2 weeks ago I traded in my worn out Sumitimo HTR+ tires for a set of Continental DWS tires. I had replaced the steering rack recently so I intended to get the car aligned when I got new tires so I did. Alignment was still pretty close so it was done in about 45 minutes at the dealer. The car seemed to be a little unstable and wandered to the right. I took it back to the dealer a week later (today) and told them I wasn't satisfied. They rechecked and it was still within specs. He swapped the tires every which way trying to get something to change, but the car still wanders right slightly. He even reversed the cross camber on my request since the previous alignment showed negative cross camber and the current one was showing positive cross camber. My car is lowered quite a bit on adjustable Bilsteins all the way around so there is a lot of negative camber up front. Individually the wheels were never in spec for camber, but the cross camber is in the green.

Long story short, he spend 3 hours on my car today and said it's my new tires that is causing the issue. He said this is the 3rd car he's seen with these tires that behaves like this. Maybe it's due to the more random than typical inner tread pattern on a car with a lot of negative camber? In other words, the more stable tread pattern of the tire probably isn't making much contact up front since that part is on the outside of the tire.

Thoughts?


Thanks,
Ryan

 

It's not the asymmetrical tread pattern. if the car is aligned perfectly then the crown of the road will cause a slight pull to the right. To test it find a known flat area and see if it still pulls. If anything is bad, I'd supect it's the rack, not the tires. One bad tire, ok. Four?? Not likely.

 

The rack was rebuilt about a year and a half ago and it seemed fine before I put these tires on. The problem is I had the tires mounted and then didn't drive it since I knew my alignment was off and didn't want any abnormal wear. I literally drove it 5 miles on the new tires before the alignment. I'll have to try to find a flat parking lot and see how it drives. I know the road is crowned and it definitely follows the crown, but it never did that before with the Sumitimos - or at least not as much. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but this is very noticeable to me.

 

Some tires, especially the wider you go, will tramline more than others.

 

I have that same tire on my 99.5 with no problems. But my suspension is completely stock.

 

Hey SilverHotz,

I wish I saw this post in the Q5 forum before I purchased the Contis DWS. I have about 2k miles on my contis and i must say i'm extremely disappointed. The biggest issue i have is precisely what you experienced. Specifically, the car starts to drift a bit to the right at higher speeds and it feels like I'm all over the place. The steering wheel appears to sit just slightly to the right which is now the new "centered position" while im driving. According to the TireRack.com approved shop where i had the new tires mounted and balanced, the tires were in perfect condition and i even had the alignment tested on their hunter force machine. Essentially no adjustments were made. Then took the car to Audi. Had road test with them and full inspection. They confirmed and found nothing physically wrong with the tires, they also tested alignment and saw nothing that would cause the car to drift slight right as i described to them. Audi represented that the tires' specs were appaerently not compatible with the Q5 - specifically too heavy. Never heard that before and didnt understand that. They stressed that this is why they only offer certain tire models that meet the criteria for the Q5. Unfortunately, i don't have the OEM bridgestones anymore. alignment was perfect with the OEM bridgestone summer tires...I feel terrible b/c i don't enjoy driving the car as much anymore. Naturally, the wife is upset with my decision making but i just wanted the best high performance all season tires that were on the market... I was wondering what if anything you did to fix the problem? or did you just buy a different set of tires? Any feedback would be much appreciated. Thank you

 

I have a set of these on the A4. Love 'em.

Crooked steering wheel has nothing to do with tires and everything to do with alignment.

 

I don't have any real good news unfortunately. I just drove on them. I'm at maybe 10k on them now and it doesn't seem as bad so I'm guessing as they wear they will continue to get a little better. For me, personally, I will avoid tires with the random inner pattern the DWS has in the future due to the high negative camber my car has. Maybe that's why it's getting better for me slowly...more of the tire is making contact with the ground as they wear into the negative camber.

 

wish there was a better outcome but i guess i just gotta suck it up and wear down the tires. Thanks for the quick reply

 

Alignment tests were performed using the hunter force machine at the shop i purchased the tires from and at the Audi dealership. Both test results did not evidence any alignment issues. My Q5's alignment was perfect prior to me purchasing the tires. I'm certainly no expert so if you're suggesting that the problem is still an alignment issue I'm open to suggestions