9 spoke, 18" tt wheels..........

[moschino]

Sorry to hear that. I've been through the same thing about 2 months ago. At first you are very angree, but things will get better now. The engine on my car went on 8900km and it was 7 months old. I've done 7000km on the new engine and no problem thus far. BMW gave me a 20000km motorplan extentsion worth about 5000 pounds. Motorplan is bumper to bumper coverage, so anything that goes worng is for their pocket.

I don't think you should try to get a replacement car, because you might have the same problem again. Rather let them replace the engine.

I am very happy with my car now. Since the replacement the cars performance is better.

Hang in there! Things will get better.

You can find information about the engine blowup at http://www.geocities.com/bmwmclubsouthafrica/

goto the 3 Dec and select the headline
Munich, we have a problem: A cadre of owners raises brow—and stink—over M3 engines gone bad

 

[darrenrally]

Im thinking of upgrading from my s3 17" 5 spoke rims to the 9 spoke 18" tt rims. Cannot make my mind up 9 spokes do look good but to be honest getting a bit common (a3,tt.s3,a2)....mmmm dont know, anyway can anyone tell me what the advantages and disadvantages of bigger rims? someone will say they are better, someone else will say the opposite blah blah. So does anyone know the FACTS? will it gain in handling etc............ /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif <font color="#666666"> </font>

 

[Paul-RS6]

cant say really, as i have had 18" RSTT wheels on both My S3's so nothing to compare to.

saying theat, they look the business and i dont care if they are on every audi from the A2 to the S8 they look 100% times better than the avus to me.

And there is not many aftermarket wheels that i have seen, that improve the looks, and look "right" if you know what i mean.

I do like the sportecs and the new MTM rims tho. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Scotty]

The bigger the wheel then generally the more "unsprung" weight that you have. This can have an adverse effect on the steering feeback and handling. My track wheels are 17" (6 spokes) and my road wheels 18" (RS6 replicas). I previously had the 18" RSTT reps.

The bigger wheels look better but that is the only real advantage. Of course you are making the sidewall of the tyre smaller (to ensure a constact radius) and this firms up the ride and reduces the flex but I do find the smaller wheels better handling.

However I think that the small trade on handling is more than made up for by the look. I certainly wouldn't go up to 19" although I know one or two people have and are happy.

 

[wigginer]

I'm very happy with mine.

Ride is very hard, tyre pressures need to be in the region of 41psi and therefore it's like being on a skate board ... but looks more than make up for it.

Not noticed any adverse handling affects other than a bit of tramlining but that's probably down to the tyre width and firmer suspension rather than the size of the wheels

 

[AndyMac]

Also overall diameter is the crucial thing, so although you're reducing the tyre profile to accomodate the bigger wheel, you won't get exactly the same overall wheel circumference. This will alter the gearing slightly and speedo. i.e. the S3 is designed to ride on 17" rims with 225/45 tyres, so the profile is 45% of 225mm. When you upgrade to 18" rims you have to drop the profile by half an inch to maintain the same diameter. This usually means dropping the profile to 40, but this won't give you an identical wheel size, so you will end up with a slightly bigger wheel/tyre combination, which will effect the acceleration to some degree, but will give you more top end. Usually this is negligible, less than 1% (the equivalent to scrubbing a couple of mm off new tyres), but you need to bear it in mind. Check out tyresave for a really useful tyre/wheel size calculator.
http://www.tyresave.co.uk/tyresize.html

 

[darrenrally]

WOW im impresed lads! thanks! your advice has gien me something to get on with, thanks again. Ive found a few good deals on rims and tyres,( findit.co.uk etc.) so definately food for thought. One thing though the avus s3 17" 5 spoke rims do have their own unique look, no other car has them, pretty sexy in their own way. The closest has probally been the tt 5 spoke. cheers.

 

[Khufu]

I'm in the 'tacky plastic' camp at the moment. I had planned to get the Audi ones but I think I'm getting used to ones on them now (maybe something to do with the extra cost!). I had wondered if the difference was down to copyright. Maybe they needed to do this to avoid Audi taking them to court?