Wheel balancing

AshA4

AshA4

Ash
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Location
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Got an issue with my front wheels and balancing.

Had them done twice now by the place that fitted them, bot times they were out so they re-balanced them and I watched them 0 them and put them back on.

Drove to work down motorway and smooth as silk.

Parked on work all day, on drive home I have Vibration at 70, tails off at 75 the comes back at 80, can feel through pedals and steering wheel.

Tyre place are baffled, each time they put them back on the machine they are out of balance again, both wheels.

Tyres are new and were fine for a week after they were fitted as new, had rear tyres fitted a week later and they seem fine but since then I have had vibration through the steering wheel and pedals.

Some days it is worse than others, but always fine the 1st run off the jacks.

I am gonna take it back tomorrow and get them to rebalance the rear wheels but cants see how I would feel these through the steering wheel?

So is it possible their wheel balance machine is crap and I need to take it somewhere else for a re-balance of all 4 (will have to pay)
Is it possible that both the front new tyres are dodgy (Vredetein Ultrac Sessantas)
Or do I have a suspension issue that could be causing this, when it is stretched out on the jacks it takes a while to settle back down hence the first trip is OK?

It is doing my head in now!
 
Been reading about this problem today seems to effect the a4 and a5 .
Google balancemycar.com they seem to have a cure for the problem . Maybe a centre close to you.
Im going to get mine booked in as I have the same problem.
 
Thanks been reading about Road Force Balancing.
Thing is I have had the car with Avons on for nearly a year and di not have them balanced at all, no vibration at any speed.
Shame nearest one of these is Swindon, I am there with work next month so may check it out if I aint sorted it by then.
 
audi upgrades
change the wheels front to rear.this way if it still happens you can discount the wheel/tyre.Id get it done at a differant garage though to also eliminate a crap balance machine.Are you sure that the stick on leads havent fallen off? I know that on audizine there are a lot of threads about vibration from the front end, this has been sorted by modified control arms i believe.
 
Yeah lead weights all still on, one wheel only had 10g the other 30 that one has a slight buckle in it but nothing that should not balance out.
What is worrying me is that it seems to be worse the longer the car sits, which leads me to believe the tyres on the front may be the culprit as they are old stock that have been sat around maybe.

Gonna get them to check the balance of rears and swap them to front see if it does the same and go from there.
Had the car since July and not one issue with balance or vibration so unless the control arms have just failed in last few weeks?
 
Doubtful, but who knows.Funny one this though.Would be odd if BOTH tyres were knackered though.I do remember a few years ago i had two new contis' put on the front, and the car would pull to one side, swapped the tyre to the other side of the car and it pulled the other way.....one of the tyres was ********.Youll get a better idea when you do a front to rear swap.My instinct tells me its bad tyres...there could be some seperation inside that affects the balance making it vary as you drive on them.Hope it is as its the easiest to solve
 
Well they re-balanced the backs and put them on the front.
Seemed ok so far but I used the car quite a bit so it has not sat for long.

Spoke to a good wheel alignment place near me today, they said if rear to front swap don't sort it they will start with balancing all four wheels, as their machine is calibrated regularly.

See what happens once the car has settled overnight.
But if it is down to the one buckled rear I can live with a little wobble from the back, but through the steering wheel and front drives me nuts!
 
Looking forward to the results!! But in any case id get that buckled wheel changed
 
So far so good with the back to front swap, no wobble :)
Can't feel any vibration from the back either, guess it could have been the slight buckle combined with the over sensitive front end the B8 has, or one of the tyres is dodgy, my money would be in the dodgy tyre as no issue with either front alloys when the Avons were on.
Either way for now I can't feel it with them on the back so I am happy.
Just need to flip the tyre pressures now :)
 
Result! Id still change the buckled wheel and the tyres though to be on the safe side.If one of the rear wheels is still out of balance etc, this will wear componants
 
johnnythepie said:
Result! Id still change the buckled wheel and the tyres though to be on the safe side.If one of the rear wheels is still out of balance etc, this will wear componants
Click to expand...

Yeah I will have to look at this, money bit tight to be binning two new tyre's and getting a new wheel :)
 
Well some vibration is back :( depending on how long I leave the car standing.
Not as bad as before the front to rear swap mind.

So I took it to a different garage to get all 4 wheels balanced again, see if it makes a difference.

Felt smoother straight off, but will see what it is like after standing in work all day.

If it stays the same it has got to be something to do with the lower control arms or suspension, as I cant have 4 dodgy new tyre's.
 
audi upgrades
FFSake....not what we wanted to hear.Have you got a mate that you can swap all four wheels with just for a day?
 
Yeah not good, will see how it goes.
Won't be putting the Vreds on again, seems from what I have found online that the A4 is picky on tyres!
 
AshA4 said:
Yeah not good, will see how it goes.
Won't be putting the Vred's on again, seems from what I have found online that the A4 is picky on tyres!
Click to expand...

Vibration back this morning as I set off to work :( halfway through the journey once the car was warmed up it was fine?
Stopped at Audi to collect a new sun visor clip and car was sat there for 15 mins, last bit of m-way to work and vibration was back?

Can't see how it is the wheels or tyre's as they have been swapped all over the place, got to be a suspension issue that has been shown up by the new tyre's I guess?

Either way it is gonna cost me a trip to Audi :(
 
I think that the only option now is to visit the dealer.It aint going to be cheap whatever it is.Im looking forward to having a new fns strut replaced...cracked at the top where the tie bars are attached courtesy of a pothole.Not just the strut that needs replacing, oh no.The new struts have been modified which means that i have to have new other parts to fit it too.At least I know my problem and can get someone else to fix it.You really need to find out from audi whats causing your problem (sounds like control arms now) and arrange repair somewhere else....my dealer charges about £120-150 an hour labour. Just out of interest, have you tested the wheels for any movement like you do when checking wheel bearings?.A Lot of other people have had th wheels road force balanced which tests whether a tyre has a high spot or not.Heres a link to a forum that explains what it is just fyi
road force balancing - what questions to ask?
 
Yeah I know about the road force balance, I am in Swindon with work soon so may just wait till then if I can as there is a place there that does it.
 
OK I am gonna go down the tyre pressure route first (since all I am reading is how picky this ****** dynamic steering is on the A4/A5 with different makes of tyre's, road force balancing etc)

Only diff between old tyre's and new ones is the new ones are XL

According to my sticker for tyre pressure they are as follows for normal load...

Old Avons 245/40/18 93Y Front 33 Rear 31
New Vreds 245/40/18 97Y XL Front 35 Rear 33

Now looking online there are many people stating that the Vreds require to be run at maximum load all the time, plus lots of other Audi stickers showing much higher tyre pressures for the Avant on XL tyre's?

Some 38 front / 36 rear and others ( I assume for the 3.0TDI) 41 front / 36 rear

So I am gonna try running what ever pressure is listed for max load on my sticker for a few days and see what that does, cheaper than getting Audi to look at it :)
 
Not much difference with the tyre pressures to be fair.
Back to 36/34 but defo less vibration when the tyres are warmed up.
Vibration seems to be more through the steering rack and pedals with some light steering wheel wobble at 70 tailing off at 75 and back at 80, although it does vibrate some when backing off the throttle and moving steering wheel anywhere between 65-80.
I was starting to think these Vreds are flat spotting when parked, but had to pull off a bit sharp ish last night and when the traction kicked in to stop wheel spin there was a bit of judder from the front right.
So thinking suspension again!
It is a real mess on the front, as in dirty, so much crap it is hard to see the bushes on any of the control arms etc.
Was gonna get a 4 wheel alignment done next and go from there?
 
Update for anyone who cares (JTP :))

Had 4 wheel alignment done, not much to adjust other than rear left (new shock fitted to this at point of purchase so not surprising)
Not much change in the vibration to be honest, but they did do a full front suspension inspection of all the control arms, bushes etc and they are all fine, the steering rack arms seem to be new'ish with stickers still visible, so have been replaced so all seems well there.
I am noticing that when the dynamic steering seems to firm up the vibrations are less noticeable, when the steering feels loose (even above 40mph) the vibration feels worse, so maybe an issue with the dynamic steering?

If not it has to be the Vreds and either flat spotting or the B8 just not liking the tread pattern?

Either way I will be leaving it now and see if there is any change over the 5000 miles I have until the service is due, if it is still an issue then I will get them to look.

Not going to bother with the RFB for now either.

One thing for sure I will not be putting the Vreds on this car again, Pirelli or Michelin for me :)
 
Last edited:
Ash
I doubt if a visual inspection would trace the culprit, i had one that missed my cracked strut at the tyre place.I think there is only one way to sort this, and that is to give it to the dealer for a day or two, so they can FEEL the problem. How confident are you that the steering rack was fitted properly? Any idea when/where it was done? A trip to audi and a plug in might throw up some fault codes re the dynamic steering
 
The rack will have been done by Sinclair Audi.
I am gonna leave it for a few weeks as need the car but will get it booked in when I can so they can have a good look.
 
My mistake mate, the new parts we could see under the car coming from each side of the hub were the drive shafts or CV joints, so these are new'ish and not the rack sorry, could these be the reason I wonder, had some clunks when going from forward motion to reverse etc???

Like these AUDI A4 B8 2.0 TDI DRIVE SHAFT 8K0407271Q | eBay

The steering was real loose this morning with quite some wobble through the wheel and pedals on the first part of my trip to work (dual carriage way) after a bit of A roads and back on M4 it then tightened up very tight with no wobble what so ever, unless I made a steering adjustment slightly left or right when I could feel the vibration, I also felt the wobble increase last night night every time I pressed the throttle, so I am gonna book it in to Audi to take a look for me.

Doing my head in now!
 
Last edited:
Booked in with Audi for next Tuesday, £138 just for diag, got a test drive before it goes in with tech so hopefully it will miss behave itself ;)
 
AshA4 said:
Booked in with Audi for next Tuesday, £138 just for diag, got a test drive before it goes in with tech so hopefully it will miss behave itself ;)
Click to expand...

Scratch that I am off to Sinclair Audi in Bridgend, no charge for Master Tech to come out with me for test drive on Friday and when it gets booked in for diag it is £56 -£90 depending on how long they need it.

Also if it is not a wear and tear item them it will be covered under my Auto Protect warranty that I got when I bought the car from Sinclair Direct Leasing.

Fingers crossed hey :)
 
Re the driveshafts...yes they could clunk if they are worn.Thats a differance in price! Lets hope that they can find the problem. The more you describe it, the more it sounds like a steering rack problem.Hopefully theyll get to the bottom of it.Good luck
 
johnnythepie said:
Re the driveshafts...yes they could clunk if they are worn.Thats a differance in price! Lets hope that they can find the problem. The more you describe it, the more it sounds like a steering rack problem.Hopefully theyll get to the bottom of it.Good luck
Click to expand...

Sure is mate, Audi in Bridgend said it is because Cardiff Audi is a city dealership and they are a town dealership.

To be honest the service manager at Bridgend was geeking right off about the service they provide and how much they would rather help since the car came from them, so lets hope they are as good as their word.

Steering was real stiff on m4 tonight, took it up above 80 and the vibration did not tale off and can really feel the road through the pedals and vibration increase under acceleration and back off, movement of steering wheel.

Just hope what ever is broke or on its way out is easily found and is covered by the warranty :)
 
Car drove to Audi smooth as silk this morning and was fine for master tech other than light vibration through pedals, ****** typical!
They are giving it a free inspection to make sure the front end is safe but are saying tyres.
Waiting for results of inspection now :(
 
Inspection results showed play in NSF Track Rod, which will be replaced under my warranty at Audi along with four wheel alignment after.
Just got to wait on auth by warranty company next week.
They said it could be the culprit but say they they can't be sure as symptoms not there all the time.
 
I had similar on my mk5 golf gt sport. Diagnosed as steering arms (not track rod). I was getting a vibration like you and also when turning at speed
 
New Track rod fitted, just having a full alignment done, hope to god they get the ****** steering wheel straight.....
 
Steering wheel is straight (always hate having alignment done lol)

Car feels much more solid on the front end with the new track rod end, but the vibration still seems to be there, not as bad but still there.

Audi Master Tech is still 99% it is the Vredestein tyres, so I am gonna try and blag a set of alloys for the front off them next week and see if that solves it.
 
Steering has stayed the same since the track rod end was done, much firmer and back to how it was before the issue :)
Slight Vibration is still there, but I can live with it as it is.
I will run the Vreds down and will replace with either PZero Rosso's or Michelin PS3's.
Well impressed with Sinclair Audi in Bridgend as well.
 
I know this thread is mega mega old, however it is the only thing I could find online that was exactly like the issue I am having on my Audi A4 b9 2017 plate. Story goes like this..

Had a set of budget tyres on the car for about 8-10k, no steering wheel vibration issues at all. Rock solid. Both fronts were about £120 from Black Circles back when I got them, fitted at a local garage etc. Wheel balancing was the usual, a few weights, maybe 2 or 3 each side, which is the norm I presume.

Last week, needed new front tyres, they were down to just below 1.6... so took to National Tyres and got 2 autogreen super sport chaser ssc5 on the front. They fitted, balanced etc, I drive off home. On the way home, about 65mph-70mph I notice some intense vibrations from the steering wheel, which were not there before the new tyres were fitted, so gave them the weekend to see how things went. Still the same 3 days later. Took back to National to ask them to re balance.. Watched them 0 on the machine each wheel Front driver side needed 90g of weight added on one spot, the passenger side needed 70g..... The vibration is still there.

I bet iof I got my old tyres back this wouldn't be the case. I absolutely blame the tyres for the vibrations and use of the excess weights on each wheel. Anyway, I;m giving them another shot, run them down a bit see what happens, might taker them back again, as for a refund or something. The A4 just wont take to these new tyres. Never had this issue in the past with an A1 or A3 or budget tyres.
 
I'd never run budget tyres; simple as that. They're the only part of the car that touches the road.
 
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