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You shound't need alignment just changing winters to summers, as for the winter tire wear, most winter tires are made of a much softer rubber compound which wears a lot faster and when turning the edges will wear faster.
The issue of replacing single or pairs will of course be dependent on existing wear. If you have 4 even tires with not much milage on them and blow one, sure you could replace it singly without an adverse affect on the remaining 3. However, if the remaining tires have any measurable wear, you are not supposed to ever replace just one tire with the Quattro system. Some techs may say its okay to do two tires as long as its just the front two or just the rear two, but even then it depends on the existing wear of the two remaining tires so some techs in a given situation say all 4.
Just some of the future problems could include issues with the differential (if big difference in tread wear), balance, alignment issues etc. Also, will never have even tread wear on the 4 tires once the mismatched game begins.
Its a real bummer to have to start over with 4 new tires, I know, but in the long run with regular rotations its the best option.
Just a quick update. Last week my wife got a nail in the front left tire. She took the Q7 to Audi dealer who said the tire was not repairable and had to be replaced. Since I purchased the tire & wheel extra coverage it was done no charge. The Q7 has ~ 19K miles. Including the tire that had to be replaced 3 tires have 19K miles. The 4th tire was replaced (as I posted earlier) at the 10K service for "chunking apart" (that's what the SA wrote on the work order).
I asked my wife (twice) if the SA suggested replacing the front right tire also or all 4, and she said he did not.
So now we have two tires with 19K miles, one with 9K miles, and one brand new.
That's the "chunking" we have seen also. Take it to the dealer and show them. The SA we were working with said he called their Goodyear rep and got a replacement tire authorized. Our's wasn't that bad, but we took it back to dealer at 10K. Had I waited to 20K, I expect our's would like just like your photos.
This seems to be different from the chunking issue shown in the pics after this post (except the first tire). This seems like outer tread wear occurring faster than the center. This is usually caused by under-inflated tires.
The chunking pics shown look bad...almost like its a tire issue.
Originally Posted by Nedstand
Photos of all 4 tires. Notice the tread wear on outer edge of 3 of 4 (the 4th was replaced at 10K miles), the others all have 14K miles.
Just a quick update. Last week my wife got a nail in the front left tire. She took the Q7 to Audi dealer who said the tire was not repairable and had to be replaced. Since I purchased the tire & wheel extra coverage it was done no charge. The Q7 has ~ 19K miles. Including the tire that had to be replaced 3 tires have 19K miles. The 4th tire was replaced (as I posted earlier) at the 10K service for "chunking apart" (that's what the SA wrote on the work order).
I asked my wife (twice) if the SA suggested replacing the front right tire also or all 4, and she said he did not.
So now we have two tires with 19K miles, one with 9K miles, and one brand new.
So you purchased the extra tire and wheel coverage, had a nail puncture (which is covered) and Audi would only replace one of the four tires? Even though the manual recommends to all four tires to have the same rolling circumference (definitely not possible with others having 19k miles) and to replace at least both tires on the same axle at the same time?
So you purchased the extra tire and wheel coverage, had a nail puncture (which is covered) and Audi would only replace one of the four tires? Even though the manual recommends to all four tires to have the same rolling circumference (definitely not possible with others having 19k miles) and to replace at least both tires on the same axle at the same time?
Damm. You hit the nail on the head (pun intended and not regretted). The dealer will try to convince you to replace all 4 when it's on your dime, but will only do one when the coat is their responsibility.
Good luck OP. Do your best to convince them to replace all four.
11-05-2017, 07:23 AM
