Had an unfortunate incident yesterday with my 4 month old 2024 Q5 PHEV leased car - A not so sharp looking object got into my rear left tire when driving and I immediately heard a hiss sound of air leaking from the tire. This happened about 1000ft from my place so TPMS did not show any low pressure by the time I reached home but could still hear air leaking for a few minutes. I have R20 run flats on it.
Little bit of searching says Audi does not allow patching run flat tires.
What are my options now having the other 3 tires driven for 4100 miles ?
Is it possible that I can get just the one tire replaced at Audi Service as 3 remaining tires have 90% (assuming) tread on them. I read Audi suggests replacing tires in sets (2 or 4) which will put me behind by $1000-$1200 even if they replace 2 tires.
Are tire shops (Discount tire etc.) better alternatives to get just the one tire replaced ?
Should I measure the tread on other tires and buy a used tire (probably patched) with similar tread ? I had good experience with United tires to replace worn out tires with my previous lease return. Also, probably not worth risking to drive on a patched tire for too long.
Heard some sellers like Tire Rack shave a new tire to the asked tread and ship it to you. Not sure if that is a viable option in this scenario.
I have 32 months left on the lease, so can’t get rid of my lease yet.
I tend to take good care of the cars I buy/lease and absolutely gutted that this happened on a new lease car. Would appreciate any advise from hackers on alternatives that I haven’t thought about.
Don’t overthink it, if the others still have 90% tread left then it will be fine to just replace the one tire. Get it done wherever is cheapest and/or most convenient, there’s no need to get it done at the Audi dealer.
I particularly remember denying tire and wheel coverage when signing the lease.
However, I ran into an article which mentioned Pirelli may cover damaged tires if they have minimal wear on them. Too good to be true but it says this on page 5 -
Things happen, don’t worry, it’s not your fault.
An object got into my leased Jeep’s tire at 9pm on Sunday on the way to airport to pick up friends. The only open shop was Mavis Tires and I had them replaced it with their own in-house brand because that was the best bang for the buck.
AFAIK, manufacturers care about the size, speed rating and load capacity of the tire. Not the brand or the shop you got it from.
OP, you’re overthinking this. Get that stuff patched and move on. You think audi is taking off your wheels at least end, taking the tires off, and individually inspecting each one? Hell no.
Do go buy a used tire of utires.com. Even if you have RFTs, some damage may not be patched on the sidewall.
A used tire is often half the price of a new one and you can pick one that matches your tire depth. It will save you in a pinch
Just find a shop that will patch runflats… some places won’t do it, but I think it’s fine. The local shop I took it to both plugged and patched my tire.
That looks like a Pirelli scorpion all season, which is not cheap but also not the most expensive tire.
Agree with @aronchi. Replace the tire.
I’ve had good experience with tire rack . I’ve had them ship tires directly to a tire shop for install.
I’ve also used discount tire and champtires. No complaints
Get the tire checked out ASAP. Has a friend with a similar looking object lodged into his tire. Somehow pierced the rim. He was driving along the highway so speed may have been a factor
They have to measure it and you’ll probably be past the 2/32". I got a nail in my X3’s tire, and it was too close on the measurements with similar mileage. They said it would take forever for Pirelli to get the money back to me. Luckily, I had wheel and tire coverage, but I was trying to avoid using it since I had just activated it!
I had a very similar situation with my Mercedes EQS within the first couple months of having it on a 24 month lease. I just replaced the 1 front driver side tire. Upon pre-inspection (prior to lease end) the newer tire had a little more tread than the passenger side front. I recently returned the car after 24 month lease expired with a little over 24k miles. I did not get hit at with tire charges since I had already replaced the rear two tires at about 15-16k miles. As long as the tread is within their guideline measurements you will be ok. They don’t have to be evenly worn.
Bottom line. Just replace the 1 and you will be fine.
This is true but I thought all 4 had to match. If I were OP I would get the matching tire. Who wants an Audi with one crappy tire on it just to save a few bucks.
