New shoes for the S4 ...

[andrewd]

After a 40mph run in with a brick lying in the middle of the road popped two tyres and made a mess of the wheels, I thought it was a good opportunity to get the scabby OEM forged Fuchs wheels refurbished, and also replace the mixed bag of aging tyres on the S4.

Ordered a set of 225/50R16 Eagle F1 GSD2 tyres from mytyres.co.uk for a bargain £76 each, and despatched the wheels off to a local wheel repair & refurbishment outfit (Diamond Wheels in Stockport) for repair, powdercoating and lacquering. Despite what their website says, and what I was lead to believe when dropping them off they don't have the facilities to properly repair wheels, and their 'machining' facilities consist of using sandpaper to smooth out any dents ...

Thankfully they look okay from a distance having been chemically stripped, powdercoated and lacquered (although the lacquer is just on the face, and more than a bit orange-peeley in places), but the evidence of the run-in with the brick is still pretty visible. Hopefully they'll stay clean for a few years especially now they've had a good coating of Poorboys Wheel Sealant (highly recommended).

Anyways ... the new tyres have totally transformed the car (you were right Corey, the old tyres really were crap). Grip levels are up considerably, understeer has virtually vanished, and wet weather is not longer an aquaplaning nightmare.

Anyways, here's a few pics of the machine showing off it's new shoes (and a good excuse to have a play with my day-old Canon 400D and 50mm F1.8 EF lens) ...







And a rear-end shot for those of you who like that sorta thing ...

[Knight Rider S4]

Thats one very clean car you got there ...wheels look real good

[faaaaast]

If you had a 'mixed bag' of tyres on there before, I'm not surprised it feels better.

The Torsen diff is very sensitive to different tread compounds and if you have mixed compounds on different axles, it will spend its time trying to compensate for that, rather than compensating for road conditions as it's supposed to. I had mixed tyres on my 80Q when I bought her - changing the wheels over from my 2WD which was running 4xMichelin Primacy's made overall and particularly wet handling a relative dream!

In fact, if you read the owners manual, it'll tell you that running mixed tyres on a Quattro can damage the centre diff. Not sure about that, but it definitely compromises performance.

Wheels and tyres look great on your lovely urS4, by the way!!

James

[Dpicariello]

A very nice car you have there!
I also got my F1's from mytyres.co.uk for very cheap.

[Fat Audi 80]

That is a very very clean car!

Wheels look great from here too.

[andrewd]

Cheers for the positive feedback :-)

Makes complete sense about the tyres and the effect on the 4wd. Suppose it muct be able to cope with a bit of a difference in rolling diameter front to back to deal with different wear rates.

I know in Germany it's illegal to just replace one tyre, or have mixed brands across an axle!

[mcandmar]

Wow, thats the kind of quality shots you would expect to find in an Audi brochure!

[Ski]

Very nice and clean car you have there.

Have I just gotten used to my lowered s2 or can you actually fit your head between your arch and wheel? seems its sitting too high? Then again with it sitting high it helped when that brick jumped out at you

I must say the car looks new youve taken good care of it

[andrewd]

Very nice and clean car you have there.

Have I just gotten used to my lowered s2 or can you actually fit your head between your arch and wheel? seems its sitting too high? Then again with it sitting high it helped when that brick jumped out at you

I must say the car looks new youve taken good care of it

Ah yes ... it does have a bit of a 4x4 stance. Having compared it to brochure shots and pics of other S4s of that era, it does look like the the 'riding high' look was how it was intended to be. I do intend to check the paint marks on the springs against what's listed on the dealer parts system to double check.

Lowering springs and sports dampers are on the 'to do' list when the current ones start to get tired. Means some changes to the top mounts at the front in order to bring the camber back so not a straightforward job!

Credit for looking after it must partly go to the original owner who only covered about 50,000 miles in the first 10 years of ownership. That's rich, London businessmen for ya!