Re: Q: Tire wear on 4kq

["BMD" <eurocar@gci.net>]

I agree. I had a customer loan his 87 5KTQ to a "friend" who took a little
off-road excursion resulting in a flat. He installed the spare and did not
tell the owner. Spare was shorter by about 3/4" than the others. The owner
runs in the winter with the center diff locked (snow or not, can't cure this
fetish). I saw the car because of a severe thumping in the middle of the car
on decel (clear road with traction). What happened was the drive line
binding up so grossly that it would slam the underside of the car (try
deflecting the driveline far enough to do this by hand sometime - can't be
done). Unlocking the diff cured the symptom, replacing the tire cured the
problem.

Bryan Doughty
home.gci.net/~eurocar
----- Original Message -----
From: Buchholz, Steven <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>
To: 'qlist' <quattro@audifans.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 1999 10:19 AM
Subject: RE: Q: Tire wear on 4kq


> > Differing circumferences mean different speeds for the gears,
> > and you could
> > put a strain on the central differential in a quattro, it seems to me.
> >
> ... if the diff is locked I would tend to agree ... perhaps also so with a
> torsen-equipped center diff, but if you're talking about an open diff I
> don't know what possible mechanism would cause extra strain ... hey, it
has
> to put up with a difference in front vs. rear rotation whenever you're not
> going in a straight line!
>
> Steve Buchholz
> San Jose, CA (USA)
>
> ... getting pretty excited about having the ur-q back on the road!  The
poor
> thing has been sitting, waiting for me to get the clutch done for over a
> year.  I drove the car sans clutch to Brasil's automotive yesterday ...
> tomorrow I'll have my little red wagen back to play with ... :-)