Winter tyres vol 2

[RicksAlfas]

Cooper2 said:

I know the tyre size 245/40/18 and I am set on the tyres I want which are AO. The issue is whether or not an aftermarket wheel is needed and if purchase how can I verify it is the correct one. From the handbook:
If you would like to equip your
vehicle with a tire/rim combina- tion that is different from what was installed at the factory, con- sult with an authorized Audi dealer or authorized Audi Service Facility before making a pur- chase

It seems I also need to be aware of things like the offset for the wheels which are not visible from the front. All I know its 18” and 8.5j.

It looks like the Audi fitment is 8.5 x 18, PCD 112/5, offset 28.
e.g.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/4x-Original-Audi-A5-Winter...

OR

8.0 x 18, PCD 112/5, offset 31.
e.g.
https://shops.audi.com/en_GB/web/zubehoer/p/comple...


Both size is appropriate for 245 tyres.

If you go here: https://shops.audi.com/en_GB/web/zubehoer/sport-de...
You can login with your VIN number and it should tell you what fits. If you then choose one, it gives you the spec you need if you are buying aftermarket.

I know you are dead set on AO tyres, but all the AO marked winter tyres are old designs.
I had exactly the same thing with Mercedes. It's daft really, you would think the manufacturers would keep up.

If you go for AO tyres, aren't you as well going for Audi wheels too?

[anonymous-user]

300bhp/ton said:

Fitted my "winter" tyres...

More off road/mud tyres than proper winters though tbh.

[RammyMP]

Cooper2 said:

RicksAlfas said:

OK. Is your car listed here?
https://shops.audi.com/en_GB/web/zubehoer/sport-de...
If so, get the wheel info from there and then you can buy that size in aftermarket.

Appreciate your help and patience. Unfortunately they don’t have 18” for an Audi A5 Coupe 2017. My Audi shows 18” 8.5j and just want to make sure any aftermarket 18” 8.5j will be fine.

I’ve got a 2016 A5 with 18” wheels. My winters are on 17” wheels which were originally bought from a dealer, I bought them used from eBay for £200.

[Mr Tidy]

ruprechtmonkeyboy said:

More off road/mud tyres than proper winters though tbh.

And probably well below 300bhp per tonne!

[Monkeylegend]

300bhp/ton said:

Monkeylegend said:

Not necessarily. If you are on snow or ice with summer tyres or tyres with very little tread it's irrelevant if you have 2 or 4wd, you won't be going anywhere, it just means you have 4 wheels slipping rather than 2.

If your tyres have no traction they have no traction.

Unless you have crashed into an ice rink, that likelihood is pretty slim in the UK, at least in the densely populated south and south east.

Most times we get snow, 4wd will be an advantage.

Not sure about you but I don't have to crash onto an ice rink to experience black ice in the winter.

With the correct tyres for the prevailing conditions of course 4wd will be an advantage, but not if you have the wrong tyres.

The rubber contact between the car and the road is what gives you traction, or grip, or whatever you want to call it,not the drive system, and no traction means you are going nowhere.

I am sure you saw the 5th Gear ? programme where a 2wd Skoda Yetti, I think, got further up an indoor ski sloop on winter tyres than a 4wd drive with summer tyres proving beyond doubt that the appropriate tyres are more useful than 4wd in snow.

Edited by Monkeylegend on Thursday 27th September 08:31

[FiF]

Gents, it's 300bhp, never known to concede a point regardless of how specific and edge of argument the point is. Ignore is best course of action.

[300bhp/ton]

Monkeylegend said:

Not sure about you but I don't have to crash onto an ice rink to experience black ice in the winter.

With the correct tyres for the prevailing conditions of course 4wd will be an advantage, but not if you have the wrong tyres.

The rubber contact between the car and the road is what gives you traction, or grip, or whatever you want to call it,not the drive system, and no traction means you are going nowhere.

I am sure you saw the 5th Gear ? programme where a 2wd Skoda Yetti, I think, got further up an indoor ski sloop on winter tyres than a 4wd drive with summer tyres proving beyond doubt that the appropriate tyres are more useful than 4wd in snow.

Edited by Monkeylegend on Thursday 27th September 08:31

Yes saw that vid, the 4wd still pulled away better. But WTF!!! Come on, my entire argument has been SAME tyres FFS

[300bhp/ton]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Really? Do you??

Even on each and every different piece of asphalt and road section ?
Or do you not prefer to get out and deploy a moisture sensor to assess the situation, cross referencing through the tribology database, to know the demands on the drivetrain?


Jesus wept.

Drivers want a car that are more sure footed in the winter conditions.

A lot of folks are finding that they can drive happily around without using a database of brake pedal force vs. Road temperatures- with winter tyres.

You’re a hoot at parties I bet.

You only need to brake test once to assess conditions, unless conditions rapidly change.

Really is rather common sense, you only need to be in 1st gear and no going quick to see how easy lock-up will be or not, or if it kicks the ABS in.

[SydneySE]

I don't get it'; what are people expecting from their tires performance wise in the snow? The idea is to drive for the conditions- i.e pull away slowly (perhaps 2nd gear in some cars) and brake gently, and with anticipation. Keeping to the speed limit, especially around urban. areas, you won't have an issue. First few years after I moved to the UK I was driving a supercharged lotus exige S, with Yokohama A048 semislicks in the snow, no worries:

[RicksAlfas]

SydneySE said:

I don't get it'; what are people expecting from their tires performance wise in the snow? The idea is to drive for the conditions- i.e pull away slowly (perhaps 2nd gear in some cars) and brake gently, and with anticipation. Keeping to the speed limit, especially around urban. areas, you won't have an issue. First few years after I moved to the UK I was driving a supercharged lotus exige S, with Yokohama A048 semislicks in the snow, no worries:

But for us people who don't live in flat urban areas and are not driving heroes, are we OK to fit suitable tyres?


Great car by the way.

[JM]

SydneySE said:

I don't get it'; what are people expecting from their tires performance wise in the snow?

To be able to drive through snow drifts up to the bonnet.

[DailyHack]

I just run them all year now, seem to last as long as regular tyres, so all good for me also what our Continent cousin's seem to do also, who cba swapping wheels every 6 months, I use to do this but meh cba these days (wheels are usually seized on, what should take 30mins then takes a whole morning..) nah

Edited by DailyHack on Friday 28th September 12:09

[Munter]

SydneySE said:

I don't get it'; what are people expecting from their tires performance wise in the snow? The idea is to drive for the conditions- i.e pull away slowly (perhaps 2nd gear in some cars) and brake gently, and with anticipation. Keeping to the speed limit, especially around urban. areas, you won't have an issue. First few years after I moved to the UK I was driving a supercharged lotus exige S, with Yokohama A048 semislicks in the snow, no worries:

You know when the car is on the drive. There is ~1cm of snow down overnight. And you (without using the throttle), are gently just engaging the clutch, resulting in wheelspin and no forward motion. That's when I wished I'd fitted the new car with winters even though it was nearly spring.

[Willy Nilly]

GOG440 said:

valiant said:

poing said:

Willy Nilly said:

The Michelin Energy tyres on my Jazz could do with replacing and I'm thinking of going toward a more all season type tyre because they're quite poor in the wet and almost useless in a light dusting of snow.

Do the winter tyre beards have any recommendations and will there be much of an economy penalty?

On a Jazz I'd go for an all season.

Michelin Cross Climate seem to be current tyre of choice but have rather limited size and I think they aren't as good as the price promises. Goodyear Vector 4 season or Vredestein Quatrac would be my choice and are both well rated from owners.

I don't know any proper test covering these for economy but my gut says the Michelin would be slightly better for economy than the other 2 because it's a newer design but I doubt there is a significant difference unless you hypermile a lot.

Just gone for some Bridgestone A005s to be fitted next week. Brand new tyre, only released in May, and come in plenty of sizes, more so than the CCs.

In Bridgestones own tests, they appear to outperform to CCs especially on wet performance (you'd expect Bridgestone to say that though!) which for me living in the southeast is probably more important than outright snow performance but we'll see how they perform once on.

On a side note, was talking to the tyre chappie and he was saying that more and more people are turning to all season and winter tyres and stuff is already on back order as a lot of people were caught out last year and as their summers are wearing out, they're now turning to all seasons.

Funnily enough I had some Bridgestone a005's fitted to my wifes Zafira yesterday, she isnt an overly confident driver and always worries about getting stuck with a car full of other peoples kids (she's a childminder). She doesnt do enough miles to warrant having 2 sets of wheels/tyres for the car so these seem a reasonable compromise. And at just under £300 for 4 not bad value either

I went to the tyre dealer we use at work on Saturday and ended up deciding I'll get some A005's. But have just been looking on line and the Michelin Energy Savers my car has on currently has a C rating for economy and A for wet weather, but the Bridgestone 2 B's. I've always felt the Michelins weren't very good in the wet.

[adsk]

The German magazine Autobild has just done an all seasons tyres test. The Bridgestone A005 did not perform well at all 'Not Recommended' was their judgement. https://reifenpresse.de/2018/09/26/ganzjahresreife...

[Tomo1971]

Cooper2 said:

I know the tyre size 245/40/18 and I am set on the tyres I want which are AO. The issue is whether or not an aftermarket wheel is needed and if purchase how can I verify it is the correct one. From the handbook:
If you would like to equip your
vehicle with a tire/rim combina- tion that is different from what was installed at the factory, con- sult with an authorized Audi dealer or authorized Audi Service Facility before making a pur- chase

It seems I also need to be aware of things like the offset for the wheels which are not visible from the front. All I know its 18” and 8.5j.

Are these any good to you?

https://www.parts-depot.co.uk/set-of-four-genuine-...

Absolute steal to anyone whos car they will fit - not the prettiest wheels TBH but for less than £600 - Wheels AND tyres....

PS, I had a set of 4 18" for my A6 from here for £699 - they have very limited stocks sometimes just one or two sets.

[jamesbilluk]

Not strictly winter tyres, but wanted something with a more aggressive tread than the scorpion verdes that were fitted to the car/needed replacing, so got these General Grabber AT3's fitted to the XC70 today, hopefully they'll be ok in the snow, They seem to have the 3 peaks snow flake symbol on them.

Edited by jamesbilluk on Monday 1st October 20:29

[Cooper2]

Tomo1971 said:

Are these any good to you?

https://www.parts-depot.co.uk/set-of-four-genuine-...

Absolute steal to anyone whos car they will fit - not the prettiest wheels TBH but for less than £600 - Wheels AND tyres....

PS, I had a set of 4 18" for my A6 from here for £699 - they have very limited stocks sometimes just one or two sets.

I saw them on eBay and wasn’t sure about compatibility. Went for 18” wheels and Pirelli sottozero 3

[SAS Tom]

I’ll be on my third season of using my Falken Eurowinter HS449’s. They were awesome in the snow last year, it was almost like driving normally. They’re also much quieter than the Dunlop summer tyres I have.

[Kolbenkopp]

From a quick glance the Bridgestone seems to be even more 'summer biased' than the Michelin CC. That can be a good thing. Scored the shortest combined braking distances on wet and dry surface. Not so good in real snow compared to a proper winter or other all-seasons. I'd consider them as snow is rare where I live, but slush/cold/rain isn't.

The Autobild test is only available as a teaser, but the top ten is discussed in the image gallery and one can find the braking distance (stopping distance in m from 100 kph) table further down in the article [1]. Little extract:

Tyre	Braking Wet	Braking Dry	Combined
Bridgestone Weather Control A005	45,2	39,4	84,6
Michelin CrossClimate +	48,1	40,8	88,9
Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-2	46,2	44,6	90,8
Hankook Kinergy 4S²	47,8	43,1	90,9
Continental AllSeasonContact	48,6	43,4	92
Vredestein Quatrac 5	48,6	43,9	92,5
Falken EuroAll Season AS210	49,5	43,6	93,1

[1] http://www.autobild.de/artikel/ganzjahresreifen-te...