Winter wheels, worth it?

Daggerit said:
Sounds like a good shout! I'm just hoping that if the coilovers ever arrive I don't just end up turning my car into a snow plough if the white stuff appears... :tocktock:
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Yep, don't think my LCR splitter would last too long in any snow with the current ride height, although 205/60-16 tyres have a larger rolling circumference than the 235/35-19's so will lift the ground clearance ever so slightly.
 
Greeny233 said:
Yep, don't think my LCR splitter would last too long in any snow with the current ride height, although 205/60-16 tyres have a larger rolling circumference than the 235/35-19's so will lift the ground clearance ever so slightly.
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205/55/16 would be the correct size for your car, why are you not going for that size? Should be cheaper aswell as it's a very common size.
 
Thanks for this thread. I'm going to get a set of wheels and winter tyres and this has helped me work out the sizes. Looking at the plate on the car I think my choices are 255/35 R19 96Y (which is the summer fitting I have) or
225/55 R16 99V
225/50 R17 98V
245/40 R18 97V
The S Line is quite low riding so I don't want to lose much circumference and rough calculations on the above sizes would indicate that the 17" wheels/tyres would give only a slightly smaller circumference than my 19" wheels. And I'd rather have smaller wheels/deeper section tyres for winter plus the smaller wheels/tyres are cheaper. I reckon less than £800 at mrtyres - Audi want £1300 for Tyres only for the 19" wheels.

Any further thoughts comments welcome!
I'm thinking that any of the above wheel combos will fit?
Has anyone got any experience with Prelli Sottozeroes or Vredenstein Wintracs which are the ones I'm thinking of.

My car is an A4 Avant 3.2 Quattro S Line Special edition September 2010 B8
 
The sticker on the end of your driver's door with tyre pressures should confirm the tyre sizes for you - but you probably knew that!

I'm going for the H speed rating on my 225 50 R17s, as per the placard.

I recently read the German Stiftung Warentest winter tyre review, which was pretty thorough. It rated Continental, Michelin and Dunlop at the top, in that order. Vredestein were somewhere above Pirelli in the middle of the field.

Remarkably, following quite a bit of internet research and phoning around, Kwik Fit web prices are currently the cheapest for the Dunlop 4Ds that I'm after.
 
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Yes that was where I got the list of sizes. There are three groups so I'm guessing the third group with my 19" size in it is the one for my car? My summer tyres are Dunlops so may go for the 4Ds

Do you know anything about offset amounts?
 
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I'm getting a set of 18s with Dunlop 4Ds fitted on Thursday, the tyre size is 245/40R18 with an offset of 45. Gone for RS6 reps £1200 inc fitting. I was going to keep the 19s on and change the tyres but can't bare to ruin them over the winter.
 
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Sounds good and the offset matches what I'm seeing on web. And that size is one of the ones I'm looking at - can I ask where you are getting the wheels/tyres from?
 
Brian Homer said:
Thanks for this thread. I'm going to get a set of wheels and winter tyres and this has helped me work out the sizes. Looking at the plate on the car I think my choices are 255/35 R19 96Y (which is the summer fitting I have) or
225/55 R16 99V
225/50 R17 98V
245/40 R18 97V
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16" wont fit over your brakes, i went for the 255/50 17 on my a6 on some a5 wheels, the offset is lower so they stick out the same amount as a 255 35 19 would so they dont look massively tucked in

i sourced mine from blackcircles
 
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Brian Homer said:
Sounds good and the offset matches what I'm seeing on web. And that size is one of the ones I'm looking at - can I ask where you are getting the wheels/tyres from?
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Revolution in Gateshead, great service and was given plenty of options to choose.
 
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audi upgrades
longp2 said:
Revolution in Gateshead, great service and was given plenty of options to choose.
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In the end it was going to be around £1000 - £1100 at MrTyres with non Audi wheels and messing about deciding what offset. Went with Audi deal at Halesowen Audi - 5 spoke proper Audi wheels and 255 17 50 Conti tyres complete with storage bags. Was going t be close on £1500 but when I paid it was actually £1300. Rides good and looks great - not as sharp as the 19" but really OK and happy the day I did it the temperature dropped below 7 degrees.
 
Brian Homer said:
In the end it was going to be around £1000 - £1100 at MrTyres with non Audi wheels and messing about deciding what offset. Went with Audi deal at Halesowen Audi - 5 spoke proper Audi wheels and 255 17 50 Conti tyres complete with storage bags. Was going t be close on £1500 but when I paid it was actually £1300. Rides good and looks great - not as sharp as the 19" but really OK and happy the day I did it the temperature dropped below 7 degrees.
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Could you post some pics of the Audi wheels on your car??
Last year I was very close to getting the wheels from listers in Stratford upon Avon
But they said they couldn't guarantee the style
That would be supplied so I didn't bother

Cheers
Keef
 
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Here's the pictures

avsg7d.jpg


2qte58g.jpg
 
Thanks for the pics Brian - i think they look good on the car, not too out of place!
Thing is i only have about 2-3k left on my 'summer' tyres...decisions, decisions..
All weather tyres??
 
If it's the Audi bags you're after, it's actually cheaper direct from the dealer - £25 incl VAT. There are two sizes.

My 17" Dunlop Winter Sport 4Ds went on yesterday - £610 fitted. I bought some of the standard Audi rims from eBay for 220.

Now, bring on the snow!
 
I'll hopefully get my 16" steels fitted tomorrow. They're gonna look pretty naff I'd say but they're there to serve a purpose, would have been better if they looked good too though:laugh:
 
are audi doing the scheme this year? i've heard nowt....
 
£1200+ is stupid money IMO

Get the tyres from oponeo.co.uk (cheapest by far that I have found and delivered 36hrs after they were ordered!)
Then get genuine Audi alloys from eBay, there is no reason why you need to spend anywhere near a grand, let alone £1,200+ for new Audi alloys fitted with new good quality winter tyres.

I have been using them for the last two years and can highly recommend Nokian WR G2’s and WR A3’s, they are premium brand tyre at budget brand prices.

I would not go through a winter again by choice without them, they are for the whole winter not just the few days we get snow (then they are almost unstoppable)

As for not using winter tyres just because others are going to slid into you, well how pathetic! drive sensibly and with enough of a gap between yourself and the car in front and most accidents can be avoided, the difference is with winter tyres fitted you will be able to control your car providing you are driving sensibly.
 
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I used mytyres the year before (before I came across oponeo) and they were the cheapest and delivered almost as quick (3 days IIRC), this time though oponeo were over £10 per tyre cheaper…. and there prices do not seem to fluctuate daily like on mytyres.

But yes it is ALWAYS worth shopping around (just make sure you are comparing like for like - not forgetting the load index and speed rating)
 
Gizmo68 said:
£1200+ is stupid money IMO

Get the tyres from oponeo.co.uk (cheapest by far that I have found and delivered 36hrs after they were ordered!)
Then get genuine Audi alloys from eBay, there is no reason why you need to spend anywhere near a grand, let alone £1,200+ for new Audi alloys fitted with new good quality winter tyres.

I have been using them for the last two years and can highly recommend Nokian WR G2’s and WR A3’s, they are premium brand tyre at budget brand prices.

I would not go through a winter again by choice without them, they are for the whole winter not just the few days we get snow (then they are almost unstoppable)

As for not using winter tyres just because others are going to slid into you, well how pathetic! drive sensibly and with enough of a gap between yourself and the car in front and most accidents can be avoided, the difference is with winter tyres fitted you will be able to control your car providing you are driving sensibly.
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I tried to get 18 inch winter wheels for my S4 (17s won't fit) for around the £1000 mark but it is almost impossible, second hand 18 inch OEM alloys are like rocking horse sh!t and the ones that are available are pretty expensive. I ended up with new RS6 replicas with Dunlop 4ds for £1200 fitted, very happy with them and should last me while I have the car
 
showing my ignorance, the pdf on Audi's site shows winter tyre types for the A4 but says "Exclusions : not for 200Kw" ~ what's that mean?

i've currently got 255s on a 19" rim on my Dynamik, does anyone have suggestions what size alloy/tyre i should go for? i think last year's deal was talking about putting thicker 17" on?
 
wolfie138 said:
showing my ignorance, the pdf on Audi's site shows winter tyre types for the A4 but says "Exclusions : not for 200Kw" ~ what's that mean?

i've currently got 255s on a 19" rim on my Dynamik, does anyone have suggestions what size alloy/tyre i should go for? i think last year's deal was talking about putting thicker 17" on?
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Have a look at the sticker on the drivers door, that will tell you the correct winter tyre size for the car. The exclusion may be due to the fact that the 17s may not fit over your brake calipers as is the case with my S4 hence the need for 18s.
 
200kW = 268HP or 272PS in German-speak, so I suppose it might well be due to the brakes on the higher-powered models.

17" are of course cheaper (that's what I've bought) but if the Continental winter tyre expert on motor-talk.de is to be believed, in winter tyre terms there is absolutely no harm in going for the larger rims these days. He even suggested going up an inch in rim size for the winter tyres!
 
longp2 said:
Have a look at the sticker on the drivers door, that will tell you the correct winter tyre size for the car. The exclusion may be due to the fact that the 17s may not fit over your brake calipers as is the case with my S4 hence the need for 18s.
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What size brakes do the S4 have? Must be pretty big if 18s are needed.
 
Mcdubber1 said:
What size brakes do the S4 have? Must be pretty big if 18s are needed.
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Don't know the actual dimensions(Not as big as the RS4 stoppers but bigger than the standard A4 ones) but 17 inch wheels are too small, even with the 18s on I couldn't get my wheel brush between the caliper and the inside of the wheel to clean them.
 
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