# Hello? Anyone home? - Yes, I have the 21" Wheels... Yes, I need a little help.



## nicholi57 (Dec 17, 2003)

A couple of months ago i got a Q7 2011 SLine to replace my V8 Touareg... 
It's very silver, very spiffy and came with these very attractive 21" wheels. 

But reality (and a bit rain, sleet and ice) have now hit... 

In my limited experience there are no sensible tires for a Q7 in 295/35R21 size... 
and I have not been able to find anyone, in any of the audi forums (how many audi forums are there anyway!?!), that has found a reasonable (all season) tire in this size for when the ground freezes. 

So i have been reduced to getting new 20" rims and getting 275/45R20 which seem to be the original equipment size. 

That said, i started thinking... if 275/45R20 is OEM size... 
Why can't i use a 295/40R21 on these rims? 

is there some internal bag com setting i don't know about that knows the difference between wether my q7 has the oem 20" setup or the oem 21" setup? 

I say this as 295/40R21 is closer rolling diameter (1.8% diff) to 275/45R20 than 295/35R21 (more than 2% diff)... 
and i ask as there are many more sensible tires available in size 295/40R21 than 295/35R21. 

in the end... would ideally like to have a an all season tire on the 21"s... 
Just trying to think it through. 

Thoughts? 
Comments? (other than get proper snow tires on 19" rims you jackass)


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## mckinnonw (Mar 27, 2007)

*Q7*

Hey there. I'm sorry, I cannot help you on the tires/rims front, but I will say "thanks" because I am about to buy a Q7 S-line and will probably just stick with the 20" rims b/c i live in a cold weather climate... Hadn't thought about getting snow tires on those big rims. 

Separately, how do you like the S-line? Also, do you know anything about the 2013 being a re-designed model? I am looking for info in the forums, but not much here. Is there another Audi forum that is more popular?


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## nicholi57 (Dec 17, 2003)

mckinnonw said:


> Hey there. I'm sorry, I cannot help you on the tires/rims front, but I will say "thanks" because I am about to buy a Q7 S-line and will probably just stick with the 20" rims b/c i live in a cold weather climate... Hadn't thought about getting snow tires on those big rims.
> 
> Separately, how do you like the S-line? Also, do you know anything about the 2013 being a re-designed model? I am looking for info in the forums, but not much here. Is there another Audi forum that is more popular?


 the sline is ok... but not sure how it stacks against other q7s... 
didn't even bother looking/driving the base engine... so i'm not qualified to have an opinion. 

in fact i'm not even sure what constitutes an sline as i tried to get a tdi with the sline package... 
that said, against a 4.2 v8 touareg it is clearly a blown v6 (much less power down low:thumbdown... 
that said, i'm getting about 6 more mpg 

yeah, skip the 21"s... i have em because the car had em on it... 
if i knew then that there are basically no all seasons tires for this size, i would have had them switch em:banghead:


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## Cay955 (Oct 28, 2011)

*selling your wheels?*



nicholi57 said:


> the sline is ok... but not sure how it stacks against other q7s...
> didn't even bother looking/driving the base engine... so i'm not qualified to have an opinion.
> 
> in fact i'm not even sure what constitutes an sline as i tried to get a tdi with the sline package...
> ...


 are you planning on selling your 21 inchers?


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## [email protected] (Apr 9, 2004)

I'm not sure I understand your question. There's no problem running 21s on either car though I'd highly recomend running snow tires if you live in a climate where this applies. You'll see better handling performance with summer tires on the 21s. My wife has a 2011 Touareg 3.0 TDI and I run a set of 21s with summer tires (can confirm brand and sizing if you need it) and then 19s in the winter with the stock all-seasons that I'll be swapping out for snows once the all seasons are worn out. Snow tires make a HUGE difference and are worth the investment, plus you can pick up a set of replicas or take-offs from ebay or craigslist as a good alternate. Since you won't be changing tires twice a year you'll run less chance of damaging your 21s. 

You'll want TPMS monitors but otherwise I don't need to do anything in the VAG-com to make sure all works. You just need the same rolling diameter and I'm sure the people at your dealership or at TireRack.com can help you out with that determination.


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## chief4 (Feb 21, 2010)

for what its worth, i have the 21" OEM rims on and have had no problem getting tires. I'm in Germany right now. We have not had much snow to deal with, but have had a crap load of ice. We have not ventured above 25 degrees in a couple weeks. Most nights are down to 5 degrees. When I get to work in the morning, I see ice all over the outter walls and on the treads...stays there most of the day. 

Having said all that, I've ordered from TireRack and am running 21" Pirelli Scorpions....mud and ice. When you search for 21" snow and ice tires on TireRack, the Scorpions will not show. I did a search by the OEM size. I had my local German Audi dealer mount the tires on my original rims. Cost me 40 euros. I asked if the tires were good enough - he said ja. 

I know the rule of thumb is to get a smaller diameter tire, higher profile and deeper tread for winter tires, but I am not giving up the beauty of the 21's....

Havent had a problem with snow or ice in two seasons on the same set of tires. Last season we got a decent amount of snow and little ice. This year is mostly ice.


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