[s-cars] Re: Wheel problem for Sport Quattro? - (long)

[QSHIPQ at aol.com]

Hi Colin:
Congrats on your find!  A couple things...  First, you may want to actually
measure the width, more than audi has made stock looking wheels that were
actually wider (I have some old audi BBS race wheels for instance, that were
stamped 16x7.5 and are actually 16x8).

Secondly, regarding the problem of tire mounting.  I chuckle a bit, cuz I had
this very problem just last year mounting tires on....  FUCHS!  I took a set
of brand new Blizzack WS50's to my rally driver's  (95 S2 group A) shop.  With
his brand new Snap-on tire mounting machine, he had the exact same problems
you found below.  And this is mounting a 205/60 on a 7in wheel.  I had the
exact problem several years ago with Michelins of the same size, which I falsely
attributed to an old mounting machine.

I presume the problem is getting the air to seat the bead with over half the
tire not up on the step?  The way we solved this, was to put a rope around the
circumference of the tire, and take the valve out of the stem.  This allowed
us to use shop air on a trigger air chuck.  Still took a bit of wrestling, but
we got it.  Er, needless to say, I nary squeaked a complaint about the TUV
dots not lining up with the air valve :)

WRT chipping the outer edge of the wheel.  I also find this problem with the
Fuchs with some of the tires (Michelins seem to be some of the worst),
especially those with really tight tolerances on the inner diameter.  I can't say
I've figured this out, except to expect that both Dunlops and Michelins
mount/dismount tighter than others.  I can say if it comes off really tight, you will
observe a lot of wrestling going on as well.  Unfortunately for you, choices in
the 15in variety of tires in this size are "limited" at best.

It's possible that this is a "390" wheel, and if so, it shares the same
problem as the old 6series BMW TRX application only.  I thought I remember reading
that Kleber might have used this sizing early in the rally days, but I'll have
to dig into my library pretty hard to find that kind of trivia for the street
wheels.  I'm pretty sure audi was back to standard sizing by 84, but  I'll
try taking that reasearch dive in the next couple days.

Anyhow, hope this helps.

Scott Justusson
QSHIPQ Performance Tuning
84 RS2URQ
83 URQ
91 v8

In a message dated 11/11/2003 6:32:44 PM Central Standard Time,
ccohen5 at compuserve.com writes:
>>>...
When I fitted them I found that these wheels are in fact 15" and although
they clear the suspension the inner face of the spokes would not clear the front
brake caliper by about 2mm.  A machined 5mm H&R spacer cured that.  When my
local tire shop tried to fit a 245 x 45 x 15 Dunlop 8000 tire to the test wheel,
they could not get the tire to remain attached to the wheel rim/bead.  It
kept sliding down and allowing air to escape.

I know this sounds convoluted but has anyone encountered a similar problem
with very wide wheels like this.  There is a possibility that this wheel was
never intended for the SQ and AFAIK there never was a 15" 5 spoke wheel fitted to
the SQ and it may have been on an A1 or A2.  Did these cars ever have special
design tires like the TRX series Michelin's that used a different fit.  The
wheel paint had to be damaged to remove my Dunlop after the test fit so this
wheel will have to go back to Ye Olde Wheel for testing and repainting.  But the
fit was so tight that the machine normally used to easily remove the tire
bead from the rim was not able to do so without scraping the paint off.

The tire shop says they have never seen this happen and have fitted
"thousands" of tires including Vintage race Mustang and Porsche tires running on 12"
width wheels.

Any thoughts on what I might be able to do to find a tire that would fit this
unusual combination.

Colin