imdakine1

I woke up to a driver flat tire. Audi Roadside will come and put on the spare. Do I need to replace all 4 tires? I believe my factory tires were all season michilens.

pleaae advise...

also is it strange to get a completely flat tire on one tire overnight? We are doing a remodel of our house and wonder if I have angry neighbors?

atc98092

If the identical tire isn't available I would at least replace both on the same axle. However, with 41,000 miles you might be approaching the need to replace them anyway.

Certainly possible to go flat overnight. With your remodel, you might have run over a stray nail or something. Or you just caught something on your last drive and it slowly went flat overnight. I've come to my car after work and discovered a flat after just sitting the for 8 hours.

superswiss

Depending on what punctured your tire, air could escape quickly. You probably drove over it the night before. A smaller puncture with a nail for example generally tends to seal the damage and air only escapes slowly.

You have a few options. The tire may be fixable depending on where the damage is and how much tread you have left. If it's not fixable, then you need to measure your tread depth. The tolerance for quattro is 4/32" difference between the tires. A new tire has 10/32", so if your other tires are below 6/32" than you'll be out of tolerance. Places like Tirerack offer tire shaving services. You can order a tire and they'll shave it down to match the tread depth of the other tires, but that's really only worth it if you still have significant mileage left on the remaining tires.

At 41,000 miles, my guess is your tires are about end of life, so it may be time to change them soon anyway.

Redd

If the tire sidewall is cut, yes, it needs to be replaced and you'd normally replace the axle pair. But at 41,000 miles it is more likely time to replace all four to keep uniform traction.

If you just have a puncture, just have the tire fixed. Have had that done many times over the years. A *proper* fix means unmounting the tire and applying a patch from the inside. A lot of places will PLUG a tire, not patch it, because that only requires cleaning out the hole and inserting a rubbery plug in it.

Tire makers all uniformly say never to plug a tire except to get home on it, because the plug may not seat well, it may allow moisture to get in and rot the steel belting in the tire, it is just wrong. Well...a lot of AAA places use plugs, I've seen a number (6? 8?) of them go over five years with no problems. But getting it patched is still a better idea.

I'd hate to buy two new tires (or even one, if it was the same brand and model) and then literally throw away money by having it shaved down.

And if it isn't a puncture or a valve leak (valves and valve stems can fail) sometimes you can have a flat just from rim damage, or a poor seal. Make sure the place cleans the rim, if they're remounting the tire. And rebalancing will be necessary. (All of that adds costs, which is why they like to use plugs.)

IIRC if you buy tires at Costco, they'll patch any punctures free, for life. Some other places may offer that as well.

jimdolian

Discount Tires will repair a puncture for free even if you did not buy the tire there.

imdakine1

Thanks for the advice... I didn't think my neighbors were to upset as they all knew about my remodel...I'm assuming no issue if I don't want to fox this until Tuesday? I'm considering towing it to Audi as I I have a $500 Audi card for parts and services based as part of their compensation for their tdi scandal. I'm assuming I'll get ripped off when trying to buy 4 tires but maybe I should buy online and have them do the install?

what recommendations for 19 inch Q5 tdi. Not big snow people but living in Santa Cruz the awd os good for the mountains and curvy roads. I'm thinking all season? Also want a similar ride that is smooth not wanting to feel the road etc.... I recall the a4 and even allroad was a more firm ride and my wife prefers the quiet ride and smoother ride. My inlaws had an old Cadillac and it was like riding on a cloud.

Thoughts on if Audi will rip me off on tire price and where to buy online? We don't have many tire places on Santa Cruz so Costco is our best bet. I hear online might be cheapest?

Anything to consider when buying online just make, model, Year and specs????

DennisMitchell

The Audi dealers will be competitive on tires. Get your tirerack price and factor in reasonable mounting costs and negotiate with them if necessary. Audi wants to sell tires.

EvergreenQ7

Tjhose Audi goodwill cards expired at the end of last month so you might be out of luck using that.

imdakine1

I used part of my Audi service card for windshield wipers and my visa Audi card is good until May 2017. I was slow and submitting so not sure of the date varies or not?

superswiss

The Audi dealer is one option. They may not give you the full choice of tires. They generally stick to OEM and Audi recommended. I've been buying my tires from Tirerack (www.tirerack.com) for years. They ship directly to approved installers. You can just find the nearest installer on their website. Just shop by car on their website and they give you a choice of tires that fit your car. Based on your requirements you probably want to look for a tire in the Touring category. I'm curious, though, you don't know how to put on the spare yourself? That's probably something you should have in your arsenal in case you ever have a flat in the middle of nowhere or so you don't have to wait hours for roadside assist to show up on a busy day.

Also, something you wanna consider is road hazard. Tirerack includes free 2-year road hazard coverage on all their tires. That's usually over $100 value for a full set. I just had a nail in the sidewall of one of my less than two months old tires last week. Road hazard covered the purchase of the new tire. This is the second time for me this paid off. They also cover tire repair of up to $25. Doesn't quite cover the repair of a 20" tire, but better than nothing.