Offset and "tramlining" and my imperfect memory

[Grant]

I'm generally a big advocate of maintaining offset regardless of wheel 
width (my philosophy is that it the wider wheel dont fit without being 
forced "out" from their steering center then they just plain dont fit). 
  However, I see that you speak about "tramlining" -- or following road 
slope toward the bottom.  This is typical of wide, low profile tires.  
It is also made worse by offset (positive - meaning the number, whcih 
is in *minus* millimeters, goes down, as your example did).

ALl that said, I believe that Audi did supply 90q20v and coupe quattros 
with 15 x 7 x 35mm speedlines.  I had one, and yes, it tramlined.  What 
I also recall is that the 14" wheels they supplied had a 42-45mm 
offset, as yours apparently does.

Grant
On Aug 27, 2005, at 6:50 PM, quattro-request at audifans.com wrote:

>
>> I see that your are in Norway...
>
> That's correct. The car is, however, a German import if it matters.
>
>> Here are the wheels used in North-America on the 80 non-q:
>>
>> Steel wheels:
>> 893 601 025H, 15x5.5, ET40
>> 431 601 025R, 14x5, ET45
>>
>> Alloys:
>> 893 601 025A, 14x6, ET45
>> 893 601 025G, 15x6, ET42
>>
>> If you have ET35 wheels, on 4x108mm, it must aftermarket wheels
>
> Yes, they are "Borbet" brand aftermarket alloy wheels. I just went to
> look at them. They are 15x7, ET35.
>
>> since the
>> closest Audi OEM wheels are the Coupe Quattro 90-91 Speedline wheels, 
>> which
>> are:
>> 895 601 025E, 15x7, ET37
>
> So that's where my wheels should go, then :-)
>
> I just got the crazy idea to look in the user manual. It actually does
> specify wheel sizes. It states ET45 for all rims except the 7 inch,
> which is specified at ET42 (not identical to the North American
> recommendations, it seems) This means that my 7x15 rims should have an
> offset of 42 mm, which means mine are 7 mm too wide on each side. Is
> this enough to cause a noticeable handling problem?
>
> The only tire size listed for 15 inch rims (either 6 or 7 inch width)
> is 205 wide. My tires are 195 wide. Could this cause the problem?
>
> What should I do to solve the problem?
>
> In Norway, most roads have deep ruts. These are what cause the
> problem: The car wants to pull out of the rut, so I have to hold
> steering pressure to keep it into the rut. If the wheel goes over to
> the other side of the rut, the car pulls the other way, which is the
> same way I am holding steering pressure. The car suddenly moves in
> that direction, and I have to sharply steer the other way to keep in
> lane.
>
> -- 
> Helge Wunderlich