We’re getting ready to get our first snow/ice of the season and this will be the first time for me to drive my TT in this type of weather. And I’m pretty sure this will be the first time my car has ever seen snow, seeing as how it had been a pampered California car up until five months ago. Anyways, my car came with the BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW 2, which TireRack.com calls “ultra high performance summer.” I’m guessing that if I plan on doing ANY driving in snow that I should look into some winter tires, such as the Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D. I would like to just get a set of winter wheels and tires so I can swap them whenever need be, but I can’t really afford to do that at this time. So how much trouble is it to just use the same rims and swap out the tires? Obviously, I would have to take it somewhere to have this done, but other that that, will this set up give me any problems? Also, I currently have 225/40/18 tires, but would a different width of winter tires make any difference, or should I just stick with the current size? Thanks for the help!


- 2002 TT 225 Quattro Coupe ALMS Edition -

 

Read what tirerack recommends. The Dunlops are great tires. However, tirerack recommends going with a narrower tire for snow. Swapping tires means taking it to an installer and paying them to do it.

I just ordered a set of the dunlop wintersports on inexpensive aftermarket rims (less than $100 each). I know $400 ain't lying around everywhere, but you will spend probably over $100 swapping the tires each time (2x per year). You also don't want to run winter tires in the summer because they will wear quickly.

Good luck.

 

BTW, I got my tire and wheel package from tirerack. I don't knwo what 18" wheels cost, but the 17" are under $100. You may want to consider going with 17" rims for the winter. they still look good and will be a lot cheaper than 18". my 17" wheel package with Dunlop wintersport D3 tires was right around $1000 with shipping.

 

you could get steelies...

sould be ~40$ a rim

 

1. Steelies look like crap. It should be illegal to put steelies on a TT.
2. TireRack did not have steelies for my car (and yours).

 

it does for the beetle, so those should but if they clear the front brakes.
i've seen a tt with winter steelies.
i don't think it should be illegal,
if you want a cheap set of winters, steelies will do just fine.

 

Ijust put the Dunlop winter sport 3d's on mine on new 17x8 inch wheels (I KNOW I will have to be careful not to wreck the new wheelsthis winter) and those dunlops TRANSFORMED the cars feel in the snow, I took off my kumho asx's, and to be fair to those tires, they were 70-80% gone and they were like skis, aweful in the greasy snow, BUT the tread pattern and amazingly soft compound of the Dunlopsgive sme great confidence in this nasty stuff! I'm off to work here in like 5 minutes on a new fresh batch of yuck on the road from last night, and I have no worries! these dunlops rule!

link to my post:

https://www.audiforums.com/m_727457/tm.htm

Barrett

 

Sorry about the late reply. Between the recent ice storm and studying for finals, it’s been a little crazy around here! So I have a couple of questions... First, if I did go ahead and just get winter wheels & tires, would putting 17" on my car affect the Quattro or anything, or would I be better off just sticking with 18"? From the looks of the Miata tire size calculator, there is very little difference between 225/40/18 and 225/45/17. By the way, it looks like a set of 17" wheels and winter tires would be around $1020, while a similar set of 18" would be around $1170.And a set of the 18" tires alone would be around $650.

 

17's are fine. your car is one of the few tt's that came with 18's stock,
but 17's will definately work

 

Thanks for the info. I think I'll just see how things go, but when I do get around to ordering them I'll probably just go ahead and get the 18". If I'm going to be spending that kind of money anyways, I don't mind paying the extra $150-$200 to keep the same look. And other than price, is there any real advantage in going with 17" vs 18"?