Hi All,

I'm new and hope someone can help me out.

I have a 2013 A3 3.0t with about 50,000 km and I am having some problems with the way it handles in the winter.

I'm running the Audi Winter Tire package with 18" Continental WinterContact TS 830p tires with lots of tread and very low miles. Driving in snow is no problem but when I run over an icy patch at highway speed, the car has a very unnerving feel like it is going to throw me into the ditch - I would swear someone picked up the whole car, shifted it 3 inches to the left or right and then set it back down again - it is hard to describe but it's like a jerky wiggle and at 100km/h it is a little scary.

I have had the car for an alignment and it is all dead on spec and the tires have done this since new - I moved the front tires to the back and back to front but it didn't make any difference.

I'm considering buying new winter tires, but they will cost 2k with mounting and I don't want to waste the money if that won't fix it.

The dealer is about 3 hours away and I don't want to make several trips so I am really hoping someone has had this issue before and can help me out with some tests I or the dealer can do to narrow down the issue.

Thanks in advance,
Justin

 

I've done a lot of winter driving in my A6 and like your A3, it is generally rock solid in snow and packed snow. For a heavy car, it sometimes shudders when hitting slush. However, in icy conditions it can behave differently.


My guess is that you may think the road is identically ice covered for the driving tires. Regardless of whether your A3 is 2WD or 4WD, differences in the ice will cause the wheels to slip differently, causing one side or the other to have momentarily more grip. That could induce a little more traction and torque from one side before the ESP jumps in or before it just naturally equals out when you exit the icy patch. To you, it would seem like a lurch or wiggle, but that is just the difference in traction (or less slippage) on one side or the other.