daveymg

It was above the marker so 2.5 and 3.5mm depth, but yes, fairly low. When I sold the Audi the tread was a similar depth so the comparison is valid.

The tyre marking just has Pilot Sport ZP with the star symbol. There's about 1mm above the depth marker on the rear and 2mm on the fronts. No idea on age. On city roads they're dead quiet but on open roads I can almost feel the surface noise coming through the body. My last car was an Audi A4 Quattro and ran both Falken and Champiro 19" tyres with practically no road noise so I'm considering trying one of them when it comes time to replace.

Thanks for the replies. Most of my driving is open road, coarse seal highway and like I said above, the Mitchelin Pilot Sports on the car right now are very noisy on this type of surface. If I want to rank low noise ride above performance for this kind of driving, any suggestions as to brands/types of non RFTs worth considering?

A tyre shop told me that the inside of the wheel rims for RFT's had a special shape and that normal tyres wouldn't seat on them properly. Was I being BS'd? I'm keen to switch from RFT's as the Michelin PS's I have right now are very noisy.

I'm in Ohakune so almost local

I bought a 97 318ti for my wife about 8 months ago, it's got 122k on the clock. I think the auto is a four speed? Anyway, there's slip in the gear before top gear. I'm guessing this isn't unusual ... it's not major but I'm wondering what the repair options are - can I get the auto reconditioned or do repair shops offer a swap option? What sort of costs could I be looking at? I'm in Ohakune so nearest repair places will be Taupo, P/North or Wanganui. This is a great website, I've learned a lot about the car from here. Thanks, Dave