quattro tyre wear

[sean red i]

i have a4 1.8t sline quattro
just had two new tyres fitted on the front. tyre place say i should have even tread wear front to rear because of four wheel drive system. they said my traction control/esp light will come on. have new on front and couple of months left on backs.no light yet. is this true or were they trying it on to sell two more tyres :confused:

[adamss24]

Its wise to have matching tyres front and back due to the fact that quattro on the a4 platform is Torsen and will split the power 50/50 %. As long as you keep the same rolling radius/size of tyres you should be ok. If you try to put bigger tyres on the back then you will have problems, as the abs sensors monitor the wheels revolutions and if they different, the ABS will think the car its loosing traction so it will try and brake the wheels that spin faster hence the traction light comming on ! Depending on year/model you may have just ABS/EDS(traction control) as the quattro system its verry good on this cars so no need for any more electronics/gimmicks!

[sean red i]

the tyres are the same size front to back its just the tread depth is new on the front and worn on the back(1000 miles) left. its a 54 plate 1.8t 190 no lights on dash. if warning light appears i will replace them sooner. just thought he was trying to sell 2 rear tyres earliar than i needed them,
thanks for response:approve:

[con8280]

ive got a a4 quattro too..and i find i wear out the front more quickly than rears...usually because i corner quite hard....however tyres are what keeps you on the road....anything with less than 3mm ...bin them.
If your gonna have a hi-power car...be prepared to spend the money on tyres and brakes!
Remember speed doesnt kill...its the sudden stop at the end that does it!

[Dave Avant]

The front tyres will still wear quicker than the rears on a Quattro as the front is permanently engaged, the rear only start to 'drive' when traction is lost at the front. So under normal driving its just the fronts doing the driving. Floor it in the wet and then you get the rear's engaged in driving the car forwards.

[Teutonic_Tamer]

The front tyres will still wear quicker than the rears on a Quattro as the front is permanently engaged, the rear only start to 'drive' when traction is lost at the front. So under normal driving its just the fronts doing the driving.

Wrong - on the B5, B6, and B7 A4 quattros (except the new RS4), along with all in-line mounted engines in all VAG cars, all four wheels have equal drive/torque going to them. The purely mechanical, self locking Torsen centre differential (as Adamss24 quoted), under normal conditions, apportions drive to both front and rear axles at a 50:50 equal ratio (the new RS4 splits 40 front : 60 rear).


Floor it in the wet and then you get the rear's engaged in driving the car forwards.

You are thinking of the Haldex clutch coupling found on transverse mounted engines, such as the TT, S3, R32; which, under normal conditions, sends 95% torque to the front axle, and 5% to the rear. The Haldex unit is electronically controlled, and uses pre-determined differences from the wheel speed sensors to regulate the torque increase to the rear axle.