one flat turns to four

[Mike Arman]

Actually the one flat will turn to FIVE - four tires and your wallet will be flattened.



My feeling is that while a long term gross mismatch *may* just possibly create problems for Quattro, 
small ones simply don't matter. If the Quattro system was THAT sensitive to miniscule differences in 
tire diameter, the junkyards would be filled with blown up Quattros which are uneconomical to repair 
because the diffs and t*rsen all puked simultaneously.

Audi would be forced to re-engineer the system because they'd quickly have a reputation that one PSI 
difference in any of the four tires will promptly cost you the entire drive train, and nobody would 
buy an Audi - remember the UA debacle, that was total BS as well . . .


Additionally, authorized dealers also use the "Tire Kingdom/Pep Boys et. al." sales approach of "you 
need a new everything" to incur FUD and try to separate you from still more money.


The mini-spare is supposedly rated for 50 miles, so if the factory says you can use a mini-spare on 
your Quattro, you can be assured that even that much of a mismatch won't blow the diffs. If it 
did/could/might, Audi would supply a full-size spare and caution us never to use the space saver 
mini spare.


Anyone want to try an experiment on a still-running but destined for the parts yard Quattro? Say an 
old 4000 with body damage? Put four different size tires on it and go drive it for a month or two. 
Other than the strange handling (be careful!), there might not be much else to report.



Best Regards,

Mike Arman
90V8Q