A4 Avant vibration

[ian5509]

Hi I wonder if anyone can help with a proble I have with my 2.0 TDi A4 Avant, new in Mar 2006 and with 24500 miles.

I had new tyres fitted to front at 23000 miles - no porblem but overworn n inside - tyre fitter recommended I have alignment checked.

I had been hearing a whining noise form the rear which he informed me was my rear tyres - worn unevenly in patches - once shown I could feel the uneveness of the tyre ( lumpy, is this scalloped ? )

Audi dealer reset "minor" alignment after replacing tyres -All in all £300, the biggest repair bill I ever had on a car barely 13months old.

However, the car vibrates - feel it around 35-40mph but at motorway speeds its there all the time especially on poor surfaces.

Had wheel balancing checked and redone - ok - but still vibrates.

I'm at a loss, audi says they find no problem with car - its a hard ride.

ITS NOT A HARD RIDE - it used to be smooth.

I am feeling that the vibration AND the unveven rear tyre wear it points to a shock absorber problem, can see anything directly - bounce test seems ok - BUT - last night going over a speed bump I could swear the front wheels bent over bump/bump but the rear bump/bump followed by the vibration being worse and gradualy tapering off over a second or 2.... may be my imagination.

what also may be my imagination is if on motoray I drop the car out of gear the vibration doesnt seem as bad... nor does it if I keep to same spped but drop from 6th to 4th gear.


Confused.....please help

[RickT]

did they check the balance on the rear wheels??

The A4's suffer if the rear wheels are not balanced.. some cars are fine and dont require the rear wheels balanced but the A4's casue real problems.

RicKT

[ian5509]

did they check the balance on the rear wheels??

The A4's suffer if the rear wheels are not balanced.. some cars are fine and dont require the rear wheels balanced but the A4's casue real problems.

RicKT

Audi tell me they redone the balancing- of course as they didnt feel there was a problem mabe they didnt bother.

its quite annoying, i know what road bumps are like - this is like a constant background vibration, typically 35-40 and 65-80 mph

At a loss really as audi says no problem found, but that seems normal for them these days.

[Boardboy]

Ian have you jacked the car up and spun the wheels? My girlfriends mother had a problem on her car. She said that she could feel it vibrating at the back. In trying to find the problem I jacked the car and spun the wheels and noticed it was very slightly "egg" shaped. The top of the tread went up and down. The two rear tyres weren't that old and not been on the car long.

Just a long shot.
Hope you get it sorted
BOARDBOY

[ian5509]

Ian have you jacked the car up and spun the wheels? My girlfriends mother had a problem on her car. She said that she could feel it vibrating at the back. In trying to find the problem I jacked the car and spun the wheels and noticed it was very slightly "egg" shaped. The top of the tread went up and down. The two rear tyres weren't that old and not been on the car long.

Just a long shot.
Hope you get it sorted
BOARDBOY

thanks for the response I will try and do that - did you have to replace tyres ? - did they do it for free ?

[Boardboy]

We had to replace the tyres. The garage wasn't intrested in replacing them for free. Needless to say they didn't get the business and haven't since.
Hope you find something.

Regards Boardboy

[ian5509]

just had tyres checked at independent garage, all 4 needed rebalancing.
seems like its done the job.....BUT

After hitting a bump or rough bit of road it seems to come back.

I think this together with the original uneven tyre wear around the tyres points ot a faulty shock absorber ?

[El Dingo]

I'd start looking at things like...
1. Half shafts and CV joints.
2. Mechanical interference with the tyre (loose trim, etc.)
3. Wheel bearings.
I'd assume that Audi would also have checked these?