AutoRacer100

Is it possible to put wider tires on the 17" stock wheel? I believe the stock tire size is 225x45x17. Can I put something like 245x35x17?

UmIsThisThingOn

I think you should make the leap to 18" or 19" if you want wider tires.

Edit: Your car's a lease... right? NM my previous statement.

AutoRacer100

I purchased the car. Would 18 or 19" too heavy? And they mess up the speed calculation?

AudiAnnie

Check your tire size again - 225/45 sounds strange. The 2010 A4 came with 245/45 17" stock tires.
Once you know your starting tire size for sure, you can probably find both 18" and 19" tires with the same rolling circumference. As far as weight, that depends more on the wheel construction and quality, than the rim diameter.

AutoRacer100

Sorry, it's 225x50x17. And I found a really nice website that has a visual tyre size calculator.

I entered 225x50x17 as my old wheel size and 245x35x19 as the wheel I'm planning to get and there is very slight difference between actual speed and the speedometer reading. Actual speed is 0.4% less than the speed reading from speedometer. For example, 30mph reading from speedometer and actual speed is 29.9 MPH. I didn't know the bigger wheels make your car go slower.

Website link: http://www.kouki.co.uk/utilities/vis...ize-calculator

equ

Uh, what? I hope you're joking.

AutoRacer100

My car leans a lot at 70+ MPH on twisty road. Do the stock 225x50x17 contribute to the lean in addition to the suspension?

I felt the car is losing control while leans to one side badly.

stan211

Its your anti sway bars that contribute to the roll along with the springs and to some extent dampers. The stock 225s are designed for the high and dry A4 that will see bad roads, obviously it rolls and wallows more than is good for sporting intentions. If you are going with 19s, I assume your roads are good so it might be wise to get some proper coilovers and the A4 sport pack or S4 rear bar (they are the same part, 21.7mm thickness). Also, you may wish to search forums for a person parking out a sport package car is case the budget is more constrained. Hope this helps.

markcincinnati

Using the PLUS SIZE concept, you can go with what is called a Plus Zero -- you will change the width and aspect ratio of your tire, but not the wheel diameter. Things won't be perfect with respect to your actual road speed when you make a plus change -- but usually the differences are quite small.

For example a wheel/tire size standard that is 245 x 40 x 19, can be plus zero'd to 255 x 35 x 19 and everything will be "almost" normal with respect to your indicated speed versus your actual speed.

I believe the outcome will be that your speedo will read a tiny bit higher than you actually are going.

You'll gain a wider and lower tire -- which typically would improve your car's handling.

The thing is, you'll want to get the best rated tire for your car or perhaps the tire that offers the optimum combination of tread wear, noise, cost and wet and dry handling. You may want a summer only tire, a Max Performance tire, an Ultra High Performance tire or an all season tire. Even the all seasons can be had with performance ratings as high as "Ultra High Performance." You will be able to find H rated tires and W rated tires in your Plus Zero configuration -- what characteristics are you looking for? Or is this just a desire to get a lower profile and wider footprint tire for both their looks and performance?

Well, when you Plus Zero, you will be able to achieve higher performance (usually) but the tire and wheel may "show" a larger gap between the fender and the tire. Or it may appear to do so.

I went with plus zero sizing on a 1996 S6 that I had -- so that I could use the S6 stock wheels (which I liked). I upgraded after a couple of thousand miles on the OEM's and never looked back -- I really liked the increased ability to carve through corners.

You may want to get bigger wheels AND tires -- and that is fine, but more expensive than plus zero sizing.

Plus zero never once made me regret the upgrade.

markcincinnati

I assume I won't make any or many friends saying this -- the A4 without the Sport Package or the SLine package is a very nice luxury car (or what some call entry level luxury car.) I have urged people to buy the B8 A4 2.0T ONLY with the sport package. Dealers rarely stock them, however.

The standard seats are, overall, OK, but don't even come close to the bolstered seats that come with the sport package. Because the standard suspension set up is prone to fairly signficant body roll, you will find yourself slip slidin' away holding on for dear life as your butt and back are "free to move about the cabin." With the sports seats and the standard suspension set-up, you would at least be held firmly in your seat as your A4 standard suspension kind of wallowed through the twisties.

The sport package transforms the Audi into, er, an Audi. The sport package imbues the A4 with a taughtness and an ability to carve through corners, as you would expect an Audi to do in the first place.

I have a 2009 A4 2.0T Prestige with the 19" sport package and ADS, both options together make the capable of going like a snake in a rat hole, as my wife says.

I don't know why the dealers don't stock virtually all of the A4 line with the sport package. I can assume it is "them being responsive to the market," which doesn't know (much) or care (any) about the differences between an A4 with the Sport Package and one without. Most folks want to test drive the brand and the car (a demo) they are considering and a non sport equipped version will cost less, and in a test drive may not even show you anything -- I don't fault Audi Representatives for a very low interest in an "A4 Sport" (as I call them.)

It does seem though that the sales reps seem to spend all of their persuasive skills getting the prospect to test drive the car and precious little time offering up an education on the various configurations possible.

Audi sales reps are typically "great people" -- at least that has been my experience (and I have purchased 29 Audis since 1977); but, I typically find that I know more about the features and functions of the car than the reps. I'm not sure, but my A4 is probably one of a very small minority of 2009, 2010, and 2011 A4's sold with Audi Drive Select. I remember ordering my car with ADS (since there was no way a car so equipped was available to test drive) -- I swear my sales rep practically said, "that option is way overpriced and frankly I don't think it makes much sense to spend $3,000 on that feature, I could hardly tell any difference between COMFORT and DYNAMIC when I went through the training several months ago..."

I got it anyway, but I do believe very very few cars were sold here in Cincinnati (2 Audi dealers) with ADS.

Anyway, the A4 is meant to have the sport suspension, sport wheels and tires, sport seats and sport steering wheel with paddle shifters.

If you're going to get an A4 without the sport package, you might consider, just for the hell of it, test driving an AWD Buick LaCrosse (back to back with the A4 2.0T without a sport package.) The similarities are, um, disconcerting, to say the least.