222 Tires and wheels
and luggag e load capacity
calculated in Step 4.
6. If your vehicle will be towing
a trail er, load from your trail-
er will be transferred to your
vehicle. Consult thi s manual
to determin e how t his re-
duces the available cargo
and luggage load capacity of
your vehicle.
..., Check the tire sidewall
(q page 223, fig. 171) to de-
termine the designated load
rating for a specific tire.
Tire service life
The service life of tires depends on a lot of
different things including proper installation
and balan cing, correct tire pressure and driv-
ing style.
Fig. 169 Tire tread: tread wear indicators (TWI)
f r
Fig. 170 Rotating tires for more even wear
Tread Wear Indicator (TWI)
The original tires on your vehicle have
1/ 16 inch (1.6 mm) high "wear indicat ors"
c::> fig. 169 running across the tread . Depend-
ing on the make, there will be six to eight of
them evenly placed around the tire. Marks on
the tire sidewall (for example "TWI" or other
symbols) indicate the positions of the tread
wear indicators. Wor n tires must be replaced.
Different figures may apply in other countr ies
c::>.&_.
Tire pressure
Incor rect t ire pressure causes premature wear
and can cause sudden tire blow-out . For this
reason, tire pressure must be checked at least
once a month
c::> page 218 .
Driving style
Driving fast around curves, heavy acceleration
and hard braking increase tire wear.
Rotat ing tires for more even wear
For all four tires on your vehicle to have the
same service life, we recomme nd that the
front and rear tires are rotated according to
the tire manufact urer's suggested tire rota-
tion intervals. Please remembe r t he follow-
ing:
- Tire rotation intervals may differ from the
vehicle service intervals outli ned in your
Warranty
& Maintenance Booklet .
- The longer one tire is used in one location
on t he vehicle, the more it wears at certain
points; the refore, we recommend that you
follow t he tire manufactur er's suggested
tir e rotat ion intervals.
- Vehicles with front -wheel drive experience
more tread wear on the fro nt wheels com-
pared to all-wheel drive (quattro ®).
- Please rotate t ires as shown
c::> fig. 170 .
- Extra care must be taken when rotating di-
rection -specific tires
c::> page 241 .
Wheel balancing
The wheels on new vehicles are balanced.
However, various situations during everyday
driving can cause them to become
...
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