Summer tires mess up handling

[Ed Kellock]

I believe it's a function of width and tread compound and design.  On my
Avant I'm pretty well limited to 16's or bigger due to the brakes.  It came
with 16x7 Dunlop SP8000's 225/60-15's which tend to run fairly large for
that size, so they tramline pretty significantly also due to their large
longitudinal grooves.

Currently it has some 215/55-16 snows on it and is pretty nice in
comparison.

Out of all the tires/wheels I have I only have 2 sets of 16's that will fit
over the brakes, and even then I am measuring the clearance between wheel
and brake caliper in thicknesses of paper, which does not make me very
comfortable.  I have thought about getting some 17x7.5 wheels, to match the
stock wheel width and then as narrow a 17inch tire as I can find that will
approximate the correct diameter.  215/50-17's are available and in a less
agressive performance tire, I think I could probably achieve a decent ride
and give those brakes some more clearance.

The only problem with the 17inch wheel approach is wheel choice.  I have
become pretty obsessed with weight and OEM wheels and I'm just not sure what
I can find on another Audi that will be lightweight and have the right
dimensions, i.e. 17x7.5 et35, to match the stock setup.

Ed

> -----Original Message-----
> From: 200q20v-bounces at audifans.com 
> [mailto:200q20v-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of the Spaeth's
> Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 10:51 AM
> To: 200q20v at audifans.com
> Subject: Re: Summer tires mess up handling
> 
> 
> Our 91 TQ Avant does the same thing. I believe the same size 
> tire. The tires tramline to a scary degree. I have had very 
> careful alignments done. I have one of the Bernie style upper 
> bars to get it all they way dialed in. We are running H&R 
> springs with Koni adjustable struts. There is no indication 
> of this with the 16" snows. It drives fine with the snow 
> tires on it. I have thought about dropping back to 16's for 
> the summer. Could this be caused more by the actual tire 
> design than just the size of tire? I don't want to spend that 
> much on new tires just to have them do the same thing again. 
> I have tried different air pressures but it didn't seem to 
> make much difference.
> 
> Craig
> 
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