Speed rating of tyres on A4 Avant TDIe

I replaced the front tyres on my TDIe 136 before Christmas with Kwik Fit (had no choice as its a company car so can only use Kwik Fit). I asked for them to be replaced with ContiSportContact 3's which are exactly the same as what it came out of the factory with. It took them 2 attempts to get the correct tyres in to stock, but it wasn't until I checked afterwards that I've noticed they've put on ContiSportContact 2's rather than the 3's and they have put 94W's rather than 94Y's. I have checked the manual and the Audi website and both state it should be a 94Y. I asked Kwik Fit about this when I took the car back to have its wheels balanced as I was getting steering wheel wobble and they said well W's are pretty much the same as Y's so it will be fine. I took the car out for a long run yesterday and noticed I was still getting the wobble, but also that my fuel economy was way down (usually on this run I get around 54mpg indicated, I got 44mpg yesterday doing the same speeds as usual). Now this could be down to the weather conditions as it was pretty windy, but none of this seems quite right.

Just wondering what your views/experiences are on having a different speed rating, and if I should push harder with Kwik Fit to get them changed. Do you think the fuel economy thing is just coincidence? I'm yet to talk to my leasing company to see if there are any insurance concerns.

Thanks.

w is 168 mph, y is 186 mph. the speed rating is not your problem, they just need balancing properly.

Had them rebalanced on Sunday, but it made no difference. Think I might try a different Kwik Fit and see if that makes any difference!

My car came out of the factory with the 3's on had them replaced at Kwik fit (company car) and they put the 2's on I have had no problem with fuel consumption stayed the same.

YG, forgive me for asking an obvious question, but have you checked what air pressure the supplier has put in your new tyres? It might have an effect upon your fuel consumption.

Yup one of the first things I did as I needed to reset the TPMS so went to a garage and confirmed all pressures were correct. Obvious questions welcome though! :)

DrNorthy - were they the W's or Y's that were put on your car?

Think I just need to get this wheel wobble sorted and then hope the fuel consumption gets better.

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Originally Posted by YawnGumbo

Yup one of the first things I did as I needed to reset the TPMS so went to a garage and confirmed all pressures were correct. Obvious questions welcome though! :)

DrNorthy - were they the W's or Y's that were put on your car?

Think I just need to get this wheel wobble sorted and then hope the fuel consumption gets better.

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i had this same problem twice (!) with ATS and it was because the weights had immediately fallen off. I got Audi to sort it out and everything was fine, so try getting them balanced somewhere completely different?

I doubt the speed rating is relevant as long as the load index is appropriate. On my previous B8 I used 98Z (extra load) with no noticeable difference.

Have you check if any the wheels are buckled? I wouldn't put it past Kwik-fit not to notice. My car had vibration at 70mph which Audi identified as a buckled front wheel which they found during a service. They moved it to the back at and it virtually disappeared (I've since replaced the alloy). It could be that a back wheel was buckled and got switched to the front when the new tyres were fitted.

Peter

Is not your insurance affected if you do not have the manufactures specified tyres, 94Y's instead of the 94W's that Kwik fit have fitted, in the event of any accident claim?

No, the speed rating of the tyre has to be in line with the max speed of the car. A 136 TDie has a vmax of 130 mph so the tyre speed rating has to exceed this. In this case you could use a V-rated tyre as at 150 mph this also exceeds thevamx of the vehicle.

In a lot of cases the tyre manufacturers limit the number of speed ratings thay make for a given tyre type and size, so usually go with ratings that are towards the top end of those vheicles they will be used on.

As others have pointed out, the load index is a much more critical number to match correctly.