Audi A4 2.0 TDI 170 S-Line Steering and Handling issues

[DRA4]

Hi,

This is my first post so I apologise if my query has already been dealt with.

I've just bought my A4 having traded the new TT :mad: due to the birth of my daughter. Since then i've driven the car on a variety of roads with differing levels of surface quality and am extremely disappointed with the way the car copes with UK roads.

The steering is garbage, I can't feel a damn thing through it and the handling on the 18 inch wheels and low profile tyres is appalling. The car tramlines really badly and at high speeds it feels twitchy and severely lacks composure, requiring constant steering correction.

I guess i've been spoilt by the new TT, but before that I had the mk 1 TT and that was much better than this car in the handling department.

Friends who also own the A4 acknowledge my criticism but think that it stems from stepping from a next gen Audi to what is effectively old technology. Even so I would have thought that Audi could build a car that doesn't feel dangerous at speed.

What does everyone think? Would playing with tyre pressures help? Or should I be going back to the dealer to report a fault?

[John140]

To be honest, this sounds similar to my problem, see post :-
http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=24529

I have the SE and not the S-line, which I avoided because of the ultra low profile tyes and the stiff suspension, however I have the twitchiness at speed and the tramlining and road surface sensitivity at lower speeds round the lanes.
I'm hoping most of my probs will go away with a change of tyres as someone else has suggested, but I do agree that these cars do not cope well with country lanes or less than perfect road surfaces.
Tyre pressures get more critical the lower the profile tyre you have I would definately experiment a bit with your mcar to see what suits it best. I took my car to the dealer and they pumped the front tyres up to 41 PSI for some wierd reason. I didn't notice for a couple of days, until I was driving down the motorway and felt I was being blown around like a bubble !
I usually run at 32 PSI on the front, which is the recommended low load pressure, but even this may be a tad high I think.