I went to my local garage today, to ask them to change my wheels, front to back and visa versa to even out the tyre tread wear, as advised in the Q5 manual. The vehicle is just over 10k miles.

Now, the garage tells me that if it is fitted with a tyre pressure monitoring system, if wheels are changed, and a loss of pressure occurs, the Tpms may direct you to the wrong tyre that is under inflated.That said my system works via ABS sensors apparently, and just shows a pressure loss and does not indicate which particular tyre it is.

On the Q5, as I understand it, runs in front wheel drive until the 4x4 is needed, when it engages the rear wheels. 
So on that basis, is it okay to allow the front tyre to wear, and just replace the front two, as and when needed. I ask this question as a previous VW Touareg owner, which had a permanent 4 wheel drive system, and tyres had to be replaced in pairs if more the 2mm difference on same axle, and all four if more than 3 mm between front and rear axle, an expensive game!
The apparent reason for this was to stop gearbox wind up, and damage the same?
So on the Q5 with S tronic, is this still an issue with regard to tread depth front to rear axle?

Obviously the tyres would always be replaced in pairs!

Can anyone shed any light on this issue

thanks

Larry Adler

I think as long as the TPMS is reset you should be ok. But you're right about changing them in pairs. 

Cheers

Steve