Vibration at Motorway Speeds

[999dom999]

I have an A4 Avant 2.0 TDI 2010 140k. The car shakes at a certain speed, its more apparent a few MPH's over 70, while I comply with the law sometimes I've crept the tiny bit into this vibration window and it drives me crazy. This has been happening ever since I bought the car on 112k. The wheels are standard Audi 17" Alloys, tyres 225/50/R17.

I changed 3 tyres at Halfords (Putting on 3 economy tyres (The previous ones were a good brand I forget which)) and they said while balancing the wheels the machine gave a reading that was too high therefore the wheel was buckled, they tried another wheel that was buckled too apparently.

So I took it to a wheel repair centre, they showed me that none of the wheels were buckled. They did show me what I think they called 'tyre jump', you could see at the top of the tyre while spinning on their machine it went up and down slightly. They balanced them and swapped the fronts that had 'type jump' with the rears. Still vibration.

I took it to an Audi Dealer for a service and cambelt change and to investigate the vibration problem. Upon picking it up the vibration wasn't mentioned when I asked they said they could not feel a vibration at 70MPH and suggested I drive slower. I can't argue with that. I can feel it at 70MPH but a slight bit over it shakes. I can't pinpoint an area the whole car vibrates I feel it through the seat. I'm not sure what to try next I'll be needing to change tyres soon and thought about changing wheels for appearance as well as maybe solving the problem and I won't use economy tyres again they haven't lasted well. Any ideas of what else to try?

[nukeproof]

Decent tyres and get them re balanced - simples

[999dom999]

The only thing that makes me think it's something else is when I bought it, it had branded tyres with good tread and it vibrated then.

[nukeproof]

Even if the tyres were good a bankable weight could have easily fallen off, doesn't take much to get a judder through the car

[999dom999]

Thanks, I have a few miles left on these then I change them for decent tyres. I'd really like a set of genuine Audi rotor alloys but not had much liking finding ones the correct size.

[ronandoyle]

I had this exact same problem after getting 4 brand new tires. The the centre that did the job had put the two back tyres on the wrong way around. This probably isn't you're issue seeing as you've had so many people look at it but it might be worth checking. There is an arrow on the wall of the tyre indicating their correct rotation direction.

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[113brucey]

wheel balance 1st then take it from there

[markp306]

You mentioned it was there before. If wheel re-balancing isn't fixing it then have the discs checked - they could have warped?

[doctordubs]

If the steering wheel doesn't shake I rule the tyres out. It could well be an inner cv joint thats too worn and pics up a vibration at certain speeds. Have them checked. By sumbody who knows wat to check for.

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[apache24uk]

Any vibrations under braking? If so warped discs as mentioned befoe

[johnca]

If the steering wheel shakes at 70 the front wheels need balancing. If the car shakes and you can feel it through your seat its the rear wheels that need sorting. Make sure you use a company with a newish balance machine as they don't tend to get calibrated over a certain age so it does not do the job right. Also never use budget tyres where possible because they are very difficult to balance so you end up with balance issues even if the machine says they are right. Also if anyone uses budget tyres on here make sure you check the inside tyre wall for splits because i work in a tyre depot and see budget tyres all the time with splits in them but as always the car owner does not know they are there so its a blow out waiting to happen.

[999dom999]

Steering feels fine its more the whole car shakes, braking doesn't judder. They've been balanced 3 times at 2 different places. Twice at Halfords when they put the new tyres on then 3 months later, they said the weight the machine said was too much to be correct, but the Wheel refurb place didn't seem to have an issue balancing them. As for the brakes on the recent service they said the discs should be replaced on the next pad change, pads 80% worn rear, 50% worn front. I have about 3mm left on the tyres so they will need replacing soon. So as all these bits are done I hope I get to the bottom of it. Thanks for the replies.

[doctordubs]

Here's the thing. If the entire car shakes there's only 3 items that could cause it. 1: a driveshaft with a worn cv. 2: 1 of the three mountings are busy dying, 3: the dual mass is on its way. The naysayers will not agree with my theories but. The 2.0 tdis have blessed me with weird symptoms, working at a vw^Audi specialist workshop. I recall a customer complaining of a similar vibration at 100kmh. We checked and re checked everything thoroughly, the dual mass seamed fine, no normal tell tale signs. He left, returned 4 months later on flatbed with a severe dual mass failure. Itd had literally blown up seizing the engine up. A good independent specialist will always be smarter than a dealership because we deal with issues dealership mechanics are not trained to deal with. Thats why I stated to have the car checked by sumbody who knows what to check for.

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[warp_speed]

Just a suggestion that works for me.

I was in the same boat as yourself, always had a vibration and got it balanced by a number of people with no success.

The only place that sorted out my wheel balancing was using a place that done centre-less wheel balancing where the wheel is mounted on the wheel bolts and not the centre cone. They use an adaptor called a Haweka which has 5 adjustable studs to mount the wheel. The tyre guy swears that he never gets returns using it. See if you can find a place in London that does centre-less wheel balancing using a haweka or something similar. I give you my word you will know then if your wheels are buckled or not.