RED HORSE

Just picked up my S8 from its 5,000 service at the dealership. They said among other things they rotated the tires, no surprise there. What was surprising is they said they would not rotate them again for the life of the tires? Really? This sounds strange to me. I know on my Lexus LX 570 they rotate every time I'm in for an service. Yes, I know tires on the S8 are low profile but this is the first time I've ever heard of the only one rotation. Of course, on my 911 I don't have that worry because you can't rotate even if you want.

Ravill

You can choose to rotate your tires any time you want.

It seems like somewhere I read that people were getting 25-30k miles out of tires, so maybe a rotation or two would help, some.

Being a wear and tear (basically) item maybe they don't give a rats ****??

mishar

I newer rotate my tires. I like to see each tire wear. It is an excellent indicator of suspension health on top of periodical alignment. Rotating just conceal faults.

Pashamad

[QUOTE=mishar;24655151]I newer rotate my tires. I like to see each tire wear. It is an excellent indicator of suspension health on top of periodical alignment. Rotating just conceal faults.[/QUOTE

+4 (tire) ;-)

Baloo588

Excellent point!!!! I could of not said this better! Remember I pointed out on the recent post of my rear tires wearing out too fast compared to the fronts? The rear toe-in was at the extreme end of the spec set by Audi so I had them minimize the toe-in so the outside of the tires don't wear fast then the inner part. I don't rotate the tires because pretty much I get even wear on all my cars with good alignment otherwise when I rotate the car handles and act funny at every 10k miles. Theres small vibration and noise always. So I get it balanced routinely and keep them where they are and still get great mileage out of my tires. Average is 35k or more on sets for most low profile tires which is good. 40k plus on SUV tires. I never go beneath 3-4/32 tread depth due to snow and rain.

GR8-LIFE

Its funny all the variations we here when it comes to tires. My A8 has 19K miles on it and since 14K miles I began to hear what sounds to be bushing or bearing noise from my left front (maybe the other one too, I don’t know) My dealer at 14K miles said it was a tire.

At about 17K miles, I rotate the tires expecting the noise to go away and it doesn’t. So I go to a different dealer and he also says its the tire even though the noise is still coming from the front. Anyway, this dealer tells me that you probably wont get more than 15K miles on tires on a quatro car and the tires should be rotated every 5-7K miles (to prevent cupping) which is the complete opposite of what your dealer is suggesting

I think a lot of people are full of it (and it pizzes me off). I just don’t know who. Sometimes even the manufacturer is full of it as I am sure many owners have discovered. Today I am suppose to find out if my noise truly is related to the Pirelli as he is suppose to put on different wheels to illustrate this to me. I hope he is right (for credibility reasons as much as problem resolution) and if he is, I yank the Pirellis and never again will I buy them.

The dealer is recommending the Mich sports or the Conty’s. I’ll let the dealer put on tires (the ones I select based on my research) it if he can be competitive on price but normally they cant compete

DavidA

It seems there is no need / the susp is sensitive and will pick up odd feel from rear to front switch or vice versa. So balancing is the new maint on D3 or D4. 20" Pirellis are relatively cheap @ $220 or $240.

Kbrookings

I agree on not rotating tires. Should not be necessary if the car is true. Rotation does hide issues.

Mark_nimda
I could not disagree with you more regarding letting your dealer recommend your tires. First, they don't know how to do that. They will recommend what they get the best margin on, have in stock or can get quickly. There is a "right tire" for you but that might not be the best choice for someone else. The dealer is of no value to you here.

Second, they will charge you the highest price they think you will pay, which will be pretty high if you are asking them to select the tire for you.

Third, don't let the dealer install them. Their least trained C Tech will do it and that is not who you want doing this for you.

Do your research on Tire Rack using the "survey" review section to select the tire closest to the attributes that you prefer. Have them shipped only to an authorized installer that has a Hunter 9700 Road Force balancer/analyzer. Tell the shop owner that you do a lot of high speed driving (whether you do or not).

Save yourself some money, get a better balance job and the tire that best fits your prefereces.