A4 19" le mans rs4 wheels on an A5

[chrisy t]

Hi guys,

hope you can help me, I really want to change the wheels on my a5 coupé as I currently have the 19" Y split wheels but I have gone off them, i would really like a set of the rs4 le mans multi spoke wheels. You can get them no problem in 20" for the a5 but they don't seem to do the 19" for a5. They make them in 19" for the a4 so wondered would these go on my a5? I know the ET is different but I haven't got a clue what this means when it comes down to alloy wheels. Hope you can help me.

P.S. the reason I am avoiding the 20" wheels is because I am worried I will consume more fuel and more wear and tear on the car etc. will I notice a big difference if I go up an inch in size? I have an a5 coupé 3.0 tdi Quattro s line 7 speed s-tronic.

Hope somebody can help me.

Cheers
Chris

 

[desertstorm]

You probably will get a reduction in both ride quality and mpg going to 20 inch wheels. Plus the cost of the tyres increases as well.
The ET of a wheel is basically the position of the mounting face within the wheel.
The smaller the number the more "poke" the wheel has, so it will sit further out away from the car.

http://www.1010tires.com/Tools/Wheel-Offset-Calculator#

An typical ET for an A4 19 inch x 8.5 inch wheel is 43mm http://www.partsbase.org/audi/audi-a4-avant-a4-eu-2009-60190-aluminium-rim-hub-cap/

On an A5 a 19 inch X 8.5 inch wheel has an ET of 32mm http://www.partsbase.org/audi/audi-a5-s5-coupe-sportback-a5co-eu-2009-60190-aluminium-rim-hub-cap/

So the difference in offset is 43-32 = 11mm . So if you mounted an A4 19 inch wheel on your A5 it would sit 11mm further in than an existing A5 wheel, you could sort this by just fitting 10mm spacers all round.

Going the other way trying to fit an A5 wheel on an A4 the wheel would sit 11mm further out, which may be an issue but you would need to machine the back of the wheel to get the correct clearance, and you can only take a few mm off the back of a wheel.

So it's likely that you can fit the 19 inch A4 wheels on your car you just need to check the ET's and you may need spacers to get the correct fitment.

Karl.

 

[chrisy t]

Thanks for the reply Karl, this has been really helpful, it looks like i could probs get away with the wheels for the a4 by using 12mm spacers then. Do you think this will have an impact on performance etc. and are spacers safe to use, good for car etc.? Its such a shame they dont make them in 19 inch form for the A5!

Cheers
Chris

 

[desertstorm]

There's no problem using Hubcentric spacers with longer bolts, there are many modified cars out on the road using them.
I would personally draw the line at things like wobble bolts which you would use to alter the PCD of a wheel. So if you wanted to put wheels with a 5 x 114 PCD onto 5 x 112 you could use wobble bolts.