I know this thread is about tires but I do not have anything to add to this since I have about 800miles so nothing to say, as of yet.
Charlie,
Did you get your car? If your wife leased a car before, do you want to lease again? Audi do lease very well, I am paying less than $400 a month with less than 1K down for 10K/year (I drive about 7K/year), pretty good for a business lease with no cosigner – at least I think so and if others have a better deal, keep it to yourselves... MT do lease a lot better though, apparently they want to get rid of them… There were $40 difference between mine and an A3 with DSG with a similar MSRP.
BTW, Audi’s website is a little weak and restricting the available inventory is pure BS - 3 years ago I was able to get the same MR2 (exact to the color and options) a month before it got to the dealership because of their website and replaced my totaled MR2. I just walked up to the dealer with my previous deal and the car that was going to come and told him, make me the same deal and you have a sale before it gets here. 1 phone call and 1 conversation later the deal was done and 1 month afterwards I was back in business.

 

Guys,


I currently have 50K on my '06 2.0 DSG Premium package.

By about 15K I started getting serious noise coming from my Pirellis. By the time I hit 20K I had to change them because they were making noise that would drive you out of the car. The driver side tires were cupped and scalloped really badly. I was told that I hadn't rotated the tires enough or kept them inflated properly but I had done the normal pressure checks about once a month and rotations every 5K. I replaced the Pirellis with Yokaham Avid H4S. By 18K I started to have the same issues but not as severely. I rotated, balanced and aligned the car a few times to make sure there would be no questions on my end. I now have nearly 30k on the tires and they are noisy as heck. I have had the dealer check for wheel bearings etc but no luck. The alignment checks out.

They have seen a couple A3's with the same issue. So I have asked them to follow up with the regional rep.

Other then the tire issue the car has been solid as a rock. I would do it again! Great all around fun car!

DS

 

Work Study In-Progress . . . j/k

Had the same issue as you did with oem set of tires and like you I replaced mine at 20k. I asked the Audi dealer about the tire a couple times and one of their reply's stuck in my mind, "your tires are underinflated, that is why you are have problems with your tires." I too, frequently checked my tire pressure, setting the pressure to oem.

"Eureka!" Maybe oem tire pressure is too low and makes the tire wear prematurely? I don't know about you, but in the mornings going to work, I like having a little fun, taking corners fast and such. With tires set at oem, they have not had time to warm up properly. So, my fun morning driving and eom tire pressure, I concluded, was why my Pirellis went bad so soon. I, personally had no problems with the Pirelli's.

10k on my second set of tires, Bridgestone re960's as, still too soon to tell, like I mentioned a few posts above, I now run 38F35R. The tires appear to be wearing evenly and I hope the even wear continues. I will post again later this year or early next, when these tire have the same miles as the Pirelli's had. Hopefully, tire pressure was the problem.[8D]

 

I've always run the pressure at 38 all around and my OEM Pirellis ran perfectly, as are my Toyo's. I think you might well be onto the problem.

Cheers!

 

I had the same problems with my Pirelli’s P6 ( cupping ) after 17000 km, the dealer at the time told me that Audi didn’t warrant the tires and that I would have to deal with Pirelli myself , after almost 2 months of back and forward telephone calls with Pirelli they told me that it was not a tire problem it must be the car , so I went back to the dealer and told them what was going on , they talked with the area Rep. and after a few hours after I left the dealership they called me back saying that Audi was going to replace the four tires , it seemed that my A3 was not alone in this , now I have the Conti’s and I must say the I am disappointed with them , they have good grip and all but I find that if I throw the car into a curve at a high rate of speed they become noise , I think it’s the hard sidewall I’ll have to experiment some more which is the fun part.

P.S. “ at first pirelli was blaming me for not doing the rotation of the tires at the proper times , when I proved to them that that was not the case they quickly changed their tune and blamed the car so I must say that Pirelli customer service sucks.�

2006 A3 2.0T ,Sportpackage.

 

This thread is terrific! A lot of really good info here. I only wish I read it sooner. I have 2200 miles on my'07 A3. I took delivery just over a month ago, I figured it was about time I checked the tire pressure duh!! All four p6's had exactly 30 psi.I have a feeling it came from the dealer that way. Shame on me for not checking the dealer's prep.
Interestingly the sticker on the door jamb shows 38 front; 35 rear. the manual shows 36 front 32 rear - normally loaded.
Based on theon this threadI put 40 on the front and 38 on the rear.

Thanks everyone for the great info!!

 

06 A3 2.0
I had big problems with Pirelli original tires at about 18,000 miles. Very noisy on the hwy. Very. Dealer would not help. Went to my local tire man and bought Mischelin for the two front. Only helped a little. Replaced the back two and now it is nice and quite. I do not like Pirelli tires.
The Michelin Pilot Exalto 224/45 17s seem to be wearing nicely at 25,000 miles. Were not cheap, however.
JPH

 

Im getting rid of my P6's in a week or so...Awful sounding now, bad cupping problem and feathering...

 

Just was told by Audi service at 17,000 miles that I need to replace my tires. My 2007 A3 came with Pirelli P6's. Road noise is unbearable. Tires were rotated at 15,000, as per Audi service recommendation. Road noise was far worse after rotation, and then told after another 2,000 miles that the tires were shot (service referred to condition as "scalloping"). I don't care if they are performance tires, or how agressive the car is driven - tires should last longer than 17,000 miles, especially from an auto maker who considers themselves a luxury and performance brand. Given the extensive amount of poor experience noted here, Audi should no longer be installing these tires on their vehicle, and should have a reasonable remedy for customers who are stuck with fully-worn tires after just 15,000 miles. Also disappointed with dealer service - whats point of 15,000 inspection and paying to rotate tires that only have 2K of miles left on them? I have elevated my issue to Audi North America and will post whether I have any success....
Wouldn't this be a good class-action case?!?

 

I understand your frustration. I replaced mine after 8k miles because I couldn't handle the road noise. That being said these are all season tires not true performance tires, so don't let them try to pull that nonsense. I had "performance" tires on my last car (s2000) and those tires barely made it past 10k miles.