arhy

Greetings from Winterland - Wyoming!

I currently have a 2004 Audi A6 2.7T S-Line with 18 rims on. Need winter tires and I don't want to spend $250 on a winter tire.

So the question is: Can I put a 16in wheel on My car? The sticker on the rear pass door mentions 215/55/16 as tire size, but nothing about 16 in wheels.

I'm asking 'cause I got different answers from various people saying that I can and cannot. i currently have 321mm Brake Rotors. I bought them from here:
http://www.blauparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=D2B1122-B

I guess the calipers are HP2s.

All your help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

VONBOTTLE

yes you can run 16's - that's what i run for snows, i've got the same rotors and calipers as you....just make sure you get wheels with the right offset - you can probably find a used set of stock audi wheels in the classifieds for pretty cheap

n3985

Or buy a set of plain jane 16" steel wheels off tirerack.com or ecstuning.com

mithrilG60

Like the others said, 16's will clear. You can usually find sets of the OEM A6 9 spoke "wineglasses" for relatively cheap.

FYI, Audi stopped using the HP2's on the 2.7T at the introduction of the facelift model. Your front calipers are the same 1 piston 2 pad units used on the rest of the A6 line.

SloopJohnB@mac.com

Good idea steel wheels except no steel wheels available from tire rack.com for 2004 A6 2.7T.

ECStuning wheels are 16X7 ET42....supposed to clear 312mm rotors.

Just Me

If you have HP-2 calipers ( 4 pads per wheel, 2 per side, 8 total front axle) then the answer is "yes, but only some 16s, and only those with 35 mm or lower offset, AND relatively concave interior spoke design, and width of 7.5" or greater"

Many, many 16" audi OEm wheels do NOT clear the calipers, or, worse, clear when the pads are worn down and don't after a new brake job.

G

mithrilG60

Odds are he doesn't have HP2's as they were discontinued on the 2.7T after 2001, in order to have HP2's on a 2004 S-Line either he or a PO would have had to swap them on.

OP, it's easy to visually determine which front calipers you have. Most likely these are the one's on your car:



However if you have the HP2's they'll look like this:



There's not a lot of difference in performance between them, but the pad replacement procedure is much easier on a floating caliper like the HP2 as you just have to remove the retaining clip and retract the pistons instead of having to fully unbolt and hang the caliper like you do with the single piston model.

Just Me

then they are likely to fit. Didnt know when HP2s left the product line

mithrilG60

The D2 A8, C5 S6 & 4.2L A6, C5 AllRoad (2.7T and 4.2) and B5 S4 used the HP2's through out their entire production run. The 2.7T A6 only used them for the first 2 years, Audi switched to the single piston locked caliper on the 2.7T when they introduced the face-lifted models. Not sure why, perhaps they determined that the single piston could apply more than enough clamping force that in conjunction with the large discs and pads it produced the same stopping power as the HP2 in simpler product?

arhy

Thank you all for your replies!

Got a winter and tire package from Tire Rack on 16s with Michelin's X-Ice.

I used to have Hankook Icebear W300s on and they were great. I'm sure the Michelin's will be great too.

Thanks!