ContiSport 3's

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ub7rm

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So my car came with 19" conti sport 3's fitted on it when I took delivery last October. At the end of October I switched over to 18" winter tyres (also continental) and all was well.

Couple of weeks ago I switched back to the summer wheels and they are what I can only describe as frightening. If there is any change in camber or they catch the edge of the white line or whatever they dart around and generally frighten the **** out of me.

And they are noisier than the winter tyres I had on. Seriously considering ditching them for a nice set of Michelin PS3's instead.

Am I the only one to think this or does anyone else have an issue with them.

To be fair, when they are behaving and its dry the grip is excellent.
 
My Conti 3s are also noisy and have now started drumming (9000 miles) they also tramline but if you run them at 36 psi they seem a bit better. As soon as I can justify it I will change to Goodyear asymmetric 2 or maybe PS3 -really disappointed with the Contis as I have always liked them.
 
I think it's probably a combination of the width of them and a small steering wheel.
My B8.5 BE Quattro is skittish & tramlines all over the place. It's actually a pain in the backside to drive on my local roads. On a good A-road or motorway it's great; but most of my driving is on A & B-roads in Lincolnshire, which are like something from 80's Spain......(pretty crap.)
I'm running Conti 3's on the rear & Pirelli on the front, when they are due to be changed I'll probably go for Khumo Ecsta Sport LE; had them on previous cars and bang for buck they are awesome.
 
No no no

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WOW!

Did tyre weld not sort that out!

All jokes aside; looks like a serious failure. I hope all involved were ok.

I never had any issues with my previous sets before: I had 1 set on a Octavia VRS and 2 sets on a VW T4.
 
One is unlucky, two is suspicious, three is a fault.
 
Obviously a bad batch.

I had a problem with one of my side walls bulging, my tyre fitter got them replaced under warranty.
 
ub7rm said:
So my car came with 19" conti sport 3's fitted on it when I took delivery last October. At the end of October I switched over to 18" winter tyres (also continental) and all was well.

Couple of weeks ago I switched back to the summer wheels and they are what I can only describe as frightening. If there is any change in camber or they catch the edge of the white line or whatever they dart around and generally frighten the **** out of me.

And they are noisier than the winter tyres I had on. Seriously considering ditching them for a nice set of Michelin PS3's instead.

Am I the only one to think this or does anyone else have an issue with them.

To be fair, when they are behaving and its dry the grip is excellent.
Click to expand...

I had those on my 3.0 Tdi and had similar problems. I now have Michelin PS3's and they have transformed the car, no more tramlining and snatching. If I had known how much difference they would make I would have ditched the Continentals sooner.
 
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I had a set of Kumhos on my B7 with no issues. They didn't last any longer than the Conti s though.
 
They look like they have been run badly under-inflated or driven on flat.
I have had Khumos in the past with no issues. A very decent tyre for the money IMO.
 
One set was my dad's , happened to both front inside Kumho's and none of the above happened under inflation or any punctures occurred.

Rears were MPS3 , far superior in many people's opinion and what was replaced with a set of 4 six months ago .

I've had good service from KU31 but I don't understand Kumho's 3.5 mm rim protector offering. When Goodyear F1's give you a double 1 pound coins width.

When I had these on a veteran mot tester went mad saying get that Korean crap off , now I know . Cheap for a reason .
 
Back to the original post, I just put my Conti3's back on after winter tyres and have also noticed the tramlining again, but the feedback and feel is good to have back. It seems you can't have it all, well not at the same time.
 
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Interesting reading, ive had contis on all my Audis and always thought they were a good tyre.
My S4 has been back to dealers twice about the steering, had alignment and everything check but still feels
Wrong to me. Steering just doesn't sit straight and (as described above) seems to dart around when road camber changes. Now I know that 19" wheels are prone to tramlining, but it does feel scary.
After reading a few posts like this, I will defo be trying Michelin next.
 
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I've never experienced anything like it - always had PS3's previously where I've bought the tyres and they are a sublime tyre in terms of handling in the wet and dry with great wear to boot.

Had I not just changed from a different tyre I would be thinking there was something wrong with the car.

These effects are a lot more prevelant on, as said, B roads and the like. On A roads and above you probably wouldn't notice much wrong.
 
So in your opinion guys what's the best all round tyres for the 19" alloys? Preferably softest and quietest ride! I have to change my front set shortly...
 
PS3 or asymmetric 2 almost down to personal preference, there are a lot of tyre tests out there but nothing conclusive. Conti 5s also get good write ups but personally I wouldn't go with them after my experience of the 3s.

My preference would be for the goodyears.
 
I have a very similar feeling as the OP. I had dunlop 3d winters on, still on the 19's. Tramlining was never evident with the Dunlop Winters. Put my Conti 3's back on a few weeks ago and instantly started to notice the Tramlining and skittering when cornering hard. Unfortunately when I bought the car the dealer put on brand new conti 3's so I'll be lucky if they've done 2k, so cant justify chaning them. When I do change I certainly wont be buying them again.
 
I had the same issue with contis and tyre splitting. Only on inner wall. I got a refund from conti for the % of tread left. Eg, 8mm nearly full refund, 4mm half refund.
 
My wife might be helping out with the dilemma to change or not to change, she's sent me a picture of a sorry looking Rotor and a chunk out of the tyre. She managed all winter not to scratch the winter wheels but this is the second time in two weeks she's been bothering kerbs with the rotors. ***.
 
I have the Peelers fitted to mine. The wheels were painted ferric grey when I bought it, 3 weeks later my wife kerbed the front. I had it repaired. 1 month after that, she kerbed the rear...... was not amused. Decided to wait until after the winter then get them powder coated (shadow chrome) instead of painted as the winter was not good to them. Now thinking i might source Rotors instead as I think they look better.

On a side note, she is no longer allowed to drive the car. She blames the wheels as the tyres are "too much of a low profile". I blame the squidgy bit behind the steering wheel!
 
Rotors have a diamond cut lip which makes them more difficult and expensive to repair as it would seem. So it might be out of the frying pan into the fire with you.
 
Keef said:
Interesting reading, ive had contis on all my Audis and always thought they were a good tyre.
My S4 has been back to dealers twice about the steering, had alignment and everything check but still feels
Wrong to me. Steering just doesn't sit straight and (as described above) seems to dart around when road camber changes. Now I know that 19" wheels are prone to tramlining, but it does feel scary.
After reading a few posts like this, I will defo be trying Michelin next.
Click to expand...
Hello. This post has finally pushed me to sign up to what I have found to be a very useful, informative and entertaining forum since I first started lurking on here a year ago just after ordering my S4 Avant. (Yes yet another S4! With ADS, Damper Control, de-badging, folding+dimming mirrors, heated front seats, load area fixing kit, sports diff, B&O + Symphony, reversible load mat, flat bottom steering wheel, storage pack, floret silver)

Generally very happy with my new motor but Keef's post strikes a chord as my steering also doesn't feel 'quite right'. Mine just has the standard 18" wheels and Pirelli Cinturatos but it also tramlines fairly easily and the steering also has another couple of characteristics that aren't perfect. Shortly after I picked it up I noticed that it had a tendency to pull to the left (after taking account of any road camber.) Even after I coaxed it into tramlining to the right (on empty-ish motorways), the pull to the left would soon kick back in and it would head back to the hard shoulder. This was brought to the attention of the supplying dealer who advised that the suspension needed time to "settle down" and if it still exhibited this behaviour after 2,000 miles to bring it in. As it probably had nothing to do with the suspension and didn't get any better I brought it in at 2,000 miles and they checked the tracking and performed a wheel realignment which did improve things a lot. It still isn't perfect though. When going in a straight line I usually still have to put a little right hand turn pressure on the steering wheel to keep going straight. Nowhere near as much as in those first 2,000 miles though. Also, if I hold the steering wheel at what I feel is straight on, in comparison to the dashboard, the car steers to the left. Almost as if the steering wheel needs removing and rotating marginally to the right before being put back on. Finally something which I hope I'm not imagining and which I've only noticed fairly recently is that I can't really sense any big difference in steering feel between the four ADS modes. Whilst all the other variables are noticeable, the steering in Dynamic feels quite similar if not the same as in Efficiency, Comfort etc.. Does this sound normal? Maybe the differences only really kick in when really pushing it to extremes (can't say I've done that yet) but although I didn't opt for dynamic steering I understand there still should be some difference in feel courtesy of the ADS modes?

As I'm having the 9,000 mile oil change service done next week (different dealer) I've asked them to take a look at the steering again but if anyone has any tips it would be much appreciated.
 
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ub7rm said:
So my car came with 19" conti sport 3's fitted on it when I took delivery last October. At the end of October I switched over to 18" winter tyres (also continental) and all was well.

Couple of weeks ago I switched back to the summer wheels and they are what I can only describe as frightening. If there is any change in camber or they catch the edge of the white line or whatever they dart around and generally frighten the **** out of me.

And they are noisier than the winter tyres I had on. Seriously considering ditching them for a nice set of Michelin PS3's instead.

Am I the only one to think this or does anyone else have an issue with them.

To be fair, when they are behaving and its dry the grip is excellent.
Click to expand...
Funny you should say that. I had just put new Conti SC3's on my 5 series BMW a month or so ago. And it was as you say, a frightening experience. My car went from handling beautifully and being stuck to the road to a tail happy, wollowy mess! It transformed the way the car drove, for the worse and I was seriously considering changing them. Then I wrote the car off and bought the S4. Lol
 
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I’m relieved by the fact it’s not just me or my paranoia then!
By coincidence my car is at the dealer today for my 10k oil change
They are also looking into the steering issue, they have checked the tracking / alignment and steering wheel position (all of which they did last time)
And following test drive, say there is no issue and the behaviour is normal for ‘our’ road conditions.

I’m collecting the car in the morning so will update the post tomorrow.


EDIT: to respond to the other point, when i put my car in dynamic mode the steering stiffens up considerably (i have Dynamic steering)
Doesn’t stop the tram lining either
 
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Interesting read and will be also interesting to see what Keef's dealer comes back with (if anything).
In the last 10 years I have had 4 Audi's - 2 x A4, 1 x TT and now the S4, and all of them (including the new S4) have had the steering wheel slightly set right (to go straight) and a slight pull to the left, and I do believe this is the way they are set up at the factory (for some reason). I took my TT to a local tyre fitter who I use and who has the full Hunter equipment last year, for a full 4 wheel alignment.
The guy working the Hunter knew his stuff and let me watch and chat while he worked on the TT.
First thing he said is 'bet your car pulls slightly left and the steering wheel is slightly off'.....ummm yeah.
He went on to explain that Audi (who use Hunter equipment at the factories btw) set them up straight, but as 90% of UK roads have a slight camber for drainage, you get a slight left pull which requires slight right steering input. He sets a slight right track to counter this out. Sure enough 40mins and £60 later my TT ran true as an arrow and the steering wheel was bob on straight (when going straight).
This bears up I think, as I have noticed on the S4 that on a dead level bit of ground the steering wheel is straight, when driving on a straight bit of road it always seems slightly right.
I must get the S4 booked in soon !

Incidentally @Hear-Vier - the way to straighten the steering wheel is to set it straight and adjust the tracking to match, not the other way round :friendly wink:
 
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Conti SC3's on mine for the past year and they used to tramline and dart around all over the place as mentioned here. I've had Vredstein Ultrac Vorti's on for a week now and they are a complete world of difference, probably the best tyres I've had on any car. Pour down with rain yesterday morning and it may have well been a warm summers day with the grip levels. The downside is they are supposed to be worse for fuel economy but according to my DIS (...yeah I know) I've getting 28/29 MPG on my normal commute on these compared to 25/26 MPG from my Contis.....

......they are a bit noisier though
 
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Right, car has been road tested by 2 master techs, and driven back to back with another S4.
Alignment is as is should be (appartently). So the verdict is the car behaves as it should do!?!
I didn't really expect a different answer from them to be honest.
Need new tyres in a few k miles so will definitely be trying Micheln next, only question will be
Super sport or sport 3??
 
Hear-Vier said:
Mine just has the standard 18" wheels and Pirelli Cinturatos but it also tramlines fairly easily and the steering also has another couple of characteristics that aren't perfect. Shortly after I picked it up I noticed that it had a tendency to pull to the left
Click to expand...

Just to let you know I have the standard 18"s and Pirelli Cinturatos and I have not had these issues. My driving is a mix of motorway, A and B roads. Car is a June 2014 S4.
 
Keef - sorry to hear they didn't fix it for you, but good to know that scotty76's same set up as mine is OK so remaining hopeful for when it has the service. Will report back with the results. I've heard that swapping the tires around nearside to offside can sometimes solve tramlining, as apparently there can be tiny differences in manufacturing between the exact same model of tyre that can cause this. Thanks to StuBill for the interesting tracking post, and a relief to see that the steering wheel wouldn't need to be removed to make it straight when going straight, one less complicated thing for the dealer to do... Hopefully Audi will sort it our rather than having to fork out another £60 at a Hunter place. Guess it would kind of make sense to tailor the tracking to the country where the car is sold / most used, but presumably when it is then taken over to Europe 90% of the time the camber will be going the other way and that would feel odd. My old B5 A4 drove straight perfectly but that was a smaller lighter car without the wider tyres that can exaggerate tramlining. As it stands I think the current steering set-up question mark is stopping me from going a bit faster through the corners and enjoying the sports diff more.
 
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If you thinks Conti3's are bad you want to try some Pirelli P-Zero's. These were positively dangerous!

Changed to Conti3's and never looked back TBH (that was on a B8 A4 S-line with OEM 19's)
 
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Yes, been there done that - my very first B8 had 19” wheels and came with Pirelli P-Zero's!
Don’t get me wrong my last 3 Audi’s have had 19s and Conti 2&3's and I have been really happy
with them overall, even replaced with the same when they needed doing.

Plus after doing a few more miles over the weekend the steering does feel slightly better
I had the dealers swap front to back and that seems to have helped,
but the tram lining is still way worse than I’ve ever experienced before,

I’ve just gota deal with it i guess - time for me to nut-up, shut-up and enjoy the car! :s4addict:
 
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One other possible cause of tramlining suggested to me by a non Audi-Dealer engineer: The self-centering of the steering wheel not working quite as well as it should. i.e. the wheel not moving back to straight-on by itself when you take your hands off. He went on to explain that this could be caused by the enclosure surrounding the steering column (or associated gubbins) being slightly too tight. Maybe the factory had too much torque dialed into their steering assembly tools when they put our cars together! (mine was built 08/14)
 
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Ha ha just when i thought i was done!

Hopefully this isn’t the cause in my case as i had the wheel changed for an RS4 wheel prior to collection, this has since been checked (and rechecked) and seems to be weighted /setup up correctly.

Early days, my paranoia was telling me the wheel was a fake (bought from the Czech Republic) and the weight / balance was causing the issue! :scared2:
 
Just wanted to add my opinion into the discussion here, as I thought I was going mad, but the last 2 weeks have been a revelation.
Last July took delivery of an A4 2.0 TDI Quattro with Continentals on from the factory. Incredibly skittish and tramlined on any road surface that wasn't massively smooth, and the wear rate was ridiculous (down to 3.5mm on the fronts after about 5k, and then swapped front to back). Had Audi look at the wear, which was not classed as abnormal (my brother in law has an identical car which also ate the fronts in 7k), and so 2 weeks ago all 4 tyres needed replacing.
I've always been a fan of Michelin, so had 4 x Michelin Pilot Sport 3's put on just before a trip down to Truro from Chesterfield (got just under 8.5k from the Contis). Have now done 1k on the new rubber, and it's an absolute revelation - tram lining has gone, the ride feels far better, and it seems to handle just as well.

Just my opinion, but I know I'm going to enjoy driving the car far more now.
 
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