After driving my A4 for a month, I wrecked it. Last night, driving down a country road (believe it or not under the speed limit), I hit a patch where it had rained and the car just slid all the way across the road and my front end smashed into the guard rail and the back end spun to hit it also.

I can't wait to get it back though, because Audi's are the best car's in the world and I am glad that this excellent site proves that.

After driving my A4 1.8TQMS in a few heavy duty rainstorms and being the fastest car on the road with FULL control, I fail to see how this can happen.

Even with the Z-rated sport tires that comes with the sport package, It still handles better in the rain than ANY other car I've driven ( verious Japaneese and American cars that is ).

Nope, no quattro.

The cop said that it was all the oil and stuff on the road due to the fact that it hasn't rained here in three months.

i have a 96 2.8 NO quatro and i have never gotten out of control. Driving on the free way at 75 in heavy rain is VERY a stupid thing to do but my a4 has never slipped a bit. i drove a accord on the same day i did my a4 a while back and wow what a diff the accord was hydoplaning all over.. i am glad to own an A4

If you threw some SP sport 8000s on your old Accord, I bet you'd be surprised.

Reminds me of when I was going about 7-10mph (yes it was that slow)on my Ninja around a curve and went through a patch of diesel fuel graciously left by one of the hundred coal trucks in my hometown. Rear wheel hit it and the bike went sliding across the road. I got up and the road was like walking on ice. Hope you are ok!

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The only area that all seasons are better than most modern summer performance tires is in snow/ice conditions. The tread pattern on the SP8000's is far better for dissipating water than that on the all seasons. This is even more so the case with the 9000's.

Regards,
Rodney
'99 A4 1.8tqms

nt

what year? 96-98 2.8, right?
what's the book value on the car?
Cost of repai has to be WAY up there and probably past the value and thus "totaled".

Mark P
GF's Golf 3 was just totaled - she was told just a few days after accident, and had a check a few days later

I also failed to see how quattro could have a problem until I experienced it myself. I managed to spin my 98.5 2.8 quattro off of a race track (Summit Point) in the rain. I did a 180 and ended up in the grass after sliding for a bit. No damage and very exciting, but I would have preferred to stay on the track. This was on all-season tires.

On a separate occasion, I was driving on a wet highway when I felt a loss of control as my quattro hydroplaned for a moment. Not a long time, but at highway speeds, that moment seemed long. This was on Z-rated performance summer tires.

And let's not forget, you may drive and accelerate better than other cars on the road, but you still need to stop. If the water on the road is deep enough to cause hydroplaning, then it will be a factor when you decide to stop.

In the end, the tires make the biggest difference. Quattro distributes power. Tires determine grip. In severe driving conditions, quattro does not make up for bad/incorrect tires.

nt

I hope the people in the car were ok but I'm curious how well the A4 did it's job protecting the occupants.

Can I assume somebody t-boned the car?

I wrecked on South River Road about 5 miles to the south of Purdue.

It is going to be fixed at Mike Raisor Imports which is the Audi Dealer here in Lafayette; so I guess that is good news.

Actually, amist the spin the front end smashed dead and center into a guardrail across the road and the car also hit in the rear bumper, but that only was scratched.

I was wondering why my airbags wouldn't have gone off. Is there a certain speed that they don't go off under? I'd say I hit the guardrail going 40 mph and the front end is really hurting.

I was alone and as soon as the car stopped on the other side I jumped out and couldn't believe what had happened injury free.

If you ended up rolling to a stop, The impact must not have been hard enough to deploy the bags. I know some will not if the car still moves. That way they can deploy if there is a more serious collision in the future. A scenario I was told about them is if you hit a deer and then continued on and hit a tree, which impact would you prefer the airbags go off during. The deer (or a glancing blow to the guardrail) leaves enough of speed on the car to continue on (even if it was a few dozen feet). Hit a tree and you lose all momentum at once and the airbags should go off then.
Hope this helps a little.
Greg
99.5 2.8QMS

As far as shops in Lafayette. I do not know of any, but ask to check out Mike Raisor's before you send it to them. A lot of dealers contract this work out and you end up just paying them a mark up, but if it is all covered on insurance, do you really care?

I think airbags are designed to go off when the car deaccelerates fast enough for a serious you-vs-interior impact. Were you violently slammed forward during the accident? If not, then you should be glad they didn't go off. They can cause problems (more stuff to repair, possible burns, broken wrists, etc).

AJL
98 Passat

I work for FinishMaster, Inc., the nation's largest provider or supplies to body shops. Mike Raisor is a customer. I'll be in the Lafayette store on Mon. 10/4. It's located on Greenbush.

BTW this crash occurred in Indy @ 75th/Westfield near Broad Ripple.

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