Dear Audi lovers.


I recently had to replace all 4 goodyears on my A4 2.0T after 15mths of ownership with 18kmiles. Major Feathering of all 4 wheels. Car is in Florida but im so puzzled why this would have happened so soon. I rotated tires every 5k and kept pressur correct. I was shocked. I Purchased mich pilots for the car from dealer 235-45 r 17. Dealer aligned the car and balanced them.

Problem i have is after i inspected the car i noticed that the front right has 4 wts on the inside of tire which is normal. Then the front right has 7wts the rear left has 9 and the rear right has 9weights in one location of rim then i see an additional weight in another part of the inside of the wheel. The question i am asking is this normal? why so many different weights and most importantly why one the back right wheel weights in two different locations of the wheel.

My understanding is Audi uses the high tech wheel balancer and it recommends were to put the weights. Am i looking into this to much or did the tech and dealer do a crapy job balancing my tires. I called Audi USA and they told me that the dealer responded that they balanced them manufacturers specifications. I think that is not correct because original wheels had the same weights amount of weights on each wheel from the factory. Now i have mix and match and different locations on one wheel.

I am not comfortable so i am trying to find an answer here from you folks so i can communicate correctly to the dealer my concern and frusteration...

Thanks Kindly

Ganxster
St. Petersburg, FL

 

If you're willing to pay to have them rebalanced:

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/findgsp9700.cfm

 

sounds normal to me.

i mean the number of weights and their position doesn't really matter. the total amount of weight needed to balance one wheel might make a difference.whenever a tireis dismounted from the rim... even if you use the same tire over again you need toscrape the old weights off and balance it again. and the amount of weight and their position most likely will not be the same.

but if your not having a vibration issue when driving... why even worry about it...?
cause an out of balance wheel will only cause such an issue

 

You have a right to be concerned, having to replace tires after only 18k miles is not normal. There is no set number of weights (you said it had 4) per tire, each rim/tire is balanced separtely. IF they are both perfect then no weights are needed, but this is rare. As tHe kNiGHt FaLL said, if you take the tire off the rim, then put it back, balance it, it will probably take different weights and in different places on the rim.
Have them re-balance the wheel with the weights in two different locations.
Were your Micheln tires on sale/ discounted ? because it sounds like your new tires might be second grade, as they need more weights to balance them. The quality of the wheel balance is only as good as the monkey who sticks the weights on.