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As some of you may have read, I've just fitted 18" wheels to my S4, with PS2 tyres.

Yesteday I checked the tyres and it looked like one of them has been rubbing. Not surprisingly I was fairly pissed off and worried.

However I looked again today and realised that I was mistaken.

3 of the tyres have a distinct pattern of 'Z's molded into the angled part of the tyre just where the tread starts. There's the occasional picture of the Michelin man on this part too.

The other tyre doesn't, and I had wrongly assumed that the pattern had been rubbed away.

But when I checked again I saw some narrow ridges (manufacturing remnants) all over this part of the tyre, as well as the occasional picture of the Michelin man. So it hasn't been rubbed away, it was never there!

Now I don't really care that the pattern is not there, but I do care if there is a significant difference between this tyre and the rest which could affect the car.

Does anyone know enough about PS2s to comment?

I don't know about the PS2 and I don't want to worry you. But I have heard of apparently identical tyres wearing drastically differently only to dicover one was made in a different factory than the other. It was suggetsed that the compounds were different and hence this was the problem rather than anthing wrong withe car.

I'd watch them carefully to ess how they wear I'd also make the buys who sold you them aware that you are aware of this.

If your supplier has sourced them from a broker, ther'e a chance that they've come from the parallel market, i.e. different spcec for overseas market. As high performace tyres don't move as fast as say tyres for a Focus, many dealers rely on brokers if they don't do the volumes to deal with Michelin. Use either a specialist performance fitter, or pre-order through a national (e.g. ATS Euromaster) only providing they can give you the best fitter around as they are used to dealing with Fleet cars which generally aren't "performance", and where the drivers don't really complain about the odd scratch to a wheel since they are getting the tyres for "free".

Many car manufacturers homologate special versions of tyres e.g. all Porsche approved tyres have an "N" suffix which can mean something as simple as a difference in the guage or repeat of a tread pattern. Even Focus has homologates Pirelli's with "F" suffix!

(Ex fleet manager of a national tyre fast-fit)