[Biturbos4] Bent Rims

[Etris, Chuck (O'Neal)]

I bent one of the stock 17" Avus rims on my '01 S4 too.  I live in
Charlotte, NC where the roads are relatively good, but I hit one deep
enough to damage the sidewall of my oem 45 series tire and bend the rim
slightly.  I got the rim straightened by a local guy for less than $100.

I happens.



***********************QUOTE*******************
>From b5quattro at shaw.ca Sun Mar 13 22:52:30 2005 From: b5quattro at
shaw.ca (Quincy Chiang) Date: Sun Mar 13 22:52:32 2005 Subject:
[Biturbos4] Wheels - advice and experience Message-ID:
<15837f15c978.15c97815837f at shaw.ca> 
Grant, I've never heard of anyone bending the stock Avus wheels, given
they are approx. 28+ lb each, and are known to be damn strong! Then you
went on and bent a few 16" wheels with even squishier tires? I know many
people have 16" AT Italia S5 wheels as winters and have had no problems
with them. Man you must drive on some really really bad roads!! For OE
wheel options, you can go with any 16" wheels offered on the A6 with
2.7t because that car has the same front brakes as ours. There should be
2 types, a 5-spoke design and a 6 split-spoke design, both are 16x7. Do
a search on Audiworld to see what they look like if you don't know.
There's also another OE wheel that clears our front brakes. It's not
offered as a standard wheel but it's sold by dealers as a specific
winter rim for cars with the HP2 brakes. These are 16x6.5, extra narrow
for mounting 205 or even 195 section width winter tires for good winter
traction. I have them and here's what they look like on my car:
http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/41218/100-0022_img_small.jpg I know
they're not they prettiest things, but they are quite heavey duty and I
seriously doubt they can be bent given the extra squishy sidewall due to
the narrow wheel width. The previous owner got these as part of his deal
when he bought the car instead of getting a discount, so I'm not sure
what they cost. HTH and good luck with whatever new rims you get! Quincy
PS: Wilson, interesting info. Although I thought only the RS4 in Britain
had problems with bent rims, didn't know the regular S4's had problems
too, at least I've never heard of it until now.