What type of tire do you recommend?

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Josh
I have a Audi A6 3.0 Quattro. 17-inch wheels...any recommendations? Trying to keep it under $150 a tire.

Check Costco as mounting and balance is included.

Update the op with what you are looking for in a tire.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: Josh
I have a Audi A6 3.0 Quattro. 17-inch wheels...any recommendations? Trying to keep it under $150 a tire.

Check Costco as mounting and balance is included.

Update the op with what you are looking for in a tire.

He bought tires, but didn't update this thread. What did you get Josh?

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: Josh
2004 - New Jersey

Would like all-season

Looking at Sumitomo right now...

Size is 235/45R17

BFG g-Force Super Sport A/S

They're almost identical to the famed Michelin Pilot Sport A/S's but for quite a bit less money.

$125 each at Tirerack.com in your size (plus road hazard, shipping, local mounting, etc.)

Or check Costco if you have a membership there. BFG is a Michelin brand (which is the only brands of tires that Costco sells) and they tend to have excellent prices on those tires that include literally everything. You're out-the-door at exactly the quoted price per tire, including free road hazard/balacing/rotation.

Thanks, you just picked my next set of tires. I have the Pilot Sport A/S on my car now, because of their snow rating. The BFG's weren't out when I bought the Michelin 2 years ago.

I agree that Costco is the way to go too. They put nitrogen in your tires!! If you are like me, and hate putting air in your tires, nitrogen is the way to go. I checked my tires today for the first time since I had them rotated back in September. They were perfect!

I agree with the costco thing except for the whole "Nitrogen in your tires"

There's no benefits between nitrogen and air. The air you breathe is 78.1% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 0.93% Argon(another inert gas), 0.4% CO2 and a little bit of everything else.

It doesn't mean gas won't leak out, it doesn't mean it'll make your ride any better or your tires any more special, it's mostly just marketing.

Nitrogen isn't affected by the change in temperature though. With air, your pressure will change around 1 psi of pressure for every 10 degree change in the temperature. A 5 psi loss can change your handling, traction, gas mileage, and the durability of your tires.

It was in the 80's when I last checked my pressure. During the winter, the temps here got as low as 1 degree. That's quite a change in temps, and yet my tire pressure was just as it was in the fall. I dare you to try that on air!!!

Besides, it's not like you pay for the nitrogen at Costco. It's free, unlike the 50 cents most gas stations here charge for air.

The free nitrogen gets no qualms from me but it should not be marketed as something special.

If you remember to high school chemistry(or maybe college chem, depends)

All gases are affected by factors identically, barring very, very tiny differences due to variances from ideal gas laws (marginal, in comparison, it's like the weight added by a single electron in comparison to a Hydrogen Atom's atomic weight).

Therefore, nitrogen like all other gases follow the equation

PV=nRT
P= pressure
V= volume
n= the number of moles present
R= a constant depending on the units of measure used
T= temperature

So 20L of nitrogen gas and 20L of air would expand and contract at the exact same rate, assuming the number of moles of gas, the temperature and the volume were the same for both gases.

There are trace amounts of water vapor in normal air (~1% usually), but that wil not affect anything on a measurable basis, at the most maybe a +-1/2psi variance under the most extreme conditions(0C and 100C)

Unless Costco has broken fundamental laws of chemistry and physics, you've been taken in by their marketing spiel.

But as I recall, nitrogen has more density than air, so maybe that is why nitrogen is the better way to go. I wasn't taken in by some spiel, I've seen it the improvement myself. Since the racing & airline industry use nitrogen in their tires, maybe it's not just some spiel.

at the same temperature (300K, about 80 degrees Fahrenheit) Air has a density of 1.16 while nitrogen is 1.15. (air is after all mostly nitrogen). Units are in kg/m^3

To put that in comparison, skim milk is ~1030, pure oxygen is 1.31 water is ~995 and gold is ~19,000.

Density doesn't affect anything but weight. Expansion and contraction properties will not change since all gases except in very special situations obey ideal gas laws.

I've gone over the race car analogy before. Race cars have a drastically different set of needs from a road car and thus are usually pretty bad examples of what to do.

You wouldn't want a engine that needs a rebuild every 500 miles
you wouldn't want brakes that don't actually slow down your car until you've heated it up to at least 600 degrees F
You wouldn't want tires that need to be brought up to 200mph before they offer any grip.

The thing with race cars is that, in say F1, timing goes down to the thousandths of a second so if you have something that can be 0.001% more consistent, then cost is no object, they'll use it. In this case, at 200mph, the tires are scalding hot and they'd like to keep the water vapor out of the system for the 0.001% more consistent times.

For you it shouldn't be a big deal. If it free, it's nice but it's not like putting air in tires will do anything t affect the car that you'll ever notice.

 

[TimeKeeper]

4 months ago, I have 4 Nexen N7000 245/45/17 95W-rated AA 360 M+S (uni-directional) from Goodyear SVC Center, in Bellevue, WA for only $445 complete installed on E320 Sport-version to replace Stock Conti.

So far, they perform extremely well in the rain. ( Seattle area got NOTHING but rain ) Straight-line high speed stability is great!

Perhaps I don't have E500 or AMG, that's why I still unable to smoke them at all.

To my surprise, they outperform stock Conti in every catagory w/ my driving style, specially on the corner.

I can't comment on Snow or High heat summer condition, since average Temperature in summer is no more than 75 degree and hardly ever get below 32 in the winter. Although I doubt its ability to perform on the snow condition due to its tread design.

It does ride little harder than Stock conti and slightly noiser on highway (but in the City driving, I did not notice any differences between these two brand in term of "comfort")

For now, even if you willing to buy me a set of OEM Conti and I will still want these N7000 on my car.

 

[Muadib]

If it free, it's nice but it's not like putting air in tires will do anything t affect the car that you'll ever notice.

I never said that it would. If you are diligent, and regularly refill your tires with air, then you are fine. The problem is, most people aren't, and don't take care of their tires like they should.

I read an article in one of the car mags, that said that 25 million people think that if a tire doesn't look underinflated, that there's no need to check it. AAA said that the biggest causes of reduced fuel efficiency is underinflated tires. The problem is so bad, the government made it a requirement to have a tire pressure monitoring system installed in all passenger cars, starting this year. Frankly, after seeing how well it works, I think the government should do something about making nitrogen refilling stations more available to the public, but I digress.

I'm clearly not going to change your mind on the subject. You're stuck on what you learned in chemistry, but my own little experiment show your facts are off. Perhaps nitrogen interacts differently with rubber than air does when it's under pressure. I don't know. I hated chemistry when I was in school, so you got me there. Maybe you should perform an experiment of your own with your tires. Be sure to pm me if you do.