New Tyres...

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Johann

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Just had to put 2 new tyres on the A2. Had a slow puncture left rear that was irreparable (two punctures to close to each other) and a right front that was just Kaput... no-one could source the OE Michelin Pilot Primacy 185/50R16 tyres anywhere (weird strange tyre in that it is not very wide, but it is low profile in big 16inch wheels) Even Michelin themselves had them on back order... some guys one here mentioned some A2s now coming out with OE Dunlops due to the scarcity in Michelins... so I reluctantly changed to Dunlops (at least they are not Goodyears) and they had 2 in stock. So 2 new front tyres, alignment of front, old front left to back and repair of another slow puncture right rear and I'm out of £234 ... ouch... but prices have come down at least. Last time I was charged £120 for one wheel and the time before it was £139... so the £101 each now is quite OK... These Dunlops have a really mean looking threads as well. One guy at the social had these on his car (can't remember who?!) Mean looking and they supposedly have special sidewall "extensions" to protects against kerbing! They do protrude slightly more than the Michelins I guess... so will see...


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[img=left]http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/180225.jpg[/img=left]
2001 A2 TDI SE Crystal Blue with Open Sky, 6CD Symphony II, BOSE upgrade, DIS and HALF a winterpack!

iPAQ 3970 with Sat-Nav sleeve, rear cupholders, luggage net and floppy wiper!

http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk23.htm
 
My quoted price includes fitting and balancing, £101 all in. Not the best around I know, but after waiting a week for Kwik-Fit to get Michelins I gave up. I did not want to drive with a tyre that needs inflating every 36hours and 3 punctures in it on a motorway everyday... Your £82.50 plus fitting would work out only slightly less I think...

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[img=left]http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/180225.jpg[/img=left]
2001 A2 TDI SE Crystal Blue with Open Sky, 6CD Symphony II, BOSE upgrade, DIS and HALF a winterpack!

iPAQ 3970 with Sat-Nav sleeve, rear cupholders, luggage net and floppy wiper!

http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk23.htm
 
On Monday just gone, I phoned Kwik Fit Mobile service first thing in the morning to make a booking to have 2 x Michelin Radial XSE 185/50 R16 81V tyres fitted at the front of my A2. To my amazement they said they could come to my office at lunchtime that day.

They came on time, took 20 minutes to fit both and made me £206 poorer.

Yes, it was expensive, but a very good service.

[img=left]http://www.a2forum.net/stuart.gif[/img=left]Stuart Diamond: A2OC Founder | Forum Administrator

2001 TDi SE:http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk1.htm Cobalt Blue Metallic | Open Sky Roof | Kenwood Mask CD | Front Centre Armrest | Front Centre Tray

A2OC Website | A2OC Forum
 
OOPS... I had my Goodyears mixed up with Firestones!!! After the Ford and Firestone dabacle in America I won't fit them to my car ever... Dunlops ok!

Stuart: Just over a £100 each fitted seems to be the norm for these tyres... still expensive because it is such a funny shape of tyre...

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[img=left]http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/180225.jpg[/img=left]
2001 A2 TDI SE Crystal Blue with Open Sky, 6CD Symphony II, BOSE upgrade, DIS and HALF a winterpack!

iPAQ 3970 with Sat-Nav sleeve, rear cupholders, luggage net and floppy wiper!

http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk23.htm
 
I've got the Dunlops also, great tyres they were factory fitted, I know they are also fitted to the 225 TT as standard as well.

2002 TDI SE - Silver - Open Sky System
 
I just had a flat tire today. Had to use the filler fluid stuff which says you should only drive for about 10 minutes and no more than 50mph. Made it to a Kwik-fit nr. Wembley. He just used his last Michelin 185/50 R16 the day before, so he called 4 other Kwik-fit branches and none of them had one. Luckily, he was kind enough to call a competitor who had a Pirelli P6000 which was installed for £84. We got there 15 minutes before they closed. Not having a spare is a bit of a pain. I'm not sure what we would have done if it was later in the day.
 
The prices I got quoted also had Michelin the most expensive at £93, Dunlops at £85 and Pirellis at £82 - but all these prices are for tyre only and not fitted. As the car does not come out OE with Pirellis I went the Dunlop route...

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[img=left]http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/180225.jpg[/img=left]
2001 A2 TDI SE Crystal Blue with Open Sky, 6CD Symphony II, BOSE upgrade, DIS and HALF a winterpack!

iPAQ 3970 with Sat-Nav sleeve, rear cupholders, luggage net and floppy wiper!

http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk23.htm
 
Just for reference, my new A2 just got delivered with Continental tyres. Haven't had the chance to develop an opinion about them yet, but as far as looks go: they look good; sidewall is okay and groovy thread. No excessive highway noise either.
 
I just had to replace all four of mine as well. 2 punctures on the rear, already repaired a couple of times, and the fronts have 50k on them, so they were pretty much done. Given the hassle I've had in the past getting tyres, I figured it would make sense to do them all at once.

The only tyres I could get hold of reasonably quickly (in 3 hours) were Pirelli P6000 Powergys. Central Tyre charged me £103 each all in.

I'm not sure if it was a good price or not, but their shop is close enough to get to on 2 partially inflated tyres.

So far I must admit the ride seems firmer than the OE Michelins, and not noticeably louder. Time will tell how they wear.


Suffolk is more dangerous than you think...
 
You can't always price hassle... I know people that shop around for ages, internet, phoning around driving to get quotes, etc etc. All fine and well, but there comes a point when that last £3 saved is wasted in energy and fuel/phone costs... So I believe in getting a few quotes and then just doing it there and then even if it is a few bob more... so Chris your £103 all in and only 3 hours wait sounds perfectly fine to me...

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[img=left]http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/180225.jpg[/img=left]
2001 A2 TDI SE Crystal Blue with Open Sky, 6CD Symphony II, BOSE upgrade, DIS and HALF a winterpack!

iPAQ 3970 with Sat-Nav sleeve, rear cupholders, luggage net and floppy wiper!

http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk23.htm
 
I had a slow puncture and managed to get to Guildford Tyres who repaired the tyre and put me all back together for £11. They were also really careful with the alloys. I asked the guy about the squirty tyre repair stuff. He said, obviously depending on the size and location of the puncture, that you can repair the tyre after the stuff has been put in, it just takes effort to clean out the gunk. It may cost a little more but still cheaper than a new tyre!

Fi

2002 TDi Sport Cobalt Blue, winter pack, leather, rew
 
Pirelli P6000 Powergy Update:

Well, I've driven with these on now for about 5 days. I can tell you that the car feels more responsive (is that possible?), the handling is totally different - although that may just be because these tyres haven't been run for 50K miles.

I reset my ave MPG on the DIS when I fitted them, and so far it's reading a little less (44.6mpg) than the previous reading on the OE Michelins (46mpg). I've not been at work though, so it's all been town driving rather than my usual 350 dual carriageway miles a week.

So far, I'm very happy with them, although they don't look as nice as the Michelins on the car - there's no alloy kerbing protection in the sidewalls, and I happen to think that it looks nice.



Suffolk is more dangerous than you think...
 
I complained to Audi when I picked up my A2 that the set of Dunlops on the car gave my alloys no protection at all, making it very easy for them to be destroyed, and a cost of £60 per wheel for refurbishing the alloys this isn't good.

I then took the car in for some small teething problems, and without a word they changed the full set of tyres for rim protecting Michelins completely free, even after I've done 2,000 miles on them! The new michelin set are a long way better than the dunlops for protecting my wheels. Probably not as nice as your pirelli p6000's though! The dunlops always looked like a small tyre stretched to fit, and the rims looked awful sticking out from the tyre, the michelin set now look alot more comfortable and better fitted, providing a much neater finish.

Silver TDI Sport | 17 inch TT alloys | Audi bodykit | CD | Climate control | Custom Badges
 
HI

I bought a brand new a2 in oct 2002. Since then i have had 2 problems:

1) i have had the glove box replaced twice under the warranty. This was due to the interior light failing to work.
The initial fault was discovered when the car was less than a month old. The most recent fault was a week ago.
Has anyone else had this problem with the a2?

2) I had a flat tyre 3 weeks ago and used the tyre repair kit ( similar to evo-stik glue).I was told i needed a new tyre as the old tyre was rendered useless. I was not pleased to have to fork out £ 112.00 for a new tyre. I asked for the old tyre back and as far as I can see, the tyre is perfect apart from a tiny hole on the base of the tyre.

Essentially at £ 112.00 a tyre and replacement fluid at £ 30.00 a can, having a puncture in an a2 is a very costly experience.

I would be glad to hear of anyone out there with similar experiences.

Best regards

Nigel Patterson

n patterson
 
Nigel

Welcome to the forum and A2 ownership!.

Firstly, some faults on the A2 appear to be one-offs. Your glovebox being one of them-I'm not aware of this issue, but it interests me that they replaced the glovebox for a faulty light when surely trying to locate the electrical problem is the issue.

Secondly the tyre issue is one many people have come unstuck with and why some owners now seek a proper spare tyre to take with them. The use of the get-me-home gunk in the bottle does render the tyre useless so where a normal nail in the tyre may be plugged, you can't when you've used the bottle stuff. You can get a treatment for all 4 tyres where a liquid is injected and coats the inside of the tyre and self-seals any small holes as they happen. About £40 from memory. I'm sure the A2 owners here with it will comment.

Steve - 2002 1.4SE petrol, Silver, black/black interior, Then an identical replacement 2003 A2. Now a Toyota Corolla 1.6 T-Spirit
 
For reference, I've just had two Dunlop SP Sport 9000's (185/50 R16) fitted & balanced for £166 (inc VAT).

Kaine
 
hello nish
Regarding the glove box light yes i have had the same problem but i managed to fix it myself.
Audi have use an easy method of switching the glove box light on when your car lights are on.
The way it works is if you look at your glove box sitting in the front passenger seat there is a small piece of dashboard to the left of the glove box door.
Now unfortuanatly for me the piece came off because it is only glued in place with audi glue.
But behind this panel is where you can get access to the switch for the glove box light.
The way it works is there are 2 metal contacts that when the door is open they touch and make the light come on. When the glove box is closed there is a piece of plastic attached to the bottom left hand hinge which as the door close pushs between the 2 contacts and breaks the curciut hence the light goes out.
Now the fault with the hinge is the plastic blade which is abit flimsy snaps off and so the light either stays on constantly or is off constantly depending on when the plastic blade snapped off either when the door was closed or open at the time.
I found the blade had snapped off when the door was in the closed position and had stuck between the 2 metal contacts so once i got access not too easy to do i reglued the peice of plastic back on when the door was in the open position and then tie-strapped into position and voila the door light worked again never had any problems since.

The reason why i think the plastic blade snapped off is if a small ammount of pressure is applied to the glove box door when it is open it causes the plastic blade to snap off since it cannot flex like the door hence the glove box light is affected.

Hope the helps

Regards

A.D.Simmons
 
I too have been looking for replacement front tyres (25,000 miles)for my TDi SE and have found the cheapest place for tyres only (no fitting) is www.mytyres.co.uk. But what I want to know is can you replace the 185/50x16 with 205/45x16 as they are a lot more plentiful, cheaper and have the same rolling radius? If anyone knows I would be grateful if you could share it.
 
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