jhstl

This past Saturday, we were driving along in the S-5 in the rain and hit a pothole (only going about 35 mph at the time). Normally I'd try to avoid these at all cost but there was a curb to the right and a vehicle to the left and with the rain I couldn't really tell how bad it was. Ended up blowing out both passenger side tires. Luckily there was a small park parking lot nearby so we didn't end up damaging the wheels. With only one spare, I ended up having it towed back to my house. I realize Audi offers free roadside assistance and towing, however they are only able to tow it to the nearest Audi dealership. I had replaced the tires with Michelin AS3+ at Costco, so the road-hazard coverage would be through them instead of Audi, which is why I had it towed to my house instead.

I'm currently waiting for the tires to be replaced by costco, but my question is when I get them back should I put the new tires on the front or rear? The other two tires have 8-9/32nd's of tread left so I was thinking about putting the new tires on the front in order to maximize the overall life of the set. Didn't know if there were other factors I should be considering though.

Although it sucked having to have the car towed, it was somewhat amusing to see 2 other drivers pulling into the same lot in the hour we waited that also had a flat from that same pot-hole. I told the tow driver he should just set up shop in that lot all day.

thatTARDISguy

Generally speaking, the tire guys at my Costco do the positioning of tires correctly. Make sure to just remind them and they should take care of it for you.

Nikon1

luder888

Tire stores usually put new tires on the rear as it's better to have traction on the rear than the front (understeer is easier to correct than oversteer). But if your tires are directional then they'd have to remount your rear left tire to the front right, and then put the new tires on the rear.

dafantom

I would put the two tires on the rear, since, the rears wear out faster than the front tires, in my experience.

Of course a blow out on a front tire could be more of a challenge. You can't go wrong either way, as long as both are on the same axle.

IvanLZ

I would do new on rear. Our cars are program to be 60% rear biased.

jhstl

Thanks for the input. The tires are not directional and since the car is on a jackstand and a spare in my garage I can choose where I want to put the new ones. I figured that with steering and more weight in the front of the vehicle that the new tires in front would wear faster than in the rear even if the power is mostly sent to the rear.

Hematose

All,

I think you're forgetting the spec for uniform tire diameter that the Torsen system on the S5 demands. I don't know it off the top of my head, but depending on how much wear there was on the tires, he might need to get a full set so as to not cook his crown gear etc. It talks about this in the manual, but I don't know what the spec is.

superswiss

The common wisdom is to put the new tires on the rear and the more worn tires in the front. It can seem backwards, but the reason is that if the rear tires are worn, they hydroplane quicker and cause the car to spin out. If the front tires loose traction and or understeer it's easier to keep control by simply slowing down. Your other tires still have plenty of tread left, so you'll be ok just replacing two tires. I would definitely match the wear levels up on an axle instead of having more worn tires on one side than the other. The tolerance for quattro is 4/32" of wear between all tires, so you are good up to 6/32" on the other tires. Once wear is below that, then a new tire at 10/32" will put the system out of tolerance and you should shave the tire down to match the wear level of the others or replace all 4 tires at once.

belzebutt

I would have thought the front tires should be newer since the car is has more weight on the front. From my experience with the B8 I couldn't tell if the front or back wear out faster but I rotated them just in case.

I feel for you, I hit a pothole once that broke not only two tires but two rims also.