MP

Had a little wobble in the steering wheel, and no sign of missing balance weights or pebbles lodged in tire tread... so... I stopped by my local tire place, where I was informed that I had two bent wheels and a blistered tire. Since I have less than 10k miles on the factory dunlops (sport package), they said I could safely replace a single tire (ran around $170 installed including everything). They also put both bent rims (not severe) on the rear. The car handles like new.

I'm not sure whether to attribute this experience to to driving in Boston or to the quality of Audi wheels...

I have under 16k miles on the car, and I cannot recall ever hitting a major pothole or running over a curb... Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Do the sport wheels (99.5) really bend that easily?

I'm thinking of using the factory sport rims for snow tires and upgrading to a set of Ronals. Will I have better luck with R-28 wheels, or are they as prone to damage as the factory rims? I know that Ronal and others OEMs provide Audi with rims in the first place - I simply wonder if Ronal's branded product is better or in any way more robust than what is supplied to Audi. I wonder if there are any differences in general?

I posted this message in the A4 Forum last week, but didn't get much response (thanks to the prolific A Hedin for sympathizing, however). I figured I would re-post in wheel/tire where the post should have been in the first place...

Manias at SmellsSo

did you have proper tire pressure? if it was too low it would have bent it. also Ronal makes the Audi wheels, so that should tell you on the quality. i havent heard of anyone else bending rims before so i cant tell on the quality of audi wheels to anyone elses. that sux though