VroomVroom
01-05-2007, 04:27 PM
Long post warning...apologies in advance.
I've had a bit of an adventure with wheels & tires on my car and wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone avoid my ~ $400 do-over. This isn't intended to be an endorsement or knock of either vendor, but I will say I wish I'd discovered Velocity prior to spending money with Lakeshore.
In November, just after I bought my car, I began a search for a set of 18's. I immediately liked the styling of the RS4 wheel, and narrowed my search. Lakeshore's name kept coming up, with positive feedback and pricing that seemed about right. Not too cheap to question the quality, but not too expensive to scare me away. I bought a set of 18x8 chrome wheels (I know, I know...I was lectured in another forum that 'real Audi people' don't put chrome wheels on their cars...all I can say is I liked the look and they sure do sell a lot of 'em, so somebody is putting them on) and General Exclaim 245/40's. The deal included road force balancing, lug bolts, caps, locks, and an assurance from the sales rep that the package would ship in no more than a few days.
Moving ahead 15 long days, the boxes arrive. A bit ratty looking, but that could've been UPS' handling, and the packaging was decent enough. Three problems I immediately noted: no locks (but fortunately there were 20 lug bolts), the center caps were each either peeling, cracked, or dented, and...oh yeah....they'd mounted the wrong damn tires. 225's instead of 245's. I picked up the phone, and highlights of the conversation included, "You sure you didn't get the locks? Did you check all the boxes? Yep, I'm looking at your tires right now - we mounted the wrong ones." None of their options to address the tire problem were particularly attractive, so I agreed to take a credit and work on getting replacements myself. True to their word, they did overnight me a set of locks. (And, not surprisingly, another set showed up by UPS a week later.) It took five business days for them to issue the credit.
Being from the school of instant gratification, and guessing I wouldn't have problems unloading the 225's, I slapped 'em on. Fitment wasn't bad, but I definitely wanted a little extra diameter and width. Here's a phone cam shot:
http://www.lownote.org/audi/6x4/newwheels4.jpg
One thing I did notice was a bit of vibration at speeds above 45mph. Seemed odd since Lakeshore supposedly road force-balanced the set. So - off with the 225's and on with 245's. Same General Exclaim, and after road force balancing and the sale of the 225's, I was out an additional $80. No real biggie. Another phone cam shot, with the 245's and my freshly installed roof spoiler:
http://www.lownote.org/audi/6x4/1221-03.jpg
After mounting the 245's the vibration was improved, but still present. I can't say for sure it's the wheels...or the tires, but I'm not sure what else it might've been. About this time I discovered this site and the Velocity Motoring RS4 replica special. I was really intrigued, particularly in the oynx black finish. After planting the seed that I might be selling the chrome/General set, I started talking with Wilson @ Velocity. We quickly came to a deal on the black wheels, ContiExtremeContact tires, mount/balance, caps, & locks.
Fast forward to yesterday...seven days after placing the order...and I've got two large boxes on the floor of my office. Not a blemish in either box, and the contents inside were meticulously packaged. No chance of these things getting damaged in shipment - a very impressive job! Unpacking the tires & wheels was a pleasure. Particularly as I noticed perfect center caps and that gorgeous finish on the wheels. Oh yeah, the correct tire size didn't hurt either. I didn't use a scale, but it was also obvious that these wheels are much lighter than the others. This was even more noticeable since the Conti's are ~ 2 lbs heavier than the Generals.
Comparing old & new:
http://www.lownote.org/audi/0107/6x4/wheels03.jpg
http://www.lownote.org/audi/0107/6x4/wheels04.jpg
And one last shot of the new set:
http://www.lownote.org/audi/0107/6x4/wheels13.jpg
No driveability issues - the car handles beautifully and is very smooth at cruising speeds. Also, no vibration. Velocity doesn't offer road force balancing, but they do use a Hunter machine. Whether it was the old wheels or the General tires causing the problem, it's definitely gone. And I'm ecstatic.
I've had a bit of an adventure with wheels & tires on my car and wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone avoid my ~ $400 do-over. This isn't intended to be an endorsement or knock of either vendor, but I will say I wish I'd discovered Velocity prior to spending money with Lakeshore.
In November, just after I bought my car, I began a search for a set of 18's. I immediately liked the styling of the RS4 wheel, and narrowed my search. Lakeshore's name kept coming up, with positive feedback and pricing that seemed about right. Not too cheap to question the quality, but not too expensive to scare me away. I bought a set of 18x8 chrome wheels (I know, I know...I was lectured in another forum that 'real Audi people' don't put chrome wheels on their cars...all I can say is I liked the look and they sure do sell a lot of 'em, so somebody is putting them on) and General Exclaim 245/40's. The deal included road force balancing, lug bolts, caps, locks, and an assurance from the sales rep that the package would ship in no more than a few days.
Moving ahead 15 long days, the boxes arrive. A bit ratty looking, but that could've been UPS' handling, and the packaging was decent enough. Three problems I immediately noted: no locks (but fortunately there were 20 lug bolts), the center caps were each either peeling, cracked, or dented, and...oh yeah....they'd mounted the wrong damn tires. 225's instead of 245's. I picked up the phone, and highlights of the conversation included, "You sure you didn't get the locks? Did you check all the boxes? Yep, I'm looking at your tires right now - we mounted the wrong ones." None of their options to address the tire problem were particularly attractive, so I agreed to take a credit and work on getting replacements myself. True to their word, they did overnight me a set of locks. (And, not surprisingly, another set showed up by UPS a week later.) It took five business days for them to issue the credit.
Being from the school of instant gratification, and guessing I wouldn't have problems unloading the 225's, I slapped 'em on. Fitment wasn't bad, but I definitely wanted a little extra diameter and width. Here's a phone cam shot:
http://www.lownote.org/audi/6x4/newwheels4.jpg
One thing I did notice was a bit of vibration at speeds above 45mph. Seemed odd since Lakeshore supposedly road force-balanced the set. So - off with the 225's and on with 245's. Same General Exclaim, and after road force balancing and the sale of the 225's, I was out an additional $80. No real biggie. Another phone cam shot, with the 245's and my freshly installed roof spoiler:
http://www.lownote.org/audi/6x4/1221-03.jpg
After mounting the 245's the vibration was improved, but still present. I can't say for sure it's the wheels...or the tires, but I'm not sure what else it might've been. About this time I discovered this site and the Velocity Motoring RS4 replica special. I was really intrigued, particularly in the oynx black finish. After planting the seed that I might be selling the chrome/General set, I started talking with Wilson @ Velocity. We quickly came to a deal on the black wheels, ContiExtremeContact tires, mount/balance, caps, & locks.
Fast forward to yesterday...seven days after placing the order...and I've got two large boxes on the floor of my office. Not a blemish in either box, and the contents inside were meticulously packaged. No chance of these things getting damaged in shipment - a very impressive job! Unpacking the tires & wheels was a pleasure. Particularly as I noticed perfect center caps and that gorgeous finish on the wheels. Oh yeah, the correct tire size didn't hurt either. I didn't use a scale, but it was also obvious that these wheels are much lighter than the others. This was even more noticeable since the Conti's are ~ 2 lbs heavier than the Generals.
Comparing old & new:
http://www.lownote.org/audi/0107/6x4/wheels03.jpg
http://www.lownote.org/audi/0107/6x4/wheels04.jpg
And one last shot of the new set:
http://www.lownote.org/audi/0107/6x4/wheels13.jpg
No driveability issues - the car handles beautifully and is very smooth at cruising speeds. Also, no vibration. Velocity doesn't offer road force balancing, but they do use a Hunter machine. Whether it was the old wheels or the General tires causing the problem, it's definitely gone. And I'm ecstatic.