KaDeTime

Martigary

I always run the maximum tyre pressure as indicated on the sticker and rotate tyres every six months - works for me regardless of what vehicle I had. The ride may be initially a bit hard but I get use to it.
Also when rotating your tyres get them balanced at the same time.
Personal observation has been I get even wear from the tyres and slightly more mileage.

TYJ

ronsal

Q5 w/18"wheels and Michelin Premier LTX. Run 36 front 34 rears. Rotate at 10,000 miles, and as long as no vibration in the 50 - 80mph range, don't worry about balance.
The door sticker is a little at odds with the recommendations in the manual. Some folks swear by one, some by others, and still others make up their own.

MAMOHT

ronsal

That is a bit of a head scratcher on the Q5 - that the front has the lesser recommended pressure. I was always taught that the heavier front end, and front drive would increase that pressure somewhat. At the end of the day, the Quattro Ultra is a front wheel drive that defers to all wheel when conditions necessitate. Also, my door sticker for the 18's says 35/38.
I have played around with different combos, and what works for me is different than some other folks. Oh well, I guess that's why the powers that be invented butter pecan.
One other thing that I have noticed on this car, is that very small changes to the air pressure, leads to definite different results. This is my first quasi-performance cars is years, but I like the fact that the Audi is so responsive to these small changes.

KaDeTime

Cadx6

Just FYI - the pressures shown on the door pillar are for maximum load situations (5 passengers + cargo). For "normal" driving - go by what's shown in the Owner's manual.

greasykid

RE higher psi on rear tires. It's a German thing. Same specs on Mercedes--higher on rear. Was always told it had to do with the suspension used.

spindlewood

Thanks for this. Seem like this would be on the checklist of what to tell a new buyer: "IF you aren't running full capacity or IF your change your tire rating check the manual for different tire pressure requirements."

I've been running on 36 Front 36 Rear (after all it says so on the pillar) but swapped out my 20" tires for a W rated tire - now find I should have been running 36 Front 33 Rear under normal conditions and 41 Front 44 Rear with a max load! Darn.

In terms of min and max pressure, its obvious that this 5 lb Front and 11 lb Rear increase should be a gradual curve depending on the situation. Makes me want to do some calculations. Minimum pressure is stated for up to 3 people - it would be nice to know what this means weight wise and what load low pressure is really calculate for, e.g. for a mid point between 150lbs (1 person) and 450lbs (3 people) = 300lbs?

The maximum load for the SQ5 is 1058 lbs. If the difference between min and max calculated pressures is over a 750 lbs range (i.e. 300 - 1050 lbs) then I can use a spreadsheet to show what pressure at what load (presuming a linear impact of load on recommended psi). It's interesting to see how much of an impact a hundred pounds makes looking at it this way. For every 100 lbs, Front changes about .7 lbs and Rear 1.5 lbs.

So, it might also work in reverse. If its just me (150lbs) plus my trailer hitch (40 lbs) driving 99% of the time, I might want to under inflate based on this plotted line.