Flat and repair
02-17-2018, 04:29 PM
#1
AudiWorld Junior Member
Thread Starter
Flat and repair
2 days ago I hit a pothole on the highway, merging from the carpool lane to 279 north of Pittsburgh. It was raining and hard to see, but they are everywhere here now.
It was bad enough that I winced, but not that loud and not much of a bump for me or my passenger.
About a minute later the low tire pressure goes off, telling me it was the right front. Not driving or riding badly, had 10 miles to go, so I kept going. 3 minutes later another alarm, suspension failure, with a note that I could keep driving. Then things started getting noisy, so I pulled off at the next underpass as it was raining hard.
Unfortunately I’ve had the car less than 2 months, and had not gotten around to checking out the spare, jack, or tools. It took a while to find everything and figure out the spare and compressor. I recommend looking this over before you get a flat, it’s pretty strange. When I inflated the spare, it did not unfold/expand evenly and looked very strange, I was not sure I wanted to drive on it, but I didn’t want to wait an hour for assistance, so went ahead and put it on. No issues with the jack or change, somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes start to finish with the messing around.
The tire is bad, sidewall cut, but no mark at all on the wheel rim. The car has 1650 miles, so I think it’s safe to just replace the one tire, and not worry about shaving, these have been gentle break-in miles. The local tire shop can get a 245/45 R18 100H extra load ProContact tx tire, so I think I’m set.
The only question is that the original tires have an AO on them, which may mean some Audi-specific compound or something. Does anyone think this is an issue?
I’ll get a price from the dealer if they ever call me back, the local shop will charge $266, which seems about what I expect for a single tire.
In any case, look at your tools and spare before you need them, the space saving un-inflated spare and compressor was a surprise to me. At least it wasn’t dark quite yet when this happened.
It was bad enough that I winced, but not that loud and not much of a bump for me or my passenger.
About a minute later the low tire pressure goes off, telling me it was the right front. Not driving or riding badly, had 10 miles to go, so I kept going. 3 minutes later another alarm, suspension failure, with a note that I could keep driving. Then things started getting noisy, so I pulled off at the next underpass as it was raining hard.
Unfortunately I’ve had the car less than 2 months, and had not gotten around to checking out the spare, jack, or tools. It took a while to find everything and figure out the spare and compressor. I recommend looking this over before you get a flat, it’s pretty strange. When I inflated the spare, it did not unfold/expand evenly and looked very strange, I was not sure I wanted to drive on it, but I didn’t want to wait an hour for assistance, so went ahead and put it on. No issues with the jack or change, somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes start to finish with the messing around.
The tire is bad, sidewall cut, but no mark at all on the wheel rim. The car has 1650 miles, so I think it’s safe to just replace the one tire, and not worry about shaving, these have been gentle break-in miles. The local tire shop can get a 245/45 R18 100H extra load ProContact tx tire, so I think I’m set.
The only question is that the original tires have an AO on them, which may mean some Audi-specific compound or something. Does anyone think this is an issue?
I’ll get a price from the dealer if they ever call me back, the local shop will charge $266, which seems about what I expect for a single tire.
In any case, look at your tools and spare before you need them, the space saving un-inflated spare and compressor was a surprise to me. At least it wasn’t dark quite yet when this happened.
02-17-2018, 05:09 PM
#2
AudiWorld Member
Interesting. The thread link below is somewhat ambiguous (Tire Rack rep is conservative), but it doesn't sound from the manufacturer correspondence as if there will be a major issue.
Given the alternative is about $800-1000 for an entirely new set of tires at 1600 miles with questionable benefit, I'd be hard pressed to do anything different from what you plan to.
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/whe...vs-mo-2915931/
Given the alternative is about $800-1000 for an entirely new set of tires at 1600 miles with questionable benefit, I'd be hard pressed to do anything different from what you plan to.
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/whe...vs-mo-2915931/
02-18-2018, 04:35 AM
#3
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Hi RC Campbell - basically the exact same thing happened to me 2 weeks ago. I live near Philly, PA and got a flat left rear in one of our giant potholes. I ended up taking the car to the dealership and got the tire replaced. The tire was $280 and with mounting and taxes, etc. it was $326. The service adviser did say that it was "lucky" that I only had about 1800 miles on my car so the tires all had roughly the same wear. If it had been 3000 or so miles they would have recommended replacing all 4.
02-18-2018, 05:28 AM
#4
AudiWorld Super User
OP and others,
Good advice (which I have yet to heed) about becoming familiar with the instructions and tools needed for swapping out a tire. Especially important as these things often happen in bad weather and far from home. But before I would spend a ton of money on new tires, I would ask about getting the single tire shaved. And if truth be told, I was never aware until now that there even was such a thing as shaving a tire - another useful benefit of a good forum.
Good advice (which I have yet to heed) about becoming familiar with the instructions and tools needed for swapping out a tire. Especially important as these things often happen in bad weather and far from home. But before I would spend a ton of money on new tires, I would ask about getting the single tire shaved. And if truth be told, I was never aware until now that there even was such a thing as shaving a tire - another useful benefit of a good forum.
02-19-2018, 09:38 PM
#6
AudiWorld Senior Member
02-20-2018, 03:56 AM
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02-20-2018, 07:50 AM
#8
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The overall diameter of our tires is 26.7" so each 1/32" of tread wear reduces that by 1/16" or 0.23%. Small variations in tire pressure cause more than that. I wouldn't worry about it.
02-20-2018, 03:31 PM
#9
AudiWorld Member
For some time, Tire Rack has listed tolerances specified by Audi for how close in tread tires "should" be. That has apparently been based on VAG's advice for Torsen-equipped vehicles.
It would be interesting to hear if that's been updated for the new Quattro Ultra drivetrain.
https://blog.tirerack.com/blog/todds...an-awd-vehicle
It would be interesting to hear if that's been updated for the new Quattro Ultra drivetrain.
https://blog.tirerack.com/blog/todds...an-awd-vehicle
02-21-2018, 10:40 AM
#10
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So both Audi and Subaru say 4/32" (1/8") tread depth variation. Porsche's "30%" is meaningless--30% of what?
Conveniently 1/8" of tread depth is 1/4" in diameter, or for practical purposes 1%. That's probably where Audi and Subaru started, and then converted to tread depth for convenience.
Conveniently 1/8" of tread depth is 1/4" in diameter, or for practical purposes 1%. That's probably where Audi and Subaru started, and then converted to tread depth for convenience.