A5 tyre and alloys questions / recommendations

[c_tahoe]

Hi,

A bit of a double barrelled but linked question.

Currently I have the standard 17 inch alloys on my TDI SE A5 coupe with Michelin tyres on when bought.

It tramlines quite easily on bevelled motorways and in roadworks, is this normal? Tyre pressures have been checked and fine.

So my options are since the front tyres are almost up for re newel, go for some black/grey 18 inch wheels to set off the white colour of the car, but will that make the drive worse? Or if the tram lining will get worse, stick with the 17 inches and put new tyres on, if so what would you recommend? High motorway miles, used to get 20k of my A3 front Michelin Primacy's and thats what are on the A5 at the moment.

Attracted to the Black Rotor 18 inch wheels.........sets on eBay new for £400 wheel only.....

Thanks in advance!

 

[Statler]

I've tramlined and pulled for most of my ownership. Car is going back for more checks and a top arm adjustment in a week or two.

Tramlining is usually just a sign of needing a proper wheel alignment done but is also down to tyre depth and type.
Some tyres tramline more than others, take my last BMW on 19's. The standard Bridgestone runflats tramlined like buggery and got progressively worse as the wore down. I replaced them with standard tyres, Vredestein Sessanta Ultrac, and had an alighment done. It was like night and day. The car was transformed into something I could actually drive on horrible roads.....

It is commonly said that the wider the tyre the wose the tramlining, but this shouldn't always be the case.

18's shouldn't affect the ride much and new tyres will help but get the alignment done as well.

 

[Agric04]

My previous A5 was terrible for tramlining, it was a 2013 2.0tdi fwd manual black edition coupe with 19" rotors. I put it down to it being a fwd as my current 2015 2.0tdi Quattro s-tronic black edition coupe with 19" wheels and the exact same tyres is a completely different beast, totally planted and feels very reassuring. I'm never going back to 2wd, Quattro all the way for me

 

[DrEskimo]

I went from 18s to 20s on my FWD A5 and think there was a slight improvement with regards to tramlining. However, as above I'm now in an S5 and don't ever notice it so...

Oh and 18" rotors aren't an option for the A5 so they are either from another model and won't fit properly or they are aftermarket. A5 have the rotors in either 19 or 20".

 

[Swanny356]

If you are upgrading I'd go 19" instead of 18" - looks much better.

Every other Audi seems to have rotors these days - nice but too common now IMO!