Facelift Pirelli Tyre Defects - Response

A friend of my neighbours son has an RS3 and after having a blowout/puncture had to be recovered to the local Audi garage and had two new tyres fitted. (He got them himself and garage fitted them as far as I know ) I have told him about this thread( I keep nagging him to register here ) but as he has not got the tyres he had taken off the car I doubt if he would be able to get them .
He has ordered two for the rear as well .
The two tyres were knackered .
 
Pinky1959 said:
A friend of my neighbours son has an RS3 and after having a blowout/puncture had to be recovered to the local Audi garage and had two new tyres fitted. (He got them himself and garage fitted them as far as I know ) I have told him about this thread( I keep nagging him to register here ) but as he has not got the tyres he had taken off the car I doubt if he would be able to get them .
He has ordered two for the rear as well .
The two tyres were knackered .
Click to expand...

Get him to register, I can add him to the list. I hope at least if Pirelli do find a solution they will contact everybody on the list.

If he can he needs to try and get the tyres back ASAP.
 
Hi
I am a new user here, but fed up with endless punctures, basically every time the car sees a pothole! The S3 has an option of 18" wheels and a taller tyre that makes this problem go away generally it seems. But Audi seem to insist that this is not an option on the RS3. Given there is no spare, it means a lorry ride home and after 5 of these in the last year, the joke about it saving petrol is wearing thin. Can a smaller wheel/taller tyre combination be done?
 
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My 2019 RS3 should be here (California) next month. The first item of business is new, lighter wheels and Michelin PS4 tyres. I’m worried that I’ll have to pay for someone to take the shi* Perelli tyres away.
 
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BzzzBom said:
My 2019 RS3 should be here (California) next month. The first item of business is new, lighter wheels and Michelin PS4 tyres. I’m worried that I’ll have to pay for someone to take the shi* Perelli tyres away.
Click to expand...

Really, you need to give the Pirelli tyres a chance. The issue is not on all cars.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Rob Bell said:
Hi
I am a new user here, but fed up with endless punctures, basically every time the car sees a pothole! The S3 has an option of 18" wheels and a taller tyre that makes this problem go away generally it seems. But Audi seem to insist that this is not an option on the RS3. Given there is no spare, it means a lorry ride home and after 5 of these in the last year, the joke about it saving petrol is wearing thin. Can a smaller wheel/taller tyre combination be done?
Click to expand...

Hi,

Firstly not sure where you are driving, that or you must have very bad luck. Can’t say any of us have suffered punctures *touches wood* from potholes in a long while? Can’t recall a case personally. My sidewall bubbled after being pinched what they think, but that is it.

I’m not convinced the additional rubber would solve your problem, but could be wrong. Maybe change to a different tyre?

I mean this in the politest sense, because this is really an unrelated question about 18” wheels. This thread is already very big and hard to follow some days.

There are other threads on 18” wheels that I managed to pick up with the search function, hope you find a solution to your problem.

https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/18-wheels.294962/

https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/18-winter-wheels-tyres-any-fit-the-8v-rs3.260522/
 
I can add my name to the list of someone who has recently had a tyre split due to a small pothole. Audi Tetbury told me the tyre was in good condition so must have been an awkward pinch on the tyre that caused it. With all this chat about issues, I wonder if there is more to it than seemed in my case......
 
jedster2000 said:
I can add my name to the list of someone who has recently had a tyre split due to a small pothole. Audi Tetbury told me the tyre was in good condition so must have been an awkward pinch on the tyre that caused it. With all this chat about issues, I wonder if there is more to it than seemed in my case......
Click to expand...
A fellow RS3 owner near Cirencester by any chance?
 
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jedster2000 said:
I can add my name to the list of someone who has recently had a tyre split due to a small pothole. Audi Tetbury told me the tyre was in good condition so must have been an awkward pinch on the tyre that caused it. With all this chat about issues, I wonder if there is more to it than seemed in my case......
Click to expand...

That is a separate issue, but what you can do is contact Pirelli and get them to collect your tyres / just the failed tyre.

They will section it and tell you what caused the failure.
 
audi upgrades
All those effected on here need to contact pirelli individually imho.
If they are getting bombarded with emails a calls from different people day in day out then they may just stand up and offer a free tyre recall at one of the outlets, who knows.

Forget contacting Audi as they clearly have washed there hands of this.
Sometimes you need to go back to the source.
 
All those effected on here need to contact pirelli individually imho.
If they are getting bombarded with emails a calls from different people day in day out then they may just stand up and offer a free tyre recall at one of the outlets, who knows.

Forget contacting Audi as they clearly have washed there hands of this.
Sometimes you need to go back to the source.
 
DW81 said:
All those effected on here need to contact pirelli individually imho.
If they are getting bombarded with emails a calls from different people day in day out then they may just stand up and offer a free tyre recall at one of the outlets, who knows.

Forget contacting Audi as they clearly have washed there hands of this.
Sometimes you need to go back to the source.
Click to expand...

Exactly that but not everybody has the get up and go to send an email, which is really irritating.... really irritating.

Such little effort required, compared to what I’ve been doing anyway.
 
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I've got Pirelli coming to my house to inspect the tyres on Thursday, dead easy to sort out thanks to Matt (AudiNutta) providing the details
 
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BottomFeeder said:
I've got Pirelli coming to my house to inspect the tyres on Thursday, dead easy to sort out thanks to Matt (AudiNutta) providing the details
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated and really happy to hear they are coming out.. :) They will come out to every single car that complaints, it’s just having owners willing to do it.

I’m not ignoring your PM, try to reply to thing in order and am in the middle of a shift rotation in work hence restricted time to reply.
 
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AudiNutta said:
Exactly that but not everybody has the get up and go to send an email, which is really irritating.... really irritating.

Such little effort required, compared to what I’ve been doing anyway.
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Then just worry about yourself then Matt, and if people can not be bothered to pursue it themselves then that’s up to them.
 
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DW81 said:
Then just worry about yourself then Matt, and if people can not be bothered to pursue it themselves then that’s up to them.
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That’s the annoying part it’s not a case of one man band will do the job, we need big numbers! I want this issue sorted for all of us, but at the same time everybody needs to be willing to do their bit and unfortunately for this issue if people don’t there isn’t any hope.
 
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Well good luck with your quest, I reckon this one is never going to be resolved mate, personally concentrate on your own tyres and let others worry mate, your too young burdening yourself with this fiasco.
 
DW81 said:
Well good luck with your quest, I reckon this one is never going to be resolved mate, personally concentrate on your own tyres and let others worry mate, your too young burdening yourself with this fiasco.
Click to expand...

I’m gonna need it haha! Keeping at it for now, seems silly not to after so long.

Burdening myself with this takes my mind off of other burdens if I’m honest ;) Mrs’ always says the forum is a nuisance...
 
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My car was in with Audi yesterday, initially wanted to charge me £190 for a diagnostic check :-S first I heard was when I turned up with my keys - they waived the fee though.

Anyway, I didn't get any information about how badly the alignment was set up, but it must have been bad as it was apparently well out! Also they thought it was so bad that it must have been done by a third party, so were asking whom had done my tyres, explained that my tyres were fitted on the drive by a mobile fitter so no alignment was done other than in the factory. Didn't get a read out of the alignment work as they said since it wasn't paid for the documentation wasn't available. Hoping I've not been fobbed off - suppose we'll see if these tyres start going the same way......

Also, Pirelli coming to my house @ 15:00 today for the tyres.
 
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OK my tyres have been taken away by Nigel from Pirelli for further inspection. As Matt says please keep hold of your tyres, it's so easy to sort this out and Nigel mentioned that they are trying to get a cross section of various tyres from left/right hand markets on different suspension setups etc. so please do make the small effort to get them collected.
 
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BottomFeeder said:
My car was in with Audi yesterday, initially wanted to charge me £190 for a diagnostic check :-S first I heard was when I turned up with my keys - they waived the fee though.

Anyway, I didn't get any information about how badly the alignment was set up, but it must have been bad as it was apparently well out! Also they thought it was so bad that it must have been done by a third party, so were asking whom had done my tyres, explained that my tyres were fitted on the drive by a mobile fitter so no alignment was done other than in the factory. Didn't get a read out of the alignment work as they said since it wasn't paid for the documentation wasn't available. Hoping I've not been fobbed off - suppose we'll see if these tyres start going the same way......

Also, Pirelli coming to my house @ 15:00 today for the tyres.
Click to expand...

Hmm now that’s quite strange, yes they can’t give you an invoice printout but they absolutely could give you an alignment printout. I would go back to them and request this, it will be saved on their computer I would expect. You need this to pursue with Pirelli, Audi told me that there was an issue with my alignment.. I think it was 0.05 of a degree on one adjustment. Deflecting from the problem I suspect.

BottomFeeder said:
OK my tyres have been taken away by Nigel from Pirelli for further inspection. As Matt says please keep hold of your tyres, it's so easy to sort this out and Nigel mentioned that they are trying to get a cross section of various tyres from left/right hand markets on different suspension setups etc. so please do make the small effort to get them collected.
Click to expand...

That’s fantastic feedback thank you very much. I’m glad you were able to efficiently arrange for your tyres to be collected and I hope now you’ve seen even a small part of why I’ve still got hope. Pirelli are doing what they can with all the powers that they have for what really, so far is an issue affecting a rather small amount of cars (reported cars that is).

Do let us know what the reports states when you get it back, I suspect it will have the same outcome as the rest however. Not that this is a bad thing, the more sections Pirelli have the more hope we have.

Again, can’t thank you enough for your efforts.
 
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T-800 said:
235 a better option

Look just right too

b8409d79cb8c6ba3c174ef2e5455f2b5.jpg
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That does look good
 
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AudiNutta said:
It’s totally “normal” for an RS car and I “should be happy to get 5000 miles out of tyres on an RS3”.
Click to expand...

That is terrible, if the tyre was pretty bald all round fair enough, however very clearly not the case with these issues
 
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Firstly thanks to @AudiNutta for what must have been the most frustrating battle against Audi. It's great to see that at least Pirelli are taking an interest in all this.

Sadly I experienced a blow-out recently. Thankfully not driving fast and not too far from home. I was aware that my tyres were approaching time for a change, but sadly I only ever checked the wear indicators on the tread. When I checked the full tread I was absolutely amazed at what I found (excuse the muddy tyres).

Tyres had completed 11.5k miles so not horrendous and I've always found Pirelli to be quite a soft compound.

The question now is what tyres to go to. I've always had Michelin PS4, but reading concerns about the effects on the rolling circumference etc.. Also I'm aware of others going to a smaller section, but surely this could expose you to invalidating your insurance if you are fitting incorrect tyre sizes......

...Anyway that's for another thread.

For info the car is a 2018 saloon running the 255/30/19 section fronts and a Face lift car. Totally standard and no Mag-ride.

@AudiNutta I'll get my email off to Pirelli and they are more than welcome to collect them if they want them!!!

Tyre is the Front near side.

IMG 1957
IMG 1958
 
OK, so having previously thought that my car would be immune to this, I have just returned from a 650 mile round trip (all motorway) to find that the inside edges are looking les
IMG 20190614 153528
IMG 20190614 153525
s happy with some evidence of feathering on the tread blocks.
 
Ad172 said:
Firstly thanks to @AudiNutta for what must have been the most frustrating battle against Audi. It's great to see that at least Pirelli are taking an interest in all this.

Sadly I experienced a blow-out recently. Thankfully not driving fast and not too far from home. I was aware that my tyres were approaching time for a change, but sadly I only ever checked the wear indicators on the tread. When I checked the full tread I was absolutely amazed at what I found (excuse the muddy tyres).

Tyres had completed 11.5k miles so not horrendous and I've always found Pirelli to be quite a soft compound.

The question now is what tyres to go to. I've always had Michelin PS4, but reading concerns about the effects on the rolling circumference etc.. Also I'm aware of others going to a smaller section, but surely this could expose you to invalidating your insurance if you are fitting incorrect tyre sizes......

...Anyway that's for another thread.

For info the car is a 2018 saloon running the 255/30/19 section fronts and a Face lift car. Totally standard and no Mag-ride.

@AudiNutta I'll get my email off to Pirelli and they are more than welcome to collect them if they want them!!!

Tyre is the Front near side.

View attachment 184663 View attachment 184664
Click to expand...

Thank you for your appreciation, it goes a long way!

Sorry to hear you are another suffering with this, I’m very happy to hear that you are willing to contact Pirelli.

I will send you a PM with a standard message to fill out some info and the email for my contact at Pirelli. They will absolutely want them!!
 
Splathead said:
OK, so having previously thought that my car would be immune to this, I have just returned from a 650 mile round trip (all motorway) to find that the inside edges are looking lesView attachment 184670 View attachment 184671 s happy with some evidence of feathering on the tread blocks.
Click to expand...

How many miles have you covered on those? Will be interesting to see if any more ‘non-sufferers’ will experience this now.
 
UPDATE:

I received an email from Pirelli today, Pirelli HQ in Milan are holding a meeting to discuss the RS3 specifically and the issues the UK owners are experiencing. Pirelli have said that it does seem to just be a UK issue and they have acknowledged that it is an “issue”.

Every single set of tyres is being sectioned, all data analysed and sent to Milan. Not a single tyre will be missed if reported and will all amount to a more positive outcome in the future.

I remain extremely hopeful in Pirelli after yet another extremely positive update, keep at it guys.

Now this is just me saying this not Pirelli so don’t read into it, but I’d say it’s worth contacting them even if your tyres still have life left in them. Reasons being, they will then have a record for you and numbers will build but also because Pirelli have kept my wearing but not totally failed tyres as a whole just in case Milan need them, a set not sectioned. Who knows if Pirelli need these tyres before they have reached the point of failure, a premature replacement pair might be agreeable? Can’t stress enough Pirelli have never suggested this, just it’s got to be worth reporting right? If they need one set of tyres that haven’t reached the point of failure, they may want more.

If Pirelli can do it, they will... simple as.
 
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Well done AudiNutta, you deserve a lot of credit for Pirelli taking this seriously. They also deserve credit for a much better response than Audi...:sly:
 
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rdj said:
Well done AudiNutta, you deserve a lot of credit for Pirelli taking this seriously. They also deserve credit for a much better response than Audi...:sly:
Click to expand...

Thank you very much! To be honest it hasn’t at any point been a battle, they’ve been a dream to work with. Whereas with Audi it’s always heated discussions, Pirelli genuinely want to solve this they have a huge motorsport heritage and quality really means a lot to them.. it’s not all about numbers. Whereas Audi are very happy to brush us all under the carpet and get back to drooling at the sales figures, after all what do we and our safety matter?

Pirelli are a rare breed, a very large scale company that cares about its customers and isn’t overcome with an ego from sales figures.

I feel I’ve made a good friend at Pirelli and will forever back them for the way they have handled this, I’ve had so many set backs with Audi over the years so they are a total breath of fresh air to deal with.

I do wonder some days if Audi are actually looking at this on the very down low, however the day that becomes true we all need to buy a lottery ticket or two.
 
I had to replace mine the other day at 14,500 klm. Like the others, the fronts inner edge was worn while the rest of the tyre had plenty of tread.
We had a little bit of discussion on this issue in the Oz forum and there was some good input. Based on this input And other comments I’m fairly convinced the issue is to do with the shape and construction of the tyre.

One of the guys who owns a respectable motor workshop said that if you put the car on a four wheel hoist and look at how the front tyres sit from under the car it gives you a big clue. The tyres are almost sitting on that inner edge with stock static negative camber. The car has a decent amount of castor, around 7.3 deg. So when you’re belting the car through a corner the high castor positions the wheel into a much higher dynamic neg camber. So in essence it’s riding/scrubbing hard on that inner edge where the tread ends, probably a weaker part of the tyre.

Cars that are running pressures at the top end of the range, ie. 44+ psi are getting better life as the high pressure is helping to keep the tyres off that inner edge.

I feel that the above is a feasible explanation for the premature wear. I’ve ditched the pirellis and fitted 275/30 Michelin ps4s all round, and the first thing I noticed is the improvement in ride quality. :)
 
T-800 said:
I’m not a professional

Goodyear say to increase the pressures.
Click to expand...

You seem to be :lmfao:

You have access to the inaccessible workshop manuals ;) I asked the local parts department and he reckons you can’t get a hold of updated ones unless you’re in the network otherwise risk having out of date info.

Well yours still have plenty of life so see how that goes, but I know increased pressure on Pirelli’s hasn’t done anything.
 
T-800 said:
I’m not a professional

Goodyear say to increase the pressures.
Click to expand...

What’s your TOE setting? I’d recommend setting zero deg.

What pressures were you running and did Goodyear recommend a pressure range?
 
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