We purchased a 2001 AUDI A6 QUATTRO in 2007. It was owned by a wealthy family that only used it in the summers when their cousins came to visit. It had 23,000 miles on it when we bought it. We immediately replaced the tires. The Audi dealer thought that they wore badly because the car sat without being driven so much of the time. Since then, we’ve replaced the tires THREE MORE TIMES! It eats tires! We have been willing to buy tires for it because it’s an awesome car in great shape and still has only 80,000 miles on it.
What the heck is the deal with the TIRES??? The Audi dealer here in Minneapolis stinks. They are so rude and unhelpful that we have stopped going there. One of their mechanics defected and is now working for a repair shop close to our home - a great plus for us. Still, neither he nor his mechanic pals can explain the poor tire performance.
Three sets of tires in six years? How many miles per set?
An A6? What size (like 235x40/18 or whatever) and speed rating are the tires?
And, most importantly, have there been any signs of abnormal wear patterns on the tires?
Last but not least, have you ever had the alignment checked?
My thoughts are how much mileage you’re getting per set and the tires themselves. High speed tires, like I suspect your Audi has, often don’t even come with wear ratings. They stick and handle great, but wear like the dickens.
If you do have a chassis or suspension problem it should show up in the wear patterns or the handling.
My guess would be a young driver or an old maniac driver. When I was young I had a DeSoto hemi that I used to hunt sports cars with and I wore out a brand new set of Atlas tires in 7000 miles. It was a fun 7000 miles though.
If you have UHP tires, then 20k a set is reasonable for an AWD car. I get about 25k miles out of set of UHP summer tires on my car. There’s probably nothing really wrong with your car.
Your Audi is most likley using the 255/40-17 size summer performance tires.
Most of the tires in this size come with a 35k mile warranty, which in real driving reality, usually means about 17k miles before the tires wear out.
Much less if you or your family members have lead-foot-itis.
AWD also chews up tires a bit quicker than FWD or RWD does.
Adding a powerful engine like what is in the A6 also helps chew up tires even quicker.
That car comes in 3 engine choices of 200, 250, or 300 hp.
I’m guessing that the way you phrased it, the original family was wealthy, that you are not wealthy. If you’re not wealthy, you probably shouldn’t own a used Audi A6 Quattro with expensive tire habits.
AWD vehicles can be expected to consume tires faster than 2wd cars…One major factor, when you accelerate strongly coming out of a turn or curve, the center differential tightens up and tends to scuff or drag the tires slightly. This creates that “on rails” feel but it’s hard on the tires…This can be minimized by avoiding hard acceleration or deceleration when entering or leaving sharp turns or curves…
@DivaMom, what brand and model tires do you have now? You can read it off the sidewall of the tire. The size will be helpful, too. It will read something like: 215/55-16. This will help us determine what type of tires they are (e.g., high performance, touring) and what the wear rate should be.
texases- They were Atlas Bucrons, super sticky rubber compound with only two tread groves to make them street legal. Wouldn’t squeal and were fantastic in the rain.
Make sure the wheels and tires have the same dimensions as when the car was new. If a wheel size has changed, or a tire size has changed, that can cause this symptom.
