I have an '02 A4 Avant 3.0 Quattro that I bought CPO 2 years ago. Now that's it winter I'm trying to figure out what to do about tires. I'm rocking 4 Pirelli P6's, the stock tire that shipped with the car.
Problem is the 2 back tires are nearly done for as far as tread wear but the 2 fronts have a lot of tread left as they were new when I bought the car. The rears passed the CPO inspection but were much older.
I'm inclined to replace the 2 rears and keep the front tires, probably go with Michelins for the new tires as I can get a great discount and road warranty on them.
Any issues with mismatched tires front and rear I should worry about?
Also, what's the consensus on ESP and snow, the owners manual says to turn it off in deep snow, curious what people who do a lot of snow driving think?
Thanks

 

Replaced my two rear tires a few months ago, was told that it COULD have an effect on your AWD system, but I'm not sure if they were just trying to make another $250 to replace my front tires. I haven't noticed anything wrong.

 

Make sure the diameter of the front tires is no greater than
4/32 of an inch more than the rear tires.

http://www.audiforum.ca/audi-a4/19873-tire-size.html

 

If you can swing it I would change all four. Only replacing 2 at a time you will never have all four at the same remaining tread. yokohama makes a really good all season and are much lower in price than the michelines. yokohama avid specifically.

 

Good evening:

If you live in a place like WI, you need snow tyres and all four of them. I've been a strong believer of snow tyres since 1988, when I first got my high performance car with high performance tyres. First snow, wanted to turn left, car kept going straight and didn't want to stop. Bought some All-Season tyres after that, a little better but not all that much. Basically choked the steering wheel to death every time it snowed. After a month of AS tyres, switched to true snow tyres, the ones with the mountain and snow flake symbol on it, what a different it made. Since 1988, every one of our car had a spare set of wheels with snow tyres on them. Nokian, Gislaved, Semperit, even Winterforce, they are all great snow tyres and they can safe your life. Ask yourself this question, would you wear a pair of dress shoes and go jogging in the snow? Good luck!

 

Check your owner's manual for tire recommendations. If I recall correctly, it says that if you're replacing two tires, put the new ones on front. I could be wrong though.

Different tread wear on front vs. rear isn't as big a deal as different sizes....like crazyhawk said, make sure all four are the same size.

Also, don't turn off ESP unless you're already STUCK in the snow (not easy to do with quattro).

 

I actually have gotten stuck, old snow that melted a bit during the day and refroze into a dense top layer on soft powder at night. Soft enough for the wheels to break through but hard enough to support the weight of the car on the body and lose traction with the ground.

As I understand, the problem with ESP in snow is the ignition retarding. The car cuts engine power when there's excessive wheelspin, which in deep snow that is already rutted (what I usually encounter when we still get snow in these parts) will cost you needed momentum. Since there's little danger of skidding off the road as you're following a path, it's better to have the wheels spinning unimpeded to keep moving, especially to avoid high centering when ground clearance is an issue.

What do you guys think?