For ease of mind get a set of winters, they should last you 3 seasons and spare your summers from wearing, therein a cost saving in itself. The real additional cost over time will only be the rims.

 

You're talking me round Molle. BUT, I've just thought of another idea. I've currently got 19" rotors on, what about if I buy a cheap old 2nd hand set of 17's and put winter rubber on that? Are there any considerations for putting on the smaller 17'?. I know the rubber goes down from about 250quid a corner to 150 a corner!!

 

No reason why you cant have 17"s on as it's the standard size you get from Audi on a standard a5. You can also go down in size and rating, just be mindful that your max speed may be reduced. Some have suggested 225s in the past for winters. Id have a look on eBay for a used set of winter wheels and tyres for an a5. Might save you quite a few quid.

Also I'd recommend a second opinion from mine on the 225s as I'm not sure if there is any limitation or minimum requirement on the a5. The manual might tell you.

 

Seems a sensible idea. Not sure what insurers would make when you tell them you're putting on smaller 17in wheels and skinny tyres. I suspect many will not like it!

Seen these?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/17-audi-a...11369566?pt=UK_CarParts_Acc_Wheels_tyres_Rims_Car_Wheels_ET&hash=item1c2cd6f65e

RG

 

Seems a sensible idea. Not sure what insurers would make when you tell them you're putting on smaller 17in wheels and skinny tyres. I suspect many will not like it!

RG

Association of British Insurers - Winter Tyres - The Motor Insurance Commitment

For most it seems free and no need to inform them either (re insurance)

 

I personally think you should receive a discount on your insurance if you fit winter tyres seeing as they are more effective.

 

Sure you can get smaller (17") rims, just make sure the tires you get are the right profile with a thicker sidewall, so that the overall diameter of the tire remains unchanged from your current 19" low profile setup. There's a way to calculate that (but I don't know how).

 

we don't get much snow either, but I got myself a brandnew set of wintertyres + rims on ebay like these Audi S5 18 inch Wheels with Winter Tires Perfect | eBay

When buying used, make sure the tyres have plenty for tread left, I wouldn't buy anything with under 90% left.

You should be able to pick up a set for $1500 (tyres + rims), when you sell your car, you can easily sell those spare rims alone for at least $750 (unless you curbed them like crazy )

The rest of the year i have the 19" Y rims, so I didn't want to go to 17" ...
It's nice to change the look of the car, don't want to drive around with silly looking rims 25% of the year

 

IMO quattro helps with forward traction in the snow but it won't slow you down any quicker or stop you from sliding. If anything I think quattro gives you a false sense of security because of the better forward traction it's easy to be fooled into thinking there is more grip than there actually is, so you have to slow down much earlier and anticipate a lot more.

Winter tyres on the other hand definitely reduce your stopping distance and give you increased grip in the snow. Honestly the difference between summer and winter tyres in the snow is like night and day.

All the above is based on my experience driving a quattro in the snow with summer and with winter tyres.

I've got a set of 18's (245/40/R18) running Vredestein Wintrac's.

The recommended tyre size for 17's is 225/50/R17.

 

Used the tyre socks on my FWD A5 and they were excellent, managed to get me out of a few sticky positions. A ball ache to get on when they're wet and your hands are like 2 blocks of ice, there's not a lot of access to get to the back of the wheels.

Biggest issue is the tyre size, your bangers drove so well due to the thin small tyres, 255,35,R19 will do you no favours, winter rubber will help but not as much as on a smaller rim so if your going to go down that route get a new set of rims, rims that you wont mind if they get kerbed!

Personally if its that bad that you need snow socks or winter rubber then my car stays in the garage, you can have the best tyre set-up and all it takes is one bell end to think they can push it too far and you take the damage as they rear end you.

Forgot to add: There is some info about winter tyres performing better in colder conditions due to the compound used so I guess there are advantages to having them when its very very cold, enough to warrant £1K+ tho?

 

Thanks Nino.
How did you get on with the socks and your quattro? Apart from them being and arse to fit/take off when wet. I would have thought the Quattro would have no probs getting traction or going uphill, it's just downhill that could be a problem and braking? Were they much good at that part?
I'm tempted with the socks if they're any good, due to cost and ease of leaving them in the boot (when dry). The only problem is when you hit some dry'ish tarmac I guess, and it shreds them sharpish :s

 

I've fitted 18" winter tyres to mine. I got them from Ebay Germany back in July. There's plenty of choice on there.

My car as standard runs the 20" wheels and with the winters on, the mpg has jumped from 37-39 typical to 43-44 typical, something I wasn't expecting.

 

The DIS and mileage will be reported incorrectly due to the smaller tyres

Copied from another forum:

If your truck came with 225's, you had a tire circumference of 88.86" ( Pi x diameter). Your 31's have a circumference of 97.34".

Divide 97.34 by 88.86 and you get 1.09. If you take your odometer reading and multiply it by 1.09 you'll get your actual mileage.

So if your mileage on a tank says 250, you really went 272.5 miles (250 x 1.09 = 272.5)

 

Except that 245/40/18 was the standard size which the DIS will be calibrated for.

difference in rolling diameter size is 2% but the mpg has changed by more than 10%

 

Less roll resistance, less weight and less inertia required to get the wheel rolling. And maybe calmer driving due to winter?

 

Best solution then would be to buy a set of four spare space saver rims and pop winter tyres on each of them!

 

Would like to point out something that people often don't think about.

Buying winter tyres doesn't cost any more money. It only affects cash flow.

If you swap between winter tyres you have two sets that are used at half the rate (or less) than they would otherwise be.

The downside is you have to buy your next set of tyres now. The upside is that you have better grip in all conditions and in addition the summer tyre wear rate in winter tyre conditions (if you don't change them for winters) is faster than in warm conditions, and likewise for the winters in summer. The result is that two sets of summers and winters used in the right conditions last longer than two sets of all year round tyres, give you better grip all year round and don't cost any more money.

To me, if you can afford the cash flow, it's a no brainer.

My issue is that I have a set of winter 18s from my A3 that I could fit, but they are shod with 225 40 18s instead of 245 40 18s. I was considering buying the right size because otherwise it looks a bit odd (sidewall is 10mm smaller) but I'm surprised that it seems to be quite common to run the wrong size of tyre.

 

Just bought a set of winter tyres and alloys...

£500 > 18" Genuine V Spoke Audi alloys finshed in graphite grey
£716 > 245/40/18 Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D Audi XL tyres

If anyone is in the market for a set of genuine 17" Audi winter tyres (alloys and tyres) drop me a mail and I will give you the Audi dealer contacts... they want £1100 for a set.