Audi mobile tyre fitting

A permanent four-wheel-drive system relies on all four wheels turning at very nearly the same rate. A significant difference in rolling circumference - which is what a difference in tread depth is - makes the centre differential work continuously to absorb a mismatch that never goes away.

In practice this means that on a quattro, replacing a single damaged tyre alongside three worn ones is a false economy at best and a drivetrain repair at worst. Where the other three still have plenty of tread, replacing across the axle is normally the sensible answer. We will tell you honestly which applies.

AO identifies an Audi original-equipment fitment. RO1 is the Audi Sport / RS marking, developed for the higher loads those cars generate - an RS model on non-RO1 tyres behaves noticeably differently at speed.

Audi fits large-diameter wheels with very short sidewalls across much of its range. A 35 or 30 profile sidewall has almost no compliance to absorb a pothole edge, so impacts that would bruise a taller tyre instead split it or buckle the rim. This is the most common reason we are called to an Audi.