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232
Tires and wheels
Tire service life
The service life of tires depends on a lot of
different things including proper installation
and balancing, correct tire pressure and driv-
ing style.
Fig. 187 Tire tread: t read wear indicators (TWI)
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Fig. 188 Rotat ing t ires for more even wear
Tread Wear Indicator (TWI)
The origi nal t ires on your vehicle have
1/16 inch (1.6 mm) high "wear indicators"
c::>
fig . 187
running across the tread. Depend-
ing on the make, there will be six to eight of
them evenly placed around the t ire. Marks on
the tire sidewa ll (for example "TWI" or other
symbols) indicate the positions of the tread
wear ind icators . Worn t ires must be replaced .
Different fig ures may apply in ot her countries
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& .
Tire pressure
Incorrect tire pressure causes premature wear
and can cause sudden t ire blow-out. For t his
reason, tire pressure must be checked at least
once a month
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page 228 .
Driving style
Driving fast around curves, heavy acceleration
and hard braking increase tire wear.
Rotating tires for more even wear
For all four t ires on your vehicle t o have t he
same service life, we recommen d that t he
front and rear t ires are rotated according to
the tire manufact urer's suggested tire rota-
tion intervals. Please remember the follow-
ing :
- Tire rotation intervals may differ from the
vehicle service inte rvals outlined in your
Maintenance and Warranty Booklet .
- The longer one tire is used in one location
on the vehicle, the more it wears at certain
points; therefore, we recommend that you
follow the tire manufact urer's suggested
tire rotation intervals .
- Vehicles w ith front-wheel dr ive experience
more tread wear on the fro nt w heels com-
pa red to all wheel drive (quattro ® ).
- Please rotate tires as shown
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fig. 188.
- Extra care must be taken when rotating di-
rection-specific tires
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page 250 .
Wheel balancing
The wheels on new vehicles are balanced .
However, various situations during everyday
driving can cause them to become unba l-
anced, resulting in vibrat ions you can usually
feel through the steer ing wheel.
Unbalanced whee ls must be rebalanced to
avoid excessive wear on steering, suspension
and t ires. A whee l m ust also be rebalanced
when a new tire is insta ll ed.
Incorrect wheel alignment
Incor rect w heel alig nment can cause exces-
sive tire wear, impairing the safety of the vehi-
cle. If tires show excessive wear, have the
whee l alignment checked by an aut hori zed
Audi dealer or qualif ied workshop .
All wheel drive
Vehicles with quattro ® must always have tires
of the same size, construction and tread type .
For details see
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