Hi,

This saga starts quite a few months ago when my car was in Audi dealership for three weeks as it needed a new heater box, this was in September and the car was bought July. Sytner audi had helpfully put on 4 brand new tyres in time for when I picked it up - budget Barum’s but at the time I thought better than nothing.

Drove away in July everything lovely for a Cabriolet including not much road noise. Picked it up after the heater box work was done (involving dash removal) and a day later started noticing increased road noise - not of the low rumble type but higher pitched and almost like a windy whistle. Obviously the immediate thought was that something was wrong and the dash or something else had not been seated correctly. Cue visits to three separate dealers, all said nothing there or it was normal. I didn’t believe any of them as they’d already spent the best part of 2 grand fixing it under warranty!!

So I’ve lived with this since October, day to day trying to analyse the noise, noticing it is pretty much always there but only quiet on the smoothest newest tarmac, every other road is so noisy and because of the frequency audible over even loud music.

Today however with a day off work I took the plunge and decided to see if it was the tyre after all - only the front right tyre was making these noises so I replaced it with the space saver. I am massively relieved and over the moon to find out that it’s as silent as it was when new. I just can’t believe that even a cheap tyre will wear like that over just two months with a resulting din in the cabin.

My obvious question now is what to replace with - I don’t mind spending money - I had conti on my bmw and loved them. I’d also guess I should have tracking and alignment sorted if this is what’s happening to tyres after a few months. I’ve heard good things about pirelli and Michelin but are continentals suites to the a3 Cabriolet too?

Long post I know but I wanted to give the whole background story!

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can give!


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