Pictures soon then? +++

Not at all! :mad: Do NOT buy these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151510365124

I have found a way to make them fit and hopefully stay on until I can get some decent replacements, see next post for details.

Oh, sorry to hear that. What a pain.

OK, so after trying with some force I just could NOT get these on.
The process also caused some flexing and weakening of the plastic lugs on the back as they were bent out in the wrong direction.

Eventually after some careful study I worked out why, it was the metal spring ring causing the problem.
Without it they did clip in, but rather loosely, and not entirely flush at the edge. With it, no chance!

The ring is basically too large and too strong and has only a small gap so cannot shrink enough to clip on.

As it happens I have some redundant centres I bought a while ago that fit nothing I have. They too use a similar ring so I compared.
Superficially the same size, but the spare ones use a thinner, more flexible, wire and VERY IMPORTANTLY have a larger gap (extra 5mm or so) so can be compressed more.

So I just swapped the rings over between the new centres and old spares and they now fit quite well and look OK.
The only real problem is that one has damaged/flexed lugs that could break off at any time.

I guess they may also have worked OK if I cut a bit off the ring to make the gap larger, but swapping was easier and they seem fairly secure with the slightly weaker spring.

It will be a few days, I need my tyre man here to fit the tyres and then swap them for my winters that are on the car. Weather forecast rules the timing.

I had exactly the same problem with a set I bought in the UK, but I returned them and got a refund. I've also had issues with centres for the 18" and 20" wheels with a company called 555 or something like that. The 20" centres were too loose and the 18" ones didn't fit at all (and I broke them trying t force them on).

Interesting to hear that swapping the wire ring seemed to fix the problem. Do they sit OK on the wheel now?

Reasonably, but I'm going to wait until they're on the car to decide if they are acceptable.

I've just seen a set of 5 sold on AudiSRS for 1300€ (about £1000).
That's refurbished, with caps and shipped from Romania.

I could sell mine at a reasonable profit!

You could make more of a profit... This seller is asking £1500 for a set of 4!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251857617797

Hmmm…but if I was asking that much, I'd shell out c £20/item for proper centre caps...:tuttut:

Mainly because I didn't really have room to carry it along with 4 other wheels with tyres I didn't get the spare refurbished, though I did have it checked for "roundness" and it's OK.

I've had the horrible old tyre removed and cleaned it up a bit so it's now OK for a spare, though definitely not up to Rob's standards. :o
Before and after:

It looks good Andrew!+++

Thanks, but there are still some stubborn stains on the back that resist the solvents I have at home. :( Much better though. :cool:

All done; car cleaned, new wheels & tyres fitted, winter tyres moved to FL Avus 18's, PF Avus 18's stripped of rubber ready for a clean before sale.
Tyre man was here over 2 hours in total (Focus also swapped to summer wheels and 2 tyres replaced) and as a bonus there's a bigger storage space under the boot floor!
First snap, into the sun as it was going down, so not that good:

Great stuff :D

And many thanks for the spare tyre Adrian. +++

those wheels always make the car look so much better IMHO, great choice HP+++

still on winter wheels up here for a wee while yet though:(

I would be here too as it's generally not much above freezing when I'm driving, but with Easter approaching I had to grab my tyre man when he was available.

I'm surprised at how much better they fill the arches, especially when looking along the side of the car. :D
Given the tyres are only 10mm wider (255mm vs 245mm) I didn't expect anything noticeable. I thought the wheel offset was the same? :Confused:

Gave them a quick wash with the Karcher this afternoon. :cool:
Need to do a bit more cleaning of tar etc. and take close-up pics before selling. Any views on value for this lot?

The 20's with new Michelins had their first proper run today. :D

Somehow ended up in a mini-convoy with an old restored Porsche behind me (Audi driver normally) and an S4 behind that on a nice winding road. Then we caught up with a newish S4 (the supercharged variety) for a "sprightly" run to our breakfast venue. :cool:

Handling is excellent. +++

And I discovered that an S8 is faster out of a sharp corner than a older V6 RS4 Avant, probably due to turbo lag. :tuttut:

We also did a sort of comparison between the centre caps on mine and Rob's (Professor Peach).
His were not as flush fitting as mine and one we looked at more closely came off VERY easily and was quite tricky to get back on. :(

We didn't study that closely, but it looked like his had the same potential problem as mine had initially, a spring ring that had a gap too small to allow enough "shrinkage" to clip fully in.

As much as I love my D2 S8 Andrew, I can't think of any situation where it's faster than my B5 was (if driven correctly) to be honest. :D

The wheels look really excellent in the flesh though! +++ And the breakfast was of course excellent too! :)

I think I've found one possible cause for the fitting issues of the centre caps.
Studying pictures online (of my cheap Chinese ones and similar) vs the genuine set I have just acquired, the four retaining lugs that are pushed out by the spring are subtly different. :tuttut:

The OEM ones have a vertical "slab" that is 10mm wide and 2mm deep with a couple of "buttresses" at the bottom. And of course the two-way sloping wedge section at the top with the spring pressing on the back.

The copies have the same slab, with buttresses, but part way up thicken to maybe 3.5mm and that extra thickness continues in the "wedge".

This makes them overall maybe 3mm larger in diameter where the lugs have to penetrate the hole in the centre of the wheel and of course much less flexible. :(
Enough to make it difficult or impossible, unless (as I have) you use smaller/weaker spring rings and bend each of the lugs in a bit. :mad:

I'll try to attach some pictures to show the difference.
Taken from different angles and just "snipped" from t'internet but the difference is pretty clear. The OEM ones have slimmer, straighter lugs and the copies are just too bulky.

The genuine centres (chrome effect, not brushed) were pretty tarnished so I've dismantled and fully refurbished them:

http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/q...psqi07tu3i.jpg

And they are a much better/flusher fit (cheap Chinese copy lying on the ground):

http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/q...psfima1orq.jpg

Just a final footnote on the cheap Chinese centres which I've now taken off and cleaned, with the intention of spraying with lacquer and keeping as spares.

The base of the retaining lugs (where the little triangular supporting buttresses are) are all showing very obvious signs of overstretched plastic that would probably fail eventually.
I guess this is down to a combination of poor material (less flexible/resilient) and the thicker lugs which means they have to bend more to fit.

The lesson is: Don't even think of buying cheap copies with the light beige plastic material, you need the grey OEM ones. +++

talking from bitter experience with our old A6 you don't want them falling off at speed either - marked a rim fairly badly when one did on that when we first bought the car!

Indeed not!

Just looking again at the design of the copies you can see why they are difficult to fit:
http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...3&d=1429347817
The lugs that are marked as 24mm from tip to base are only actually thin at the very base, maybe 6mm or so.
Almost all of that has those triangular buttresses and above that it's thicker and quite rigid.
So almost all the flexing takes place at the 2mm or 3mm thin area at the top of the buttresses. Which is why that is showing stress marks on the ones I removed. :tuttut:

The OEM design is the same (thin) thickness from base up to the "wedge" at the top. The wedge is also shallower.
So they have a whole 15mm or so to flex and less distance to bend as well.
I also suspect the OEM material is more resilient.

All of which says that the Chinese ones have almost been designed to fit badly and break quickly. :mad: