Re: Wheel clearance

[JordanVw@aol.com]

In a message dated 10/3/99 10:03:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
niederst@telerama.com writes:

<< I mounted my new to me A4 5 spoke wheels on my '92 100S yesterday. Big
 improvement in appearance and also in handling with the 205 55 16 Pirelli
 P6000 tires ($59 from Discount Tire Direct BTW, good deal). I am a little
 concerned about inside tire clearance on the front wheels though. With my
 old 15x7 wheels with 195 65 15 tires, I could fit my fingers between the
 tire and the part of the wheel bearing housing where the tie rod is attached
 (probably 1 in of clearance). With the new wheels, I can barely fit my
 little finger between the tire and the wheel bearing housing (less than .5
 in of clearance). I took the car out for a good long ride today thru the
 twisties, etc, and could not detect any rubbing. I know Audi put this same
 wheel on some late C4 A6's in '96-'97 (same front suspension as my 100), so
 their shouldn't be a problem, right? TIA.
  >>


i had the same prob you did.
i have a set of A4 5 spoke 16x7 et45 wheels.
i mounted these on my '86 5kT, and the front's come too close to the tie rod 
end. barely a pinkie of clearance. 
while it works - and some have run them like that - i would be worried about 
what could happen in hard cornering, or bottoming out. the tie rod end could 
possibly rip a gash in the tire. 
i didnt want to chance it - so i am keeping my A4 wheels on the rears - and 
have traded my front A4 wheels to another listmember who was running all A8 
wheels on his type 44 turbo quattro (which isnt all that great either - since 
running the A8 37mm wheels on the rears of a typ44 T space them out too far, 
and you run into the possibility of rear fenderwell rubbing).  so i will run 
the A8 wheels on the fronts, and the A4's on the rears. the slight difference 
in offset between fronts and rears actually increases handling performance. 
the A8 wheel is identical to the A4 wheel exept the offset is 37mm on the A8 
wheel, spacing it further out from the tie rod ends up front. 
you might want to look for a pair of 16x7 et 37 A8 wheels to run up front. 
chris
'86 5kT, TQ