Tyre advice

[gorun01]

Contisilent is meant to lower interior noise by 8-9db, even if half true it is still worth having. The trouble is that it comes with the inferior rubber attached.

[harrier]

Unless the following applies to the Pirelli and Michelins discussed above, as well as Continentals, the following may be another relevant consideration:-

Quite coincidentally when showing a friend and neighbour my car's live tyre pressure and temperature readings during a mile round trip from my house, the Low Tyre Pressure Warning came on and the car's right rear tyre pressure already down over 0.5Bar continued dropping in front of my eyes. By the time I parked up back home the pressure was about 1.0Bar (c.f. 2.8Bar). I soon found a conical metal shard, protruding 5mm from the very middle groove in the tread, that hissed when touched. Pulling its buried 5mm out left a very tiny tear, but the tyre still went completely flat in minutes. I pumped it back up to 3Bar and the next morning was relieved and surprised to find the TP monitor still showing 3Bar. Watching the tyre pressure as I drove, I took the car to a friendly local garage (Picador). They sells tyres and I hoped for a repair/patch, but they were perplexed to find the tyre had a 1/2" deep foam lining across almost all its inner flat width and around its whole inner circumference, seemingly held on by a thick layer of brown glue. Their tyre technician was non-plussed as was his workshop manager. I phoned my Audi dealership's parts department, knowing that their friendly service department head technician was abroad. They naturally sell tyres for Audis, but were unable to help and suggested I ring Audi UK and speak to their Technical Department for advice. Audi UK weren't able to help me and stated "We don't have a Technical Department!". Starting to get a bit frustrated, I asked "Do I really have to ring Ingolstadt where the tyres were put on the car to get an answer?".

What I should have done was phone Continental Tyres, but by this this time the workshop manager had discovered that Continental Contisport Contact have the foam layer for sound absorbency, but also the "glue" holding the foam is able to seal punctures, if not too big! So my tyre didn't need repairing and was put back on. The foam and glue aren't to be removed and the tyre can't be repaired in the usual manner as that could weaken it and it would have to be thrown. The tyre will either seal its punctures successfully or not and, if not, again the tyre would need to be discarded.

So might Continentals still have something to offer over Mich and Pirelli, particularly if they puncture at 189 mph, or do they also offer the same puncture sealing benefit?

[MikeFish]

I responded in the other thread. All 3 of the standard tyres have the sound deadening but I'm not sure if they have have healing properties.

[Eddie555]

We've had this sort of discussion before

viewtopic.php?f=76&t=116073

And unless they've changed the contis on the RS6 to the self healing ones "contiseal" then the non healing ones, in small writing on side wall "contisilent" can most certainly be repaired in the normal plug and patch method. Contis website gives full instructions on how to do it.

[harrier]

Thank you MikeFish and Eddie555:- you are both right and I was wrong and have been repeatedly miss-informed. Having seen the inside of my punctured Contisport Contact 5P tyre and the goo holding the foam/sponge to the lining, it seemed totally believable, when told that it was a ContiSeal self-sealing tyre, that it was. Having researched Continental's website to learn more about my particular tyre myself (not at all straight forward), I have discovered that, although there is goo under the (silent)foam layer, it is not described by Continental as a sealant. The tyre does indeed have a ContiSilent logo on it and NO ContiSeal one. The tyre since being put back on the wheel, without being repaired, has however stayed pressurised at 2.9Bar for the last month! So that begs the question - should I have the small curved slit like puncture repaired as per Continental's repair pdf (see link below)? My usual medical/surgical training's mantra, "If its not broken, don't fix it.", makes me think I should leave well alone, but is the tyre "broken" or not? Answers on a postcard to ........

All in all I think am disappointed that 3 different places selling and repairing tyres and Audi UK haven't been able to advise me!

http://blobs.continental-tires.com/www8 ... d-data.pdf