Tyres for a smoother ride on bumpy roads
 

Afternoon all

I've recently moved to a road full of pot holes and bumps. It's a bit rough on the S8!

I wondered if swapping out the tyres for something with a bigger sidewall might make a reasonable difference.

I'm currently running 255/35/20s. Is it worth considering an alternative tyre size to smooth the ride out or is 90% down to the stiffness of the suspension and therefore tyre size is going to have minimal impact.

Many thanks

Downsizing the wheels to 18s will have the biggest impact as you will have considerably more sidewall to soak up the bumps. 255 40 20 probably wouldn't fit in the wheel arches and would mess up the speedo while being unlikely to have much effect.

18" will be a lot softer but there is a lot of difference between different tyre makes as well. 255/40R20 should fit fine as well as I have 255/45R19 and instead of messing up speedo it actually sorts it out. Instead of being 74mph with stock size (245/45R18) when it shows 80 on speedo it's more like 78-79 now.

It might be cheaper to pay someone to fill the holes...… :rolleyes:

You might, at the extreme, also find some 17" wheels that will go over the brakes.
My old PF S8 had genuine Audi 17" Avus wheels for winter, I think from an S4 or S3, but there was about a 2mm clearance at best to the Brembos when I moved to the FL model.
That meant no internal balance weights or use spacers which I didn't want for winter.
(The obvious economical solution was to buy a set of FE 20s for summer and use the factory 18s for winter, then sell the 17s - might even have been Ainars that bought them?)

I have factory Avus 18” wheels for winter and these are a much smoother ride

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No, don't have them any more. Turned out that tyres were a bit too big for A6 ( I think it was 225/55R17) and doing very little mileage on S8 I did not need separate winter set so part exchanged them for some 20" which I used while my 19" were off for refurbishment and then sold 20" later.

That's handy to know +++ I know 245/50R18 just fits but figured 255/40R20 might just be pushing it too far.

The 17" forged fat fives from the comfort model actually just fit over the FL S8 Brembos, as long as you use knock-on weights rather than stick-on, but they're a bit too wobbly on sport suspension really.

Thanks everyone.

I ended up buying a set of D3 18s with 235/50/18 tyres from our esteemed forum sponsors. Good value and have certainly made a difference. Bit bouncy around the potholes but out on the roads it’s like driving on silk.

Will this change make a difference to the speedo calibration?

Thanks all

Very little, I had to guess wheel width and offset but that would not make any difference to speedo reading https://www.willtheyfit.com/



http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1570290229

About 2%, but given most speedos exaggerate speed anyway, it's unlikely to be a problem.
Basically at 70mph on your speedo you'll in theory be doing 71.5.