Flat spots on tires from long time sitting at port

[brad65ford]

Not sure how to start this thread but my salesman said my 2017 RS3 sat at the port for awhile before it was released. Since it sat for a while my dealer ship is calming that these tires have a flat spot which will go away after some miles. Fast forward a few weeks and I finally call my dealer and said I'd like for them to balance the tires if possible since it wasn't any better. We ended up going there today so they can look or fix it. They said this is common with cars that sit for awhile and they have to heat cycle the tires and over inflate them which they did. This didn't seem right nor was I was familiar with the idea of this and said "ok, do what you go to do". We go to lunch and my salesman calls and says its ready and much better then it was before. We get the car and leave to go home, as soon as we go back on the highway and hit 70-80 mph it still has a shake. Problem not fix

Am I the only one with a 2017 RS3 with flat spot tires that sat at port or do you think there is something wrong with the tires or balancing?

[Skyler@Achtuning]

Flat spots should go away much quicker than that. I had a car sit in the garage for 7 years on track tires, had to move and drove it about 50 miles to the new location, took about 20 miles to get rid of the flat spots. I would ask for them to balance the wheels again.

[nesbit]

Not sure how to start this thread but my salesman said my 2017 RS3 sat at the port for awhile before it was released. Since it sat for a while my dealer ship is calming that these tires have a flat spot which will go away after some miles. Fast forward a few weeks and I finally call my dealer and said I'd like for them to balance the tires if possible since it wasn't any better. We ended up going there today so they can look or fix it. They said this is common with cars that sit for awhile and they have to heat cycle the tires and over inflate them which they did. This didn't seem right nor was I was familiar with the idea of this and said "ok, do what you go to do". We go to lunch and my salesman calls and says its ready and much better then it was before. We get the car and leave to go home, as soon as we go back on the highway and hit 70-80 mph it still has a shake. Problem not fix

Am I the only one with a 2017 RS3 with flat spot tires that sat at port or do you think there is something wrong with the tires or balancing?

My 17 is smooth at around 70 ish. Maybe tomorrow on way to work I can go faster and see.

[brad65ford]

Hell i've had mine to 130 already. She pulls hard up stairs for a little motor. Thanks guys for the response. Have a feeling its a balancing issue (surprised if Audi doesn't do a good job balancing) or flat spots that will not go away. Regardless they should take car of me either way.

[Mops@Nemesis]

I'm with Skyler. My A5 was parked on PSS for about 3 months. First 15 or miles were brutal. By 30 I was butter again.

[coolwater]

Just keep complaining if it doesn't go away. I had the same problem on my suv and eventually they swapped in brand new tires. I had driven 800 miles after the rebalanced and shakes did not go away completely.

-cW

[diztek]

what a great start to a $60k audi. i would think Audi would just replace them right away so that the customers initial experience isnt a bad one. especially an RS customer.

[brad65ford]

Right lol, they know me well purchasing an s8 plus and a q5 already from them. Would strongly believe they want our business.

[nesbit]

Right lol, they know me well purchasing an s8 plus and a q5 already from them. Would strongly believe they want our business.

Are the tires covered by road hazard warranty? If so, perhaps they need to have a "little accident" in areas which can't be fixed. Still the dealer should just take care of it. Have they gone for a ride to feel it?

[brad65ford]

Went back to the dealer Friday and they gave me a loner. They called late Friday and stated they have attempted to balance the tires and it still shows and issue. They said they were going to over inflat the tires and let them sit over the weekend and see if it makes a difference. Sounds like there is something wrong with at least 1 tire, going to make sure I get new tires out of this since its just not right and they know it.

[drew4392]

Went back to the dealer Friday and they gave me a loner. They called late Friday and stated they have attempted to balance the tires and it still shows and issue. They said they were going to over inflat the tires and let them sit over the weekend and see if it makes a difference. Sounds like there is something wrong with at least 1 tire, going to make sure I get new tires out of this since its just not right and they know it.

Agreed. Something isn't right, and that is unacceptable for a new RS car, or any car for that matter. New tires are owed.

[ADM17]

Tell them to credit you the cost toward a set of PS4S. The P Zero's are garbage anyway.

[brad65ford]

Tell them to credit you the cost toward a set of PS4S. The P Zero's are garbage anyway.

Thanks guys for all your input, today I got her back from the dealership. Did a video on the experience thus far as well as a few other subjects. Tire subject is in the beginning of the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP8NZQtb9x8&t=17s
In short its not fixed and they are requiring me to continue to put more miles on her before the "next step". Will up date as time goes on.

[dbturbo2]

Thanks guys for all your input, today I got her back from the dealership. Did a video on the experience thus far as well as a few other subjects. Tire subject is in the beginning of the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP8NZQtb9x8&t=17s
In short its not fixed and they are requiring me to continue to put more miles on her before the "next step". Will up date as time goes on.

Took delivery of a 2017 RS3 about 4 weeks ago and had the exact same problem with a high speed vibration starting at about 65mph and getting progressively worse the faster I drove.

The dealer road force balanced all 4 wheels and found both the right front and right rear tires out of balance. Apparently the process they use is to balance the tires cold, mount them and drive to warm them up, then dismount and balance them again warm. It was during the second "warm" balance that the tires were found significantly out of balance.

What is interesting to note is that my one Pirelli tire could not be balanced properly even after it was mounted to the other wheel, and was deemed defective by Audi who told the dealer to replace the tire. The new tire was again found to be defective and would not balance properly, so a third tire was ordered that was finally able to be balanced within spec.

While I'm happy to have the issue resolved, it is dissapointing that new RS3's left the factory with balance issues even though the cars are supposedly test driven at the factory. My best guess is that Pirelli had some manufacturing issues on a batch of the RS3 tires. Regardless I would hope that Audi would stand behind the car and resolve your issues.

Happy to share the dealer name and service advisor via PM if you want to have your dealer reach out to them. Best of luck in resolving your issues, take care.