1997 A6 Quattro Wagon

[Lee Levitt]

Richard Hoffman [mailto:billzcat1 at hotmail.com] writes:

>
> > > Is it  true that one must change all four tires on this type
> > > of car if one tire goes bad?
> > > I've never heard that before and was wondering if it's
> > > just particular to that vehicle, or is it that way with all
> > > the all-wheel drive cars?
> >
> > Sorta. Kinda. No.
> >
> > You can't run tires that are different sizes as they can stress
> the drive
> > train or throw off the traction control or ABS systems. However, the
> > difference in diameter between a new tire  and a worn tire will be less
> than
> > 1/10", which is not relevant.
>
> I would disagree!  After an accident in my parents A6 (not my fault,
> everyone ok) one tire needed to be replaced.  Unfortunately, we
> couldn't get the same brand tire and the others had approx 30k on them.
The alignment
> was reset but the car wouldn't track correctly, no matter how
> many times we had the alignment rechecked.
> Replaced all 4 tires with tires of the same make and treadwear,
> no change in alignment, car tracked perfectly e3very since!
> Richard


You're *never* supposed to mix tires on the same axle.

Lee
'95.5 S6 avant
'96 A6 quattro avant