JDM05

Need a little help here guys! Just got my car back with the new tires I bought. Old ones were causing problems (bad/peculiar wear) as mentioned in this thread..

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2754679

The thing drove straight as an arrow and was tight as could be. Handled like it was on rails through corners, etc.

Fast forward to today! Spanking new Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position. The car is TOTALLY loose feeling. Sloppy beyond belief. At 70MPH it feels like you could actually lose control of the car! I've got curves and ramps that I sail thru at a pretty good clip that I wouldn't even attempt at half the speed now! What happened? Thanks much in advance, what a downer!

BMWBig6

Did they do an alignment after mounting the new tires? Sounds like toe is out of whack if it wanders that easily.

JDM05

Alignment is scheduled for Monday morning. Ran out of time today. They said it "pulled to the right" a bit. So I took off preparing to see how out of line it was (it was dead perfect before). At 15 MPH gave the wheel a little snap to the right expecting that nice tight response to be even better than before. I was shocked. SO terrible. Went ahead and drove home and am still amazed at how horrible it is. I had a 76 Buick Riviera about 30 years ago with a 455 in it (had to weigh 3 tons, total tank) and I swear it handled better than my A6 does now!!

The whole car feels like it just rolls terribly. Think the alignment and toe is the culprit? I swear it's about enough to make ya cry!

DJK2482

Kinda similar note here, had a conti sport tyre on the back of mine, had worn in the strangest way, was ridged, smooth in places and 3mm of tread in other places. The noise the car made when i bought it seriously worried me, thought i was looking at wheel bearings etc. I had it 4 wheel aligned, put a new tyre on Dunlop Sport 2030 and guess what, no noise, smooth ride amazing!!!! Tyres really do make a huge differene!!!

BMWBig6

Yeah, I really think the alignment is going to make a world of difference (way more than the tires themselves in terms of tracking and "nervousness"). And don't hesitate to take the car back if it doesn't drive right after their first attempt, because there is always some tolerance (wiggle room) in alignments and they can fine tune the adjustments to suit your preferences based on your feedback once you've driven it a while.

JDM05

Hoping so! I really couldn't believe the difference. Night and day, horrible. Couldn't imagine the tires changing things up so much and if so, I really would have thought things would have been better. Hard to believe new tires could throw everything out of whack so bad. Perhaps something else they messed with? Guess we'll find out Monday! Thanks.

NoVA_A6

Usually it is the opposite with a new set of tires, when they are new they tend to have the film that they use when making them after about 100 miles they tend to break in. I'm thinking the old tires could have been that bad it seemed like an improvement initially but now reality is setting in. I would give it a few days and see if you get them to break in.

gk1

The OEM Conti's on mine are 97 (1609 lbs) load rated and the RE960AS on Tirerack are listed as 93 (1433 lbs). Perhaps that affects this heavy a car the way you are noticing. However this is more of a guess than anything.

JDM05

With the "old tires", the car handled pretty much the same (outstanding) from the time they were new until they were taken off.

There was no perceived "improvement with the new ones, period. It was like dropping off one car and picking up another. It's not the tires in my opinion.

JDM05

The tires that came off of it were load rated the same (1521 lbs) as the new ones. I do appreciate the input guys!