mtroxel

I'm sure this has been discussed, but I don't know how to search for it.

I abandoned my 96 A4 with 270K miles and bought a 99.5 with 97K. Guy hit a huge pothole with the right front and had to buy a new tire. So I have 3 tires with about half their tread, and one brand new tire.

So I bought two new ones for the front to balance things out. I ran into the usual protest from tire shops, they don't want to put uneven tire wear on a Quattro. They say the imballance will ruin the system.

I say that Audi engineers know that all 4 wheels turn at the same speed.....what???.....less than 2% of the time? Is there really an issue here?

audiTLC

tread depth isn't enough of a difference.
My 99.5 came with a mini spare so Audi must think that's ok for at least temporary use.
I threw that away and got a full size spare though.

Nate (ETKA+Scumbag)

No, I have NEVER heard of someone blowing a diff because the tread depth is different. It's running different tire and wheel sizes for a prolonged period that may cause damage.

mtroxel

Now that I could buy. In fact the manual tells you not to. They say nothing of different tire wear.

Nate (ETKA+Scumbag)

I've got three of my four tires at different tread depths and the car drives straight with the steering wheel perfectly centered. Just keep up on your diff fluid changes and levels.

There are SOME AWD cars that cannot have different tread depths due to their inherent design flaws. Volvo's older AWD system comes to mind. I had found a 4x4 site that talked about all the various AWD systems out there and what not to do.

AudiMick

Just the latest scam to sell tires.Happens all the time. We have (4) AWD vehicles at my house and I have had to deal with a couple of times.

I had this happen to me with my TT about two months ago, wanted to sell me four new michelin pilots at around $1200 because one of my existing pilots got a nail thru the sidewall. (only 10,000 miles on them).

Audi's spec is 1/8 of an inch on tread depth on the same axle, I suspect axle to axle makes no difference.

I purchased two used tires on E-bay for $180 with about the same tread and took the wheel and tire to the shop in my pickup.

Funny thing is if you purchase the road hazard warranty when you buy the tires they are far less pushy about replacing them all when this happens. Several years ago I purchased some tires with the warranty but they didn't enter the info into the computer. They wanted to replace all four at my expense until I produced the receipt showing I had the warranty.

mtroxel

Good one. ******.

Well I put the two new Conti DWS's on the front, left the two half worn tires on the back. I had to take the wheels off the car, take them and the new ones to Discount Tire. Even then he asked me if they were off a Quattro. I told him it was FWD.

Good info about the Volvo 4WD.

Nate (ETKA+Scumbag)

They must be REAL idiots if they can't immediately tell it's AWD. I mean, you have an axle just gazing back at you with the wheel removed.

4Driver4

..except that the car wasn't there at the time. Re-read.

AudiMick

This is what I have been doing for a couple of years now. They have a "zero tolerance" policy on this around here. Even Costco does it.