RS6 specific silent tyres.

[Eddie555]

I don't know if all you guys realise this but we apparently have specific tyres on our cars. It was news to me. I have conti silent on mine. Also the Pirelli and dunlops are their own design of a silent tyre. These are specific to RS6 and Rs7. These tyres have a foam type of band which runs along the inside of the tyre (google it) and as such reduce the amount the road noise a few decibels. Looks like they are specific to our 21inch wheels.
This all came to my attention only because I had a puncture On Saturday and the tyre fitters had not seen this before. Nor had I. We all stood and stared at the foam band and thought what the fook. After a lot of head scratching the only way to temporarily fix the puncture was to insert a sticky type repair gunk thingy me bob stuff in the hole for now. Before you think WHAT?? No they didn't have a new one as it was 5.30pm and I wanted to speak to Audi before I took steps to acquire a new one.
Well I spoke to Audi today and every day's a school day. My questions were
1 why didn't you tell me I had special tyres on car?
2 how the bloody hell are you supposed to do a repair without destroying the foam band(it's stuck on with mega Glue)
3 with the foam inside how was the tyre weld supplied going to work in an emergency

They couldn't answer q1.
Q2 After they spoke to Audi UK they reckon (after they googled it) that apparently you can cut out and peel back the foam then repair the tyre using the conventional method of a plug patch and reglue the foam. I'm not convinced this will work properly and Audi themselves have not attempted this. With that in mind I have volunteered my car for them to try and do it. Booked in Wednesday so we'll see.
Q3 Audi UK reckon tyre weld will work but again I do think it will won't cause with the 3/4 in foam inside there's no way the weld would find the hole to temp block up.
Personally I don't want to change just one tyre and I know I should but I've done nearly 4000 miles and if the tread is more than 3mm different to the other tyre I will need to change both. I'm not planning to do any high speed runs in the next couple three months so for me a repair will do me for another 3000 miles before I change all four ready for winter.

Your thoughts please.

[doodlebug]

Don't think it's a secret that Audi and others have their own variant of tyres. Audi's are marked RO1, RO2 etc.

You need to stay within the guidelines. Keep the other tyre as a spare.

[Eddie555]

I knew about the Ro1 but not the RS6 /7 specific silent internal foam banded tyre doodlebug. Yea that's the plan with keeping the other as spare. If I have to change both.

[RSphantom]

I've got Pirelli's on mine. They are P Zero NCS (noise cancellation system). As you say they have a foam insert in the side wall to reduce road noise. But that's all, you can use normal tyres without this. Just go and look at the audi website and get a quote for tyres. They will happily sell you some Michelin SS and they have no foam inserts. I guess it's just that ordinary tyres cause more road noise.

[Eddie555]

I've got Pirelli's on mine. They are P Zero NCS (noise cancellation system). As you say they have a foam insert in the side wall to reduce road noise. But that's all, you can use normal tyres without this. Just go and look at the audi website and get a quote for tyres. They will happily sell you some Michelin SS and they have no foam inserts. I guess it's just that ordinary tyres cause more road noise.

I did ask today about Michelin SS and they are not R01 so not recommended as they say. The point I'm making I guess is the foam is maybe an issue when trying to do a puncture repair. Kwikfit won't touch it. National tyres reckon they need special parts and others have never seen one. These noise cancelling tyres are at present only specific to RS6/7's. Personally I'm waiting till Wednesday and see what Audi are gonna do with the attempt on a repair and fook their not recommended philosophy and have a set of Michelin's on.

[RSphantom]

I've got Pirelli's on mine. They are P Zero NCS (noise cancellation system). As you say they have a foam insert in the side wall to reduce road noise. But that's all, you can use normal tyres without this. Just go and look at the audi website and get a quote for tyres. They will happily sell you some Michelin SS and they have no foam inserts. I guess it's just that ordinary tyres cause more road noise.

I did ask today about Michelin SS and they are not R01 so not recommended as they say. The point I'm making I guess is the foam is maybe an issue when trying to do a puncture repair. Kwikfit won't touch it. National tyres reckon they need special parts and others have never seen one. These noise cancelling tyres are at present only specific to RS6/7's. Personally I'm waiting till Wednesday and see what Audi are gonna do with the attempt on a repair and fook their not recommended philosophy and have a set of Michelin's on.

Agree with all of the above but why would they sell me a set of Michelin's when they don't recommend them

[Eddie555]

I'm really gonna push them to explain to me how the tyre weld will work in an emergency as well cause I can't see how it would cause the damn foam would absorb the liquid before it could reach the puncture imo. Therefore again imo they are supplying me something that's not fit for purpose. I don't see why I should have to fork out bundles to have to swap out my tyres just for peace of mind when I've spent £80grand plus for the car.

[NLM13]

I had a large screw through my near side rear tyre recently, and managed to get it repaired no problem. I have the contisilent tyres fitted at the moment, and the screw was pretty much in the centre of the tread. All the repair guys had to do was peel back the foam, carry out normal puncture repair, and then stick the foam back down. The only reason it took any longer than usual was that they were super careful not to damage my 21" rims when removing and replacing the tyre. I've had no issue in the 2K odd miles since.

The guys in the tyre place had never seen, or heard of the foam inserts before and were very interested to have a look, and then went off to google them.

Agree with the comments re the tyre weld tho, having seen the foam I can't see how it would work as the pads are quite thick, and cover most of the interior of the tyre.

[feeltheburn]

The Conti site has a guide sheet on how a repair should be performed:

http://www.continental-tyres.co.uk/www/ ... ctions.pdf

I have a copy on my phone should I ever need to show a Tyre garage how to perform a repair.

As for the repair fluid, it should ultimately find the leak as is initially atomised inside the tyre and carried by the leaking air to the leak site. Hard to tell how dense the foam used inside the tyre is though so absorption may be an issue and might lead to a significant out of balance. That said I would need to be in a dire situation to even use the stuff- no way I'd "risk" going over 20mph while I limped home. There is not a lot of rubber between the wheel rim and the road as it is and if the leak gunk stuff wasn't fully effective the tyre side wall would likely fold in during cornering due to under inflation and damage the rim. RAC membership is my puncture mitigation for now {great value imo if you get a family membership]- I need to investigate if a space saver spare is actually available for the RS6.

[feeltheburn]

Does anyone know what affect the tyre leak gunk stuff has on the pressure sensor- I guess that might also need to be replaced- another reason not to use the stuff!

[Eddie555]

I think my main gripe is that I feel we should have been told we had RS6 specific tyres on our car. They should have told us or even should have been in our brochures informing us of the fact. Therefore prewarning us that potentially if we have a puncture we would have a better idea of how to go about explaining to tyre centres that we are SPECIAL. That said it may also appear that even tyre centres are too in the dark about these tyres and I also think AUDI or the tyre manufacturers should be issuing information out on a massive scale to all tyre centres so they are more aware. Suppose I'm just having a mad rant but hey ho.
Re the tyre weld. I'd sooner call breakdown than use that crap but that's not the point. If I were to have to use it I believe it should be fit for purpose and that's something I'm not confident that it will.
Re the repair instructions. Is it me or I'm reading the final stages wrong. After they have repaired the puncture in the instructions they don't replace the foam part they cut out. Therefore leaving the repair section missing of the foam. Surely then there is some balance issues after. Yea weights added to the rims after should sort this but that would mean extra unsightly weight unnecessarily. Rant over I'll see what happens tomorrow.

[GLM]

i'm guessing that its more cautious to not glue the foam back in as you'd probably need a specific kind of glue that they can not guarantee most tyre places would have and if the wrong glue was used and the foam comes away, you have more balance issues which would send most stealers to looking at steering racks etc... then realise there is something loose inside the trye.

I agree with you on just using the RAC cover that comes with the car, as 9/10 unless you have a slow puncture, that weld stuff isnt going to do much as the tyre is probably in bits anyway.

As for the issues with car/model specific tyres... isnt that always the case - you can elect for the approved/rated tyre or fit something else... ? arguably, what you loose in noise reduction you gain in grip etc...

[Eddie555]

As for the issues with car/model specific Tyres... isnt that always the case - you can elect for the approved/rated tyre or fit something else... ? arguably, what you loose in noise reduction you gain in grip etc..

This is my point. I' know from all my previous Audi's that I have to have approved R01 tyres but this tyre isn't just R01. It's Rs6/7 specific. It's the only car in the world at present with these special tyres. So as such somebody somewhere should have told me.
Not 100 percent certain but it also seems the only approved R01 tyre of this size are all noise cancelling and all have this foam in them. So the only way to have a non foam tyre is to have non approved tyres fitted. Which to be honest is what I'd prefer. I don't care about noise. I want confidence and want something fit for purpose (the tyre weld)if ever I was completely stuck.
I want to know where I'd stand with Audi and insurance company if I change to non approved tyre. I've never had this issue before.

[almoRS]

A relevant topic for me. I managed to burst both tyres on the passenger side last week by hitting a hidden kerb in a car park The tyres had to be ordered by Audi to come from Germany (Dunlops) as there were none in stock in the UK.

However prior to that my car was booked in for a minor juddering from the front and when the Audi tech looked at it he said it could be that a piece of the foam had come loose as he was aware that these tyres had this.

Lots of manufacturers make specific tyres e.g. Nissan GTR but it doesn't stop anyone from fitting their on preference. I don't see any real reason for not putting Michelins on when i need new tyres just because of road noise.

[Eddie555]

Actually that was the other point I was going to make. No one carries these blooming tyres in stock. All have to be ordered including from Audi. Between 4/5 working days wait. Seems dumb that your car could be off the road for a few days. I want answers. NOW!!!

Ps I'm a bit of a diva. Lol.