[Biturbos4] advice needed: rims, mags, winter tires

[Quincy Chiang]

Hi JF

Since your stock rims are scratched up already, I'd use them as winter rims from now on and get something else for summer.  Our stock avus rims are heavy (~28 lb!) but strong, which makes them ideal for winter duty.

Now if you hadn't bought tires already, I'd recommend getting 16" winter tires (in 205/55-16) and rims, reason being narrower tires work better in the snow, and taller sidewall has more give when you hit the nasty packed snow/ice, plus a lot cheaper!  I run this combo during winter, but sounds like it's too late for you to do that...

As for changing just tires and reusing the rims year long, I wouldn't do it:
1) The cost of switching tires back and forth adds up really quickly, if a shop charges $20 per tire for dismounting/re-mounting and balance, you'll be paying $160 a year for doing it twice.  
2) you have to go to a tire shop to do this, which is always inconvinient, especially when everyone is trying to get their winter tires on during the first snow fall. 
3) The more times you have to mount/dismount tires on a rim, the higher the chances that the shop will damage the rim.  Many tire shops have trouble with low profile tires, some don't even touch them.
4) I'm not sure about this, but I would imagine that the tires may get damaged from stretching twice a year.

Lastly, there are 17" steel rims out there, but AFAIK, none of them clears the huge front brake calipers.  Even for 16" alloys, very few clear the brakes.

HTH,

Quincy

> 
> I just bought some winter tires (studded Pirelli Winter Carving 
> 225/45/17) and I'm now hesitating whether I should have those 
> mounted on my original mags, if I should buy new rims (or mags) 
> and mount them onto it ... or, even, should I use my original mags 
> as winter wheels and buy new ones at summer
> 
> Things to consider:
> 
> - my original mags are already scratched (one is even deeply 
> scratched) ... so it's probably not worth buying some winter mags 
> from Audi (about 350$ CDN each) ...
> 
> - should I have the tires switched back and forth on the original 
> mags ... any reason why I must not do that (for instance, 
> structural damage on the tires, ...) ??
> 
> - is it still possible to find "good old" steel rims for this cars 
> ... I would greatly prefer such wheels but I don't think they 
> exist in 17 inches (btw I live in Montreal/Canada)
> 
> 
> Any 2 cents are welcome  :)
> 
> Jf.
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