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Oh **** well it finally happened and I’m freaking out. My 2016 Audi SQ5 is 3 months old with 1800 miles on the odometer and I’m in the middle of relocating to Portland. My dashboard just indicated a tire pressure warning which I instantly knew couldn’t be good because I just checked my tires yesterday and sure enough I found a nail in front left tire. I don’t know much about what can be fixed or not but I wondering what my options are. Prior to purchasing this vehicle I studied everything I could get my hands on but the one thing I was totally oblivious of was what happens when you lose a tire on a all wheel drive car! This is my first Audi and as I understand it potentially all for tires might have to be replaced which means this single nail could cost me upward of $2000.
Oh **** well it finally happened and I’m freaking out. My 2016 Audi SQ5 is 3 months old with 1800 miles on the odometer and I’m in the middle of relocating to Portland. My dashboard just indicated a tire pressure warning which I instantly knew couldn’t be good because I just checked my tires yesterday and sure enough I found a nail in front left tire. I don’t know much about what can be fixed or not but I wondering what my options are. Prior to purchasing this vehicle I studied everything I could get my hands on but the one thing I was totally oblivious of was what happens when you lose a tire on a all wheel drive car! This is my first Audi and as I understand it potentially all for tires might have to be replaced which means this single nail could cost me upward of $2000.
This is pretty common and the fact that you only have sub 2k miles, the fix is simple. Just buy the same tire and replace it. 1800 miles is nothing and there will be no impact on your vehicle. Don't buy the bs the tire shop tells you. Just measure the tread of the current tires and compare to a new one, but at 1800 it should be almost the same.
Oh and if it's safe to get patched, just do that. Easy. Discount tire does this all the time.
This is pretty common and the fact that you only have sub 2k miles, the fix is simple. Just buy the same tire and replace it. 1800 miles is nothing and there will be no impact on your vehicle. Don't buy the bs the tire shop tells you. Just measure the tread of the current tires and compare to a new one, but at 1800 it should be almost the same.
Oh and if it's safe to get patched, just do that. Easy. Discount tire does this all the time.
Yup, looks like a safe place to plug. Just do that.
As mentioned, the nail's located where you can safely patch. Maybe do that temporarily ?
Almost the exact thing happened to me. About 1900 miles after buying four new Michelins, I had a nail go into the sidewall. No patching allowed. Only choice was a new one. The difference in miles is nothin'...
I know there is some disagreement about this, but...
… I average one-three nails in my tires/year in our fleet of three vehicles. Unless the nail has punctured the edge of the tire, I always patch with a high quality internal patch. I have never had any problems. In fact, today I was rotating tires and cleaning/inspecting wheels on the S4 (they have about 5K on the new set) and found a nail right in the middle of the tread. So, my wife will take the car to Wise Tire in Inglewood and they will do the internal patch.
If you feel more comfortable with a new tire, that's your call. We use our cars hard in the mountains and I have over 1.5 million miles with 31 different cars and I have never had a tire failure due to a patch. I have blown apart tires and wheels striking objects that were unavoidable, but never a patch failure.
With only 1800 miles, the wear is so small that even if you choose to replace the tire, you will need to do only one. BTW, replacement tires through Audi carry a road-hazard warrantee.
But really, the nail is in a non-cantact location - no better candidate for a patch.
Eric
Last edited by eric strauss; 02-14-2016 at 06:56 PM.
Yup, looks like a safe place to plug. Just do that.
Plug and play. With that low of miles there is no reason to do anything else. Even if you need a new tire, which you do not, you can just replace the one.
As a young man I was a carpenter and drove an MGB with Pirellis to lots of different jobsites around South Florida, and flats were a regular occurrence. Plugged them every time and never had a problem.
Yeah, I'm on board with this too. IMO the best is to have the tire broken From the rim and patched internally. I have also gone through many....many external plug kits on my own. Sometimes the hole has been so small that a plug kit reamer has been too big to force in and I've had to run a drill bit in to open the hole up to accept a plug. That's always an odd feeling....
Talk about a timely post! I have almost 27K on my Q5 with 255/45ZR20XL Conti DWS Extreme Contact tires. My TPMS alarms on occasion and the low tire has always been the right front. This week it alarmed, so I went to the Firestone store just up the street for an inspection. Sure enough, that tire had a little nail two fingers inboard of the sidewall. Allegedly, not a good spot for a patch. They wanted to replace the tires with Contis....but have no way of aligning a Quattro. My tread is about half worn away on all four...I always have them rotated ($20.00) when I have my regular service. Checked with the dealership on replacing the Contis with the same tire and their price was less per tire ($221.00 vs. $244.50) than Firestone store.
Am going to nurse it along until I get my Goodwill Visa cards from AudiUSA and use that $1000.00 for the new tires If I keep the Q.
02-14-2016, 05:39 PM
Help Nail in Tire
