Tomizzzle

Hi everyone,


I just bought a Q5 3.0 Prestige trim, and I needed your help and advice on what to do to prepare for cold weather. I am currently in Southern California, but will be moving to Cleveland soon.


What is standard practice in preparing the car for the bad weather? I have all season tires on my 20 inch rims right now, do I need to get winter/snow tires? Is it advisable to get other rims for the winter? Will the bad conditions jack up my rims? Is it advisable to get mud flaps, clear bra, or any other type of protection?


Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated as I haven't had to deal with driving in weather like that in Ohio. If it matters, I will be in the Westside suburbs and commuting downtown for work, so a little less snow that on the Eastside to deal with.


Thanks all!

the_duke

Here is what I do to prepare for winter:
1. Make sure all season tires are in good shape.

I've never had snow tires and I have lived in snow areas my entire life. Having said that if studded tires are allowed in your area they do make a big difference.

Tomizzzle

Thanks, Duke. They are brand new tires, so nothing to worry about there in terms of wear and tear yet.

Does the bad weather affect the rims at all? Any insight as to the other guard/protection stuff I've seen mentioned in other threads? A lot of people have mentioned the clear bra and mud flaps and the like implying that they are really useful for protection. I've never worried about any of that stuff before, so not sure if it's cold weather specific or just protection in general.

Tomizzzle

Also, just to confirm since I am a little clueless about this stuff and have seen different answers online, are the below tires truly all-season? I've seen some sites say they are all-season, and some say they are summer performance.

goodyear excellence 255/45r20 101w

ex-quattro PETE

Excellence is a grand touring summer tire.

snagitseven

A film on the front will protect your paint from rock chips no matter where you live. It's even more desireable on winter roads where sand is used. The more film coverage on the car's front, the better.

If you are concerned about wheel damage, you might want to consider a set of lesser expensive 18" wheels with winter tires that have more sidewall and less tread width. They will do much better in the snow than the wider 20" tires as well. You can then use your 20" all seasons set up for the rest of the year.

Tomizzzle

FML. Those d-bags at the dealership lied to me then. I specifically said I was moving to the mid-west and they assured me that they were all season tires and not Summer tires since I was concerned about the weather aspect. Guess I will be getting new tires for winter at the min. Thanks for your help and clarification. What in the world did people do pre-internet?

Tomizzzle

Gotcha. Makes sense. Is there a recommended way of doing all of this? At a dealer vs. other locations on either? I bought a CPO, so wouldn't want t jack up warranty (if you even would with something like this). I've been a leasee the last 5 years, so now that mods matter again and I'm in higher price cars i want to be diligent.

Looking forward to being a part of the community with my first Audi

Any other suggestions? Very much appreciated guys.

ex-quattro PETE

If you are going to go with 18" rims for winter, you'd want to put 235/60/18 tires on them. You can buy both from a place like tirerack.com, for example. You can install the new wheels yourself, use one of tirerack's recommended local installers, or use dealer.

Get used to seeing your q5 dirty half the year.

rez

This may have some applicability in Cleveland - Cheney: Fourteen reasons to ditch your all-season tires for the winter - The Globe and Mail

In any case condolences on the move out of SoCal 😭