im intrigued by the vredestein quatrac 5 and their snow capabilties but have seen some comments on howling which would be a no no as i really want a quiet tire as the A4 is a very quiet car when it comes to wind noise and i couldn't tolerate loud tires


I had them on before. Most people complain that they're a little bit noisier than normal, but traction is good and I got about 30k out of the last set. Most people either go Continental or Michelin on Mercedes. The conti's get worse reviews and the load rating is lower so some say that they tend to get more flat tires from potholes due to weaker sidewall construction. The flats I've had in the Michelins in the past have come from various nails and as they came with the car, no road hazard. Plus Costco does free balancing, rotation.

My vibration problems in the past have come from bent rims. 40's on 18's are really bad for that.
 
Originally Posted By: AndyinAL
If you get a used P7 be aware that it is offered in a couple different load ratings. Probably not super critical in a stop gap situation like this but just a heads up. Some are 93, others are 97 load rating.


yeah the tires on my car are 97 load rating. The tire pressure for these are 35 front and 32 rear for up to 3 people and 36/36 with more than 3. the tire section in the manual is 20+ pages so im going to reread it in the morning and make a decsion. the only real mention that is flagged for quattro is that all tire brands and tread patterns be the same on all wheels.
 
Originally Posted By: dbias
Originally Posted By: AndyinAL
Check out bestusedtires.com

They have quite a few P7s in your size. A few nearly new pairs and some singles in varying tread depths. Free shipping. I have bought many tires from them and never been disappointed. Search by size and then narrow down by manufacturer.



That's a pretty nice looking site. $60 bucks shipping included is hard to believe. http://www.bestusedtires.com/one-used-pi...2-tire-61821-28
The Audi manual states that all tires should be at least 4/32 of each other, which is not really all that strict. But then a page later seems to contradicts itself, i think, and says if new tires are added to the car they should be be a set of two on the same axle so whatever that means.


It's ok, not a big fan of the math. New tire is about $187 for a Michelin at Costco, too bad they're not running the rebate and 1 cent install promotion now, they seem to do that every few weeks though. It's about $20 to mount and balance a tire around here. So that's $80 for a tire that has about 2-3/32's worth of thread as I usually get rid of a tire once it hits around 3-4/32's. So you're paying the equivalent of $240 for a tire that's going to be down to 4/5/32s soon and traction in snow/rain gets worse the lower you go.
 
You bought an expensive European car with a sophisticated AWD system that’s finicky about its tires, and you got 75% of the miles you might have out of your current set. Just buy a new set—unless you’d rather have a “bad center differential day”.
 
My wife has an Audi A4 and we had a WRX before that. I'm always cautious to keeping good tires with even wear and tread depth on all four corners with AWD vehicles. She has General G-Max AS-05 tires on her car. It sounds cheap, but the tires are made by Continental in Portugal and have been fine so far. They are a tad louder at high speeds than the originals but the Generals are definitely more sporty.
 
Well went with 4 new Cooper ZEON RS3-G1. Left the tire shop, one where I know the manager well and went to the interstate and the car just didn't feel right. Kind of twitchy and was pulling to the right so I stopped off at Sheetz and checked the air pressure....45 psi on drivers side front and back and 32 on passenger side SMH. Got pressures set right at 35 front and 32 rear and car feels real good. At $650 out the door and get a $100 Visa rebate card whenever it shows up. Pretty good deal imo.
 
Originally Posted By: dbias
Well went with 4 new Cooper ZEON RS3-G1. Left the tire shop, one where I know the manager well and went to the interstate and the car just didn't feel right. Kind of twitchy and was pulling to the right so I stopped off at Sheetz and checked the air pressure....45 psi on drivers side front and back and 32 on passenger side SMH. Got pressures set right at 35 front and 32 rear and car feels real good. At $650 out the door and get a $100 Visa rebate card whenever it shows up. Pretty good deal imo.


What else didn't they do right would be my question?
 
I've been thinking about getting those tires for my 2015 Civic Si. Normally would get Continental DWS06's but since the car is not driven much would prefer to save some cash and go for the Coopers.


Originally Posted By: dbias
Well went with 4 new Cooper ZEON RS3-G1. Left the tire shop, one where I know the manager well and went to the interstate and the car just didn't feel right. Kind of twitchy and was pulling to the right so I stopped off at Sheetz and checked the air pressure....45 psi on drivers side front and back and 32 on passenger side SMH. Got pressures set right at 35 front and 32 rear and car feels real good. At $650 out the door and get a $100 Visa rebate card whenever it shows up. Pretty good deal imo.
 
Originally Posted By: Richie
I've been thinking about getting those tires for my 2015 Civic Si. Normally would get Continental DWS06's but since the car is not driven much would prefer to save some cash and go for the Coopers.


Originally Posted By: dbias
Well went with 4 new Cooper ZEON RS3-G1. Left the tire shop, one where I know the manager well and went to the interstate and the car just didn't feel right. Kind of twitchy and was pulling to the right so I stopped off at Sheetz and checked the air pressure....45 psi on drivers side front and back and 32 on passenger side SMH. Got pressures set right at 35 front and 32 rear and car feels real good. At $650 out the door and get a $100 Visa rebate card whenever it shows up. Pretty good deal imo.


Check price for your size. The 245/40r/18 I needed is a wierd size. I called 10 tire shops and all had to order and even on tire rack this size is a bit more.
I put around 100 miles on them today and they seem to be pretty quiet except for good size expansion joints at bridges. Steering response is better than the Pirelli that were OE.
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyJohnson
Originally Posted By: dbias
Well went with 4 new Cooper ZEON RS3-G1. Left the tire shop, one where I know the manager well and went to the interstate and the car just didn't feel right. Kind of twitchy and was pulling to the right so I stopped off at Sheetz and checked the air pressure....45 psi on drivers side front and back and 32 on passenger side SMH. Got pressures set right at 35 front and 32 rear and car feels real good. At $650 out the door and get a $100 Visa rebate card whenever it shows up. Pretty good deal imo.


What else didn't they do right would be my question?


Exactly. I watched the tech torque the wheel bolts to spec while a chatted with the manager so i know that part is right, and I'll recheck myself next week. I washed them up a little bit ago and checked the valve stems with plenty of soapy water so i didnt detect any leaks and all 4 tires were mounted with the outside marking showing so I guess other than setting the proper pressure by the guy doing the drivers side, and the lack of knowledge about 35 front 32 rear on the passenger side everything's else seems to be good.
 
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