258 Tires and wheels
vehicle. Consult thi s manual
t o deter mine how th is re-
duces the availabl e cargo
and luggage load capacity of
your vehicle.
.,.Check the tire sidewall
(¢ page 259 , f ig. 212 ) to de-
termine the de signated 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. 210 Tire tread: tread wear indicators (TWI)
( r------
{ \.._ ______ _.
Fig. 211 Rotat ing t ires for more even wear
Tread Wear Indicator (TWI)
The origina l tires on your veh icle have
1/16 inch (1.6 mm) high "wear indicators"
c:::> fig . 210 running across the tread. Depend-
ing on the make, there will be six to eight of
them evenly placed around the t ire . Marks on
the tire s idewall (for example
"TWI" or other
symbols) ind icate the positions of the tread
wear indicato rs. Worn tires must be replaced .
Different figures may app ly in other countr ies
¢ Ll:)..
Tire pressure
Incor rect t ire pressure ca uses prema t ure wear
and can cause sudden tire blow -out . For this
reason, tire pressure must be checked at least
once a month
c:::> page 254.
Driving style
Driving fast around curves, he avy accele rat ion
and hard braking increase tire wear.
Rotating tires for more even wear
For all four tires on your veh icle to have th e
same service life, we recomme nd that the
fron t and rear ti res a re rotated according to
the tire ma nufa ctu rer's suggested tire rot a-
tion intervals . Please remembe r t he fo llow-
ing :
- Tire rotation int ervals may diffe r from the
ve hicle service inte rvals out lined in your
Warranty
& Maintena nce booklet.
- The longe r one t ire is used in one location
on t he veh icle, the more it wears at cer t ain
points; there fore, we recommend that you
follow the tire manufact urer's suggested
tire rotation intervals.
- Vehicles with front-whee l dr ive experience
more tread wear on the front wheels com-
pa red to a ll-wheel drive (quattro).
- Please rotate tires as shown
c:::>fig . 211.
- Extra care mus t be taken when rot at ing di-
rection-specific tires¢
page 2 77.
Wheel balancing
The wheels on new ve hicles are balanced.
However, various s ituatio ns dur ing everyday
driving can cause th em t o become unbal -
anced, res ulting in vibrations you can usually
feel thro ugh the steering whee l.
Unbalanced whee ls mu st be rebalanced t o
avoid excessive wear on steering, suspension
and t ires . A whee l m ust also be reba lance d
when a new tire is insta lled .
ll-
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