ohbw

About two weeks ago, a truck smacked my 8 high in the right side of the trunk when I was at dinner -- had to be a truck, the dent was so high it didn't even break the lenses. It hit the car hard enough to move it, and the left front wheel got rashed against a curb. Naturally no note was left.

Long argument ensues with ins. co. about whether they're going to pay for the new wheel. I refer them to the friend who detailed my car about 10 days ago, and he says, "It was perfect, like the rest of the car." Finally they agree to pay for the new wheel.

Bodywork's done, car's ready, supposed to pick up this morning. Body shop guy says that tire guy won't mount the old tire on the new wheel -- says it has a bulge or two in it (I haven't seen it yet).

The question: I have about 12-15K on these tires (ContiSportContacts). It seems I've read here and elsewhere about the inadvisability of replacing one tire on a Quattro when the others are less than new.

Opinions? Do I go to the mat with the ins. co. for four tires?

I've gotta go over to the tire company soon, so any quick, smart banter would be helpful.

Thanks, guys.

Brian

p.s. Hilarious side note: the Jeep Grand Cherokee my insurance company had me in while this work was being done? The 2007 with 550 miles? Stolen in front of my girlfriend's house in broad daylight two days ago.

SouthboroAudiGuy

Would suggest putting two new ones on the front, trashing the one with buldges, and putting the other on the spare.

skiracer

How does the wear look on your other tires? I rarely get more than 10-12K miles out of a set of high performance tires on the A8. If they are near the end of life, then I'd just bite the bullet and replace them all yourself. If there is significant tread left on them, then the fight with the ins. co may be worth it. One option would be to replace the one bad tire and have the tire shop shave the new tire to the same tread thickness as your other tires.

Ringmeister

The insurance company is not likely to buy more than one tire for you at this point. If you don't have a spare then get 2 new ones for the front. If you have a decent spare, then you should already be set.

Sorry to hear about the hit and run - karma will take care of that guy.

jfrahm

"Stolen in front of my girlfriend's house in broad daylight two days ago."

Wow. Isn't that on your insurance too? Or did you get additional LDW?

-Joel

D3AeighT

I'm with Ring and SouthB, you'll never get more than ONE tire out of the insurance co.

skiracer1313

Pete at the Tire Source 303-443-3021. He's the best in Boulder. Good luck!

koz4.2

Have ins. co. buy one tire (they won't do more than that). Then, get it shaved to match.

dimitristx

...either put the new ones in the front (generally dry weather) or the new ones in the rear (rainy, light snow, freeze).

While our cars are front-heavy, a general argument in the British CAR magazine has been that one should always put newer, grippier tyres in the rear. The argument goes, it's easier to catch an oversteer with less tread in the fronts than a slide or a tail-fish-out oversteer with less tread in the back.

Apparently they had done an extensive test with their experienced or professional drivers, where they swapped tires of different tread depth front and rear, and statistics showed that more often the car would end up off the road during mid-corner incidences when the rear tyres were more worn. In one situation, a driver's reaction was total disbelief of the completely different car dynamics based on this simple swap.

Since I read that article a few years back, I tend to follow their advice.

ryoung

Worn tires will generally have better grip in the dry and poorer grip in the wet. When the worn tires are mounted in the rear,

1. Understeer is increased in the dry. Not as much fun to drive, since the A8/S8 already has too much understeer (car wants to plow straight off the road).

2. Understeer is reduced in the wet, and in the extreme, handling could switch to oversteer (rear end wants to come around resulting in a spin). For the inexperienced driver, recovery is not intuitively obvious.

As a result, mounting the worn tires in the front is generally safer.

Having written the caveat, I'd still mount the worn tires in the rear. On track, I turn ESP OFF in the dry, but I'll leave it ON for the first session in the wet ... just in case the track is greasier that I expect. Sure enough and in the rain, an elevation change in a very fast corner resulted in the back end braking loose. This is not something you want to happen even in a corner with a safe run-off area, but the run-off here was a tire wall in front of an Armco barrier. Before I could even begin to respond with a counter-steer, ABS braked an outside front tire only, and the car snapped back onto it's proper line. My opinion is that even in the rain with worn tires in the rear, you'd have to do something outrageously crazy to get in trouble beyond something that ESP could handle.