Wheels disintegrating

[JCviggen]

Today's been weird.

I'm halfway through the long drive from Moscow to Belgium. First day was uneventful, good progress 70-80 mph for long stretches. Today I set off in Minsk, good quality roads, and 2 hours in the TPMS gives me a low pressure warning cruising on a highway in the middle of nowhere. Right rear is down to 1.5 bar from 2.5. Had a compressor with me so filled it back up and continued, wondering how long it would take to go back down. Turns out about 1 hour.

After 2 more fillups I found a tire place near the Polish border. Take off the wheel, its cracked. On the inside of the wheel at the edge there is a clear crack from which air is escaping. Guy can't fix it but his buddy 5 mins down the road can. 1 hour and 15 quid later I'm back up and running and quite a happy camper.

Once across the border it's several hours to Warsaw where we're stopping for the night. 2 mins before we get to the hotel there's the TPMS again. Bugger. Park the car underground, have a look around... left front is at 1.2 bar instead of 2.7. WTF. Look around the wheel with my smartphone's torch...I can hear the air hissing somewhere....yep identical crack same spot as it was on the other wheel. All I did was drive 2 full days on smooth roads at highway speeds with the cruise control on 80 mph and 50% of my wheels fail on day 2.

Needless to say, I can't use these wheels for the Nurburgring on Thursday. I've got to find another place that can repair the wheel enough to get home and then, somehow, find another set of wheels and get them onto my car within a day of getting home.

F--K

[FaisalJ]

Hope you get it sorted fella.

Very weird for opposite corners to be cracked with no obvious reason. OEM wheels?

First thing that came to mind though - you sure the wheel dude didn't pull a fast one and swap the cracked rear right wheel for the front left!?

[Covkiller]

I don't know how flush you are but if you contact the guy who runs this place I'm sure he can get you 1 or 2 alloys couriered over from Germany within 24hrs.
http://www.felmondo.com/
Standard alloy details:
RS4 9 x 19 ET29 8E0 601 025 AG
He can supply the wheels tyres valves TPMS the lot.
He supplied me with my 20's for a great price and had them in stock, a really great genuine helpful chap.
Good luck in getting sorted.

[bam_bam]

Haha - 50% of your wheels have failed. That's rotten luck but not uncommon for Audi OE wheels, the reason this forum exists is due to shoddy OE wheels.

[JCviggen]

Well I did make it home last night thankfully! But to say I lacked confidence to drive the car fast on the Autobahn would be an understatement. Didn't really exceed 100mph.

Concierge at the hotel managed to find a place that could fix it in Warsaw at short notice but they did take 3 times as long as the guys in Belarus. And yes these are OEM wheels but they've had 7-8 years of Russian roads behind them and are apparently now giving up the ghost. They're shot. Been told that it's only a matter of time before they crack again and they're only good for the bin at this point.

Managed to find someone selling some used Ultraleggera HLTs and after offering a copious amount of Euros for a friend of the seller to drive it all the way to the Nurburgring I should have it tomorrow and get the Cup tires put on at a local joint. Contemplating buying another mint set of OEM wheels in Germany while I'm there so I don't need to swap tires on wheels all the time.

While in Belarus I met up with the old barge and its new owner who is taking great care of it.