Audi RS3 Tire Advice needed

[pulpoinspace]

Firstly, i tried searching and I can see there is a wealth of knowledge here and my question has already been answered probably but i'm too noob to find it.

2019 RS3 with the staggered wheel setup
I just got a flat front tire. I went to the tire shop, and they told me that only the front tires need to be replaced, and that the back ones are still good. I said okay and I let them order me 2 Michelin pilot sport 4s tires for the front. While the Pirelli p-zero in the back still have half tread life.
Now i'm at home thinking this isn't a good idea. Everything I read says AWD needs same tread pattern on all 4 wheels. They are both summer tires with the same load ratings I think, but the tread pattern is different and manufacturing tolerances and im worried about the quattro system.
So my questions is should replace all 4 instead of just the fronts? secondly, i've heard people running square setups even with the staggered wheel sizes, do you run 235/35/19 on all 4 and stretch them? or 255/30/19 on all four? This way I would be able to rotate the tires and get more life out of them?

Thank you in advance anyone who takes the time to help me out! Pretty new to cars, and forums. general rs3 advice also appreciated.

[mousewei84]

I would never suggest to run different tires between front and back since the grip difference will mess up the Quattro in hard driving, unless you only will drive it like a grandma. You need square wheels set+ same size tires to do rotation front and back.

[pulpoinspace]

I would never suggest to run different tires between front and back since the grip difference will mess up the Quattro in hard driving, unless you only will drive it like a grandma. You need square wheels set+ same size tires to do rotation front and back.

Thanks. Im leaning towards just ordering 235 section michelins for the back and continuing with the staggered setup i guess.

[TheContrarian]

Get 4 new MPS4S. 245/35/19 square or OEM staggered sizes. You'll be happy.

[quickshifter]

Firstly, i tried searching and I can see there is a wealth of knowledge here and my question has already been answered probably but i'm too noob to find it.

2019 RS3 with the staggered wheel setup
I just got a flat front tire. I went to the tire shop, and they told me that only the front tires need to be replaced, and that the back ones are still good. I said okay and I let them order me 2 Michelin pilot sport 4s tires for the front. While the Pirelli p-zero in the back still have half tread life.
Now i'm at home thinking this isn't a good idea. Everything I read says AWD needs same tread pattern on all 4 wheels. They are both summer tires with the same load ratings I think, but the tread pattern is different and manufacturing tolerances and im worried about the Quattro system.
So my question is should replace all 4 instead of just the fronts? secondly, I've heard people running square setups even with the staggered wheel sizes, do you run 235/35/19 on all 4 and stretch them? or 255/30/19 on all four? This way I would be able to rotate the tires and get more life out of them?

Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to help me out! Pretty new to cars, and forums. general rs3 advice also appreciated.

Haha this is so funny, the same exact thing happened to me last week! Fronts were bowh blown out from pothole so swapped with PS4S and rear still kept OEM Pirellis. Ordered rear PS4S and will be mounted tomorrow! Was afraid of the same thing as you. I've heard that people has some issues with TC Light coming on so I'm curious to see whatll happen after theyre mounted...

[Cool_Breeze]

Get 4 new MPS4S. 245/35/19 square or OEM staggered sizes. You'll be happy.

^ this

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[pulpoinspace]

Thanks guys for all the advice!. Already called the tire shop and ordered the michelins for the rear. Might try the 245/35 square setup in the future if I keep burning through tires like this haha. Maybe ill try to sell the 235/35/19 Pirellis for a few bucks on craigslist or something. feelsbad getting rid of tires with half tread.

[Cool_Breeze]

Thanks guys for all the advice!. Already called the tire shop and ordered the michelins for the rear. Might try the 245/35 square setup in the future if I keep burning through tires like this haha. Maybe ill try to sell the 235/35/19 Pirellis for a few bucks on craigslist or something. feelsbad getting rid of tires with half tread.

Yea I was in the exact situation. Feels like a waste of two good tires, then after the PS4S you realize they were not good tires

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[pulpoinspace]

Someone from another forum is telling me that i'm better off with the 245 square setup and that the staggered setup oem sizes with the michelins will cause traction control issues. anyone experience this?

[pulpoinspace]

Guess i'm gonna call the tire shop in the morning and change the order to four 245/35s, tire shop gonna love me.

[Cool_Breeze]

Someone from another forum is telling me that i'm better off with the 245 square setup and that the staggered setup oem sizes with the michelins will cause traction control issues. anyone experience this?

I have PS4S w/staggered OEM setup and no issues whatsoever. Not sure why anyone would think this - it's the OEM setup!

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[pulpoinspace]

Thank you! Hmm that just makes me more confused. Because that is ideally what I'd like to do. But i'm leaning toward the square 245 after reading this thread.

The member from the other forum sent me here:
Warranty after changing to Michelin PSS4

It seems that people believe the problem occurs because the difference in rolling diameter of the particular michelins is a bit larger than the specially made pirellis.
Seems to be particularly a problem on tuned cars, and when the traction control is on, or not in sport. So if you're stock and turn off traction control it may not occur.
Hmm. Not sure what to do now really.

[Cool_Breeze]

I wouldn't worry about it. If you want to rotate the tires then do 245s square. If you want (arguably) better handling then do staggered. FWIW, my next set will be square, but I have basic suspension mods (RSB/endlinks, camber plates, subframe inserts) that make the staggered setup less important.

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[kingbrd1]

I have PS4S w/staggered OEM setup and no issues whatsoever. Not sure why anyone would think this - it's the OEM setup!

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Did you keep the same size? Or since the sidewall shape is different did you have to drop a size on the front’s? I’m not sure if I e read that or made it up in my head.

Thanks
King


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[pulpoinspace]

Did you keep the same size? Or since the sidewall shape is different did you have to drop a size on the front’s? I’m not sure if I e read that or made it up in my head.

Thanks
King


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People recommend going even wider in the front with the PS4S, as the 265/19 rolling diameter is more similar to the 235/19 than the 255/19

[iambjx]

FWIW I had oem size staggered PS4S and I did have traction control issues under hard driving, I switched to 245 square and it went away

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[Cool_Breeze]

I kept the same size. Hard driving, a couple of track days, no issues.

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[Rod Paine]

I run 245/40/18 Michelin A/S3+ on Neuspeed RSe10 wheels, on our
2019 RS 3 now at 17,040, with 11,457 being fast country back road
runs. I am now retired and running our back roads 2-3 days a week,
weather permitting. Have been running these roads for over 60 years.

Had to go with much taller sidewalls to deal with bad road surface
conditions on back road runs, which killed the RS 3's original Pirelli
235/35/19 in two days! Our back roads are in really bad shape given
the now poor maintenance, or no maintenance at all, compared to
earlier years! And the now very low profile 19" tire/wheel now on
so many new vehicle configurations certainly don't help! My 2 cents.

[o1turbo30v]

245/35/19 MPS 4S square is what you want for sure

[Potatohead_RS3]

Personally I don't understand going square unless you are interested in making any understeer worse.

I run the stock sizes in Continental ECS, they are good tires.

[pulpoinspace]

so not only does the tire shop not want to put 245/35, they refuse! They adamantly say that the staggered OEM setup is the only fitment available for the RS3.

Americas tire btw. Just gonna put some OEM pirellis on the front and deal with this later.

[signde]

putting another set of oem pirellis on the car is throwing money away imo

find a better tire shop

or at least the the conti ECS in the staggered oem size.

[pulpoinspace]

putting another set of oem pirellis on the car is throwing money away imo

find a better tire shop

or at least the the conti ECS in the staggered oem size.

for sure it is.

i dont want to go with any other tires than oem in the staggered sizes. too many horror stories online. what i'm gonna do is put some neuspeeds with confirmed fitment and michelen 245/35s when i find a better shop as you say. i need a good recommendation for a shop around OC/LA if anyones got one.

I could do it all right now and then I would only be wasting the remaining tread on the rears. Which, who cares. Maybe ill try to see if I can find a shop.

[Potatohead_RS3]

Just buy four of something good and sell the rears. Took me like a week to get rid of mine, was not difficult. Or maybe even a tire shop will give you trade in credit if they sell used tires.

[Grey3]

Order the tires you want online. Then take the to an independent shop to have them installed. Those big chains are a PITA


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[pulpoinspace]

I wanna just get RSE010s with 245/35 but ive always just used americas tire. howd you guys find your tire shops? google?

[pulpoinspace]

So i think I'm just gonna order the RSE10s +40 and 245/35 MPS4s (or possibly rse10+45 and 255/30). But i think im gonna let me tire shop put the pirellis on the front anyway. Then i'll have both sets and can really compare when i make the switch, and probably put the stock wheels and pirellis back on if i ever sell the car. Thanks for the help guys.

[signde]

i know there were some reports of traction control issues the but i feel like those are long gone. these days i read more people that recommend 245/35 square over any other option and it's been a very long time since i have seen someone complain about traction control issues.

[henhead]

TC issues come from running PS4S in the OEM sizing of 255/30 front and 235/35 in the rear. I had TC issues with mine until I switched to 245/40R18 square.

[signde]

going back and looking over my bookmarks and notes about tires, you are right, the TC issues were about running non OEM tires in the staggered OEM sizes. i had 245/35 square in notes as my next purchase size.

i just had my second bubble in the oem pirellis this week at 11k miles. i didn't even hit anything. i replaced the first one because i basically had new tires but i'm not doing a second. i am done with them, i can't imagine any tire worse than this. my square PS4S go on tomorrow.

[kingbrd1]

For a square setup, if you have factory wheels, do you keep them?

King


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[tegxsi]

I get occasional traction control issues with OEM size Michelin PS4S.

There is something with this strange with the PS4S 255/30-19's in this size... I was wondering if I received the wrong tires when they came in from tirerack. They run very wide and they look can pass for 265's. I think they are not true to size and the traction control gets a little trippy.

[pulpoinspace]

For a square setup, if you have factory wheels, do you keep them?

King


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According to the forums you can. There are people who post pictures of them fitted to stock wheels and say no problems. but my local tire shop refused to order them for me because they weren't in the fitment guide. So be aware of that. They chose to sell me 2 pirellis over 4 michelins so it wasn't a money thing. Just call the shop ahead of time and see what they say.

[quickshifter]

Waaaaait so I just installed OEM Staggered with MPS4S today...am I making a mistake here?? No traction control light here. Will it cause damage to the AWD system?

[Skunkwerx]

Waaaaait so I just installed OEM Staggered with MPS4S today...am I making a mistake here?? No traction control light here. Will it cause damage to the AWD system?

If you're putting on the same OEM staggered sizes on the OEM staggered wheels you shouldn't see a problem. With MPS4s I would occasionally see the traction light go on (in my case) on slightly upward curved slopes at steady speed. Never on STRAIGHTs at highway or city speeds or on normal curves or hard turns at slow and high speeds.

[pulpoinspace]

Waaaaait so I just installed OEM Staggered with MPS4S today...am I making a mistake here?? No traction control light here. Will it cause damage to the AWD system?

personally after everything i've read i've chosen not to. not sure if its overblown forum paranoia or a genuine concern. But there seems to be a general consensus that rolling diameter on the michelin is different than the Audi specific Pirelli and causes problems with the traction control during hard driving. The general consensus is a square setup on Michelin tires or OEM AO P-Zeros.

Have you done hard driving since you got the michelins? People say the car bogs down with hard acceleration with tc on. If you experience problems I'm sure you could return the tires. There must be so many people driving around with this exact configuration. Not everyone reads forums and the tire shops are happy to put other brands of tires on. So either everyones haldex pump is gonna blow or things have been exaggerated.

Click the link in post #12 to read more.

[mike_TX]

I would definitely try to keep the staggered setup as that somewhat helps with the inherent understeer nature of this platform.


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[Potatohead_RS3]

personally after everything i've read i've chosen not to. not sure if its overblown forum paranoia or a genuine concern. But there seems to be a general consensus that rolling diameter on the michelin is different than the Audi specific Pirelli and causes problems with the traction control during hard driving. The general consensus is a square setup on Michelin tires or OEM AO P-Zeros.

Have you done hard driving since you got the michelins? People say the car bogs down with hard acceleration with tc on. If you experience problems I'm sure you could return the tires. There must be so many people driving around with this exact configuration. Not everyone reads forums and the tire shops are happy to put other brands of tires on. So either everyones haldex pump is gonna blow or things have been exaggerated.

Click the link in post #12 to read more.

Ok... That's being dramatic

The reason TC triggers is because the delta between the rolling speed of the front tires and rear tires becomes too great. In other words, the car believes the front tires are slipping because they are spinning faster than the rears. I don't know worn your front tires were but I ran a set of stock tires down to near nothing and it started happening to me with the stock tires once they were worn enough as well. With the Continentals I have put on (8.5k miles now) it has happened only once that I can remember. I suppose it could be worse for the Michelins, perhaps. In any event this isn't something that is going to damage the awd system. I don't really know why people are driving aggressively with the TC full on anyway.

[Cool_Breeze]

Ok... That's being dramatic

The reason TC triggers is because the delta between the rolling speed of the front tires and rear tires becomes too great. In other words, the car believes the front tires are slipping because they are spinning faster than the rears. I don't know worn your front tires were but I ran a set of stock tires down to near nothing and it started happening to me with the stock tires once they were worn enough as well. With the Continentals I have put on (8.5k miles now) it has happened only once that I can remember. I suppose it could be worse for the Michelins, perhaps. In any event this isn't something that is going to damage the awd system. I don't really know why people are driving aggressively with the TC full on anyway.

Agree. I think the traction situation is a bit overblown on this thread.

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[rcaro900ss]

I run Neuspeed RSE11R 18x9.0 +45mm with 265x35 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s square, as my street setup. For the track I run the RSE11R in a 18x9.5 +45mm with 275x35 Toyo Proxes RR up front, and 18x9 +45mm rear with 255x35 Toyo Proxes RR in the rear. I haven't had any traction control issues.