Has anybody heard of spector tires? If so, what do you think about them? Also, is 245/45/17 going to work out fine? Right now my tires are 235/45/17. The reason I am asking is because I can get 4 all season spectors with less than 1000 miles on them for $250. Only, they are about 1/4 inch wider and i cant really find any feedback. Thanks!

 

Tires.com (Discount Tire's website) says they'll fit. They're listed as "Plus Zero" size for a 2006 A4 with 17" wheels. I have no personal experience, though. I had pretty new tires on mine when I bought it, so they're still going strong.

 

You might want to check the hight difference. If the tires are a different hight, they will throw off the spedo, and have the effect of changing your cars gearing for better or worse depending on if they are taller or shorter than the originals. The other thing is, if you blow a tire, then the spare in the trunk is now not going to be a matching size, If the difference is great enough, it could likely damage the quattro. Read the manual, It tells you the maximum difference between tires that the quattro will tolerate before getting damaged.

 

Thats the thing though. I dont think there is hight difference, its only width difference. Does 245 stand for width and 45 for hight and 17 for inches? I bought my car used and it came with no manual.

 

245 is the width, 45 if a ratio that defines the height of the sidewall as compared to the width. Obviously, 17 is the rim size. A plus zero tire shouldn't increase the overall diameter, but you might want to double check just to make sure. You would definitely need to replace the spare if that were the case (driving with one off-size tire in any 4WD/AWD is bad), but then it might not fit in the spot in the trunk.

There's more here and here on tire sizing.

 

I looked at the manual, and can't find where I read about the maximum allowed tread difference. It must have been somewhere else. It does say that all tires must be the same size, and tread depth. That is the one drawback of AWD. If you need to replace one tire, and the remaining ones are worn just enough to create a significant tread hight difference with the new one, you will be replacing all four tires.

 

While I agree that different tire heights can cause problems with AWD systems, I question whether the difference between a worn tire and a new one can make that much difference. At most, you're looking at 1/4" difference between a brand new tire and a totally worn (2/32" which is generally the legal limit) one. If you're down to 2/32", you should probably just buy 4 new tires anyway--AWD or no AWD.

All this tire talk reminds me I have to replace the tires on my wife's Grand Cherokee soon. Ugh--those things are worse $$$-wise than the Audi sizes.

 

Yea my friend just got new tires for his cherokee, not good lol. Well let me ask you this. If i decide to go different way, if I get 18" wheels and tires will I be able to use my 17" inch spare when I have a flat. The spare is full size tire and it is 235/45/17. So as long as the new tires are 225/45/18 I should be good, correct?

 

Go to some tire website, and compair the tire hights of the brand that is on the full size spare, and the 18's you want. I know that there are some automakers that use a narrower and smaller rim for their SUV's spare, but the tire sidewall is much taller to make up for the smaller rim, so as to keep the same tire hight to prevent damaging the AWD system. Remember 18's will be more prone to expensive pothole damage, with less rubber between the rim and the road. My personal preference would be to be sure all rims and tires were the same including the spare just to avoid any possible problems down the road. If you ever have any problems with the quattro later on, and Audi discovers the non matching spare, they could blame the damage on that, and void the remainder of your warrenty on the quattro system and other parts of the driveline.

 

I just wonder if 18" would fit in the spare tire space in the trunk. As far as the warranty goes, i dont have any warranty left. So basically I have choose between cheap 18" rims w cheap tires for about $1000 or keep the original 17" rims and get goot tires for about $500. I am no longer interested in those spector tires that i was talking about. I found out they were misspelled. THey are actually called sceptors and read some really bad reviews about them. I think that the smartest thing to do is just get17" tires for the rims that I have now and be done with it. Especially with the winter thats coming up in about 3 months I dont think its a good idea to go 18" living here in Chicago area