Stephen111

Alloy wheels don't look good after a few Ottawa Winters. Besides, if I slam into a pot hole or bounce off a curb, I'd rather replace a steel wheel than try to fix an alloy.

I purchased 16" Volkswagen OEM steel wheels. Aftermarket wheels don't have the exact offset or the exact centre hole that comes with OEM.

I bought 4 wheel covers from a Volkswagen dealer. They are "take offs" and cost $25 each.

Finally, I went with Blizzak WS 70 tires. My research points to the Blizzak WS 70 as the way to go for this part of the country.

chrisa

I also went with Steels but the ones I got from were marked Audi, 16" rim diam. $70 a pop, silver, country of origin is Switzerland.

I don't think they are made by Audi but are made to be an exact fit for the A3. They are silver and not the blacks ones you see at Cdn Tire as such, so if I want to dress them up a little I just need to put wheel covers on.

I have not swapped out the summers yet, but I did try the rim to see if it was an exact fit and it was an exact fit as was I was hoping for.

Also went with Conti Extreme WinterContact 205/55/16 tires which are smaller and narrower than the stock 225/45/17 summers, so I am hoping this will be better for winter, but less fun for cornering. The Winters are XL rated which is nice, like my summers, but the speed rating is at the "T" speed grade. Which for winter is good enough I guess. To get a "Y" speed rated tire like my summers would be much more expensive, so I figured the "T" speed rating with XL load was a good compromise. I paid about 1k all in for everything.

Stephen111

Just a note on wheel covers Chrisa. Years ago I purchased aftermarket steel wheels. My OEM wheel covers did not fit on the aftermarket wheels. So I bought aftermarket wheel covers. The aftermarket wheel covers broke, fell off, and were easily damaged when parking close to the curb.

On my last car I put on OEM wheels with OEM wheel covers. No problems.

Good choice to go with the skinny Winter tires.

chrisa

Just thought I would post a picture of the steels that I got for my A3. They are silver as I said. I like the look of them better than the standard black. Only downside is that they are not a thing of beauty like some alloys but I got what I paid for. On the wheels covers, my mechanic friend suggested that they are actually worse for the wheels/brakes because the snow accumulates between the cover and the wheel.

Also the Conti Extreme Winter Contacts as awesome. Got nothing but good things to say about them.

Stephen111

Your mechanic friend is right. Snow can get behind wheel covers where it melts and turns into slush on account of the heat from the brakes. You park the car and the slush cools to become ice. Next time you drive the car there is a chunk of ice sitting behind the wheel cover. When you drive at 100 km/hr the wheel will be out of balance because of the weight of the ice. You will feel a vibration in the front end.

I had this happen a couple of times about ten years ago. I never got around to fixing the problem because the brakes generated enough heat to melt the ice. I would say this only occurs with after market wheel covers. They usually stick out where they can easily scoop up snow. I drove my last car for seven winters with OEM wheel covers and never had a problem.

drog

Where did you order/find these suckers? I've been looking for days now and really don't want to be stuck with the black ones.

drog

With no reply on the silver steels I ended up with the black ones but wanted to mention that, as always, dealing with Tire Rack was a breeze. Went with the Conti ExtremeWinterContacts on 16s. Heading up to Edmonton from BC in a couple of weeks so I'll report back on my findings.

Side note, I have Sotozero 240s on my S4 and the traction is unreal but wanted something cheaper for the A3. My Conti summers (on my S4) are great so I'm hoping/expecting good results from these.