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(You can skip the narration and go straight to the bottom for the highlights)
So I drove over some gnarly bolt and it tore up my tire pretty bad (I've got Continental CrossContact LX Sport 265/45R21). I'm not used to "instant flats"; typically I get to drive a few miles to a Discount Tire or something like that. I decided to put the spare on myself and happily found it in the cargo area. It's a tiny rim with what looks like a low-profile tire (Vredestein; I still have their winter tires for my S5 so the spare has my stamp of approval). You're supposed to inflate it before installing it and man is it a trip to watch (goes from low-profile to truck tire with a pop!). I went to look for the jack and couldn't find it. I said "f it" and called Audi Roadside Assistance. The car had 750 miles on it at the time. I'm not getting my hands dirty this early on in the ownership. Or so I thought!
Audi Roadside Assistance called a technician. The guy shows up in a Hyundai Santa Fe. He's dressed like he's been home-bound all weekend playing video games and he pulls a bunch of tools from his trunk. He looks like he hasn't showered in a week, his pants are baggy, and his underwear is showing and is full of holes. "No judgement" but you should probably care about how you present yourself at work ... or anywhere. It's OK, this is the country and good ole' boys roll like this all the time, so ... sure. He is wise enough to note that the spare can't be mounted without first being inflated. I'm dumb enough that I would have mounted that sucker as-is and then looked for air. Good thing those tools were "missing".
I happened to be right by a Costco and I'm a member so I walked over and asked if they could air the tire up. They were very kind and helpful and that was probably the highlight of the day. I rolled the tire back to the technician and he installed it. He stood the flat tire up and it fell over, face first ... onto parking lot asphalt. Goodbye pristine wheels. Rash everywhere. I thanked him for his service and bid him farewell.
I then thought "heck, I'm here, might as well see if Costco can patch this". They took it in and I went home. After about an hour or so, they called me and said "sorry, we can't reliably fix this". Apparently there's some insulation inside that was compromised and they couldn't recreate. They claimed they could patch it but they didn't want the liability. I thanked them for trying and took the tire to Audi.
Audi was really pushing for a new tire. $450 out the door. This is a brand new tire (750 miles) so I hated the idea of just tossing it away. Audi also didn't want the liability. They said they could patch it but would offer me no receipt. The bolt was so large that the hole it left would be too big for a plug and they questioned how long it would last. Apparently you can't patch these tires from the inside due to all that insulation business I mentioned earlier. I asked them to at least pull the bolt out and see for certain how bad it was before throwing it away. They spent a good 15 minutes and when it came out you could tell that tire was a goner (I've never seen a hole so big on a tire and I've run over rivets).
While Costco was looking at the tire, I looked at the owner's manual and found that the jack and tire inflator (score!) are stored in the frunk, under a flap in the compartment that also stored the charger it came with. This car keeps surprising me with "value".
So I'm driving around town on a spare and the car is going bananas. Tire inflation error, TPMS error, Air Suspension error, Left tail light bulb fault (why not?), Is the key still in the vehicle error (GTFO). OK, I've seen that last one before but all the others are brand new. It's a good thing I otherwise really love the car because I was this close to getting really pissed off about the ownership so far (which includes the center taillight replacement and subsequent damaging of the plastic end caps, as detailed in another post).
So, to recap the important stuff:
UPDATE: Check out this post with repair information from Continental.
So I drove over some gnarly bolt and it tore up my tire pretty bad (I've got Continental CrossContact LX Sport 265/45R21). I'm not used to "instant flats"; typically I get to drive a few miles to a Discount Tire or something like that. I decided to put the spare on myself and happily found it in the cargo area. It's a tiny rim with what looks like a low-profile tire (Vredestein; I still have their winter tires for my S5 so the spare has my stamp of approval). You're supposed to inflate it before installing it and man is it a trip to watch (goes from low-profile to truck tire with a pop!). I went to look for the jack and couldn't find it. I said "f it" and called Audi Roadside Assistance. The car had 750 miles on it at the time. I'm not getting my hands dirty this early on in the ownership. Or so I thought!
Audi Roadside Assistance called a technician. The guy shows up in a Hyundai Santa Fe. He's dressed like he's been home-bound all weekend playing video games and he pulls a bunch of tools from his trunk. He looks like he hasn't showered in a week, his pants are baggy, and his underwear is showing and is full of holes. "No judgement" but you should probably care about how you present yourself at work ... or anywhere. It's OK, this is the country and good ole' boys roll like this all the time, so ... sure. He is wise enough to note that the spare can't be mounted without first being inflated. I'm dumb enough that I would have mounted that sucker as-is and then looked for air. Good thing those tools were "missing".
I happened to be right by a Costco and I'm a member so I walked over and asked if they could air the tire up. They were very kind and helpful and that was probably the highlight of the day. I rolled the tire back to the technician and he installed it. He stood the flat tire up and it fell over, face first ... onto parking lot asphalt. Goodbye pristine wheels. Rash everywhere. I thanked him for his service and bid him farewell.
I then thought "heck, I'm here, might as well see if Costco can patch this". They took it in and I went home. After about an hour or so, they called me and said "sorry, we can't reliably fix this". Apparently there's some insulation inside that was compromised and they couldn't recreate. They claimed they could patch it but they didn't want the liability. I thanked them for trying and took the tire to Audi.
Audi was really pushing for a new tire. $450 out the door. This is a brand new tire (750 miles) so I hated the idea of just tossing it away. Audi also didn't want the liability. They said they could patch it but would offer me no receipt. The bolt was so large that the hole it left would be too big for a plug and they questioned how long it would last. Apparently you can't patch these tires from the inside due to all that insulation business I mentioned earlier. I asked them to at least pull the bolt out and see for certain how bad it was before throwing it away. They spent a good 15 minutes and when it came out you could tell that tire was a goner (I've never seen a hole so big on a tire and I've run over rivets).
While Costco was looking at the tire, I looked at the owner's manual and found that the jack and tire inflator (score!) are stored in the frunk, under a flap in the compartment that also stored the charger it came with. This car keeps surprising me with "value".
So I'm driving around town on a spare and the car is going bananas. Tire inflation error, TPMS error, Air Suspension error, Left tail light bulb fault (why not?), Is the key still in the vehicle error (GTFO). OK, I've seen that last one before but all the others are brand new. It's a good thing I otherwise really love the car because I was this close to getting really pissed off about the ownership so far (which includes the center taillight replacement and subsequent damaging of the plastic end caps, as detailed in another post).
So, to recap the important stuff:
- The spare is in the cargo area and needs to be inflated first (to 51psi); hold on to the valve stem cover because it's also a deflator (if installed in reverse)
- Oh, don't forget to set the Air Suspension mode (in Vehicle -> Settings?) to "Tire change"
- The jack, tire inflator, and even wheel lug cap remover are in the frunk, under a flap in the bottom of the compartment that also stored the charger when you first got the car
- The Continental CrossContact LX Sport tires are specially insulated and filled with foam to provide a quieter ride (typical of EV and luxury SUV tires, apparently); if damaged extensively, they're trash and need full replacement; for smaller holes: only plugs, no inside patches
- Audi dealerships charge $70 more per tire ($450 vs $380) compared to Discount Tire for this specific tire and provide a two-year warranty (tied to the DOT number on the tire); first year is full credit for replacement, second year is pro-rated; the warranty is allegedly honored at all Audi dealerships which is "nice"
- Your car will not be happy at all about riding on the spare ... error codes galore
- Consider carrying a blanket in your trunk to lay your flat tires on ... these wheels scratch very easily! Audi claims they can refinish the wheel for $125 which is actually rather cheap (compared to past experience)
UPDATE: Check out this post with repair information from Continental.