Control Arm swap didnt solve vibration
 

I have an 09 a4 sline with stock sport 19'' wheels with max perforance tires. Took to the dealer and had control arms swapped, but I still notice a vibraton at 70-75 mph. If you step on it and accelerate through this zone you bypass it, however, this is cruising speed for most and it makes the car unfun to drive with the vibration IMO. I'm getting annoyed.

I remember reading from another forum member the same experience after replacement of the new control arms and he went back to the dealer to let them reinstall everything again and the problem was solved. It seemed that the dealer installed the control arms improperly.
On a side note, I finally got approved for the control arms and waiting for installation in 2/22, hopefully this will resolve everything.

There is one of three possibilities here:

You and the other very few forum members (all of which are North American) that had little or no success with control arm replacements got a lemon.

The dealership's service department improperly installed the control arms with or without doing other repairs that needed to be done (applying to you and the other very few forum members-again, all of which are North American-that had little or no success with control arm replacements).

Or, any combination of both of the above applies to you and the other very few forum members (yet again, all of which are North American) that had little or no success with control arm replacements.

Otherwise, why else would my buddies at Consumer Reports, True Delta and now, JD Power and Associates would rate the current A4 (and 2005.5 to 2008), A5/S5 and Q5 so highly in dependability, durability, quality, reliability, satisfaction and service. Think ultra hard about that, There is one of three possibilities here:

You and the other very few forum members (all of which are North American) that had little or no success with control arm replacements got a lemon.

The dealership's service department improperly installed the control arms with or without doing other repairs that needed to be done (applying to you and the other very few forum members-again, all of which are North American-that had little or no success with control arm replacements).

Or, any combination of both of the above applies to you and the other very few forum members (yet again, all of which are North American) that had little or no success with control arm replacements.

Otherwise, my buddies at Consumer Reports, True Delta and now, JD Power and Associates would not rate the current A4 and A5/S5 so highly in dependability, durability, quality, reliability, satisfaction and service. You absolutely should think ultra hard about everything in this paragraph of this reply message, boiler127. ;)

Worldwide, vehicle owners that are forum members make up for the following: less than 1% of vehicle owners in general and, in particular, less than 1% of vehicle owners that reply to surveys.

Worldwide, vehicle owners that are NOT forum members make up for the following: more than 99% of vehicle owners in general and, in particular, more than 99% of vehicle owners that reply to surveys.

If you have the control arms fitted correctly, that probably just leaves balance of wheels. It may be possible that you've got a defective tire (the dealer should have picked that up by now)...

John.

What year did Audi start using the new control arms?
 

We have a 2010 and I can feel vibration at 62-65 mph, however i believe this is due to our aftermarket wheels fitted with snow tires.

Some early 2010's apparently had the older arms. Your dealer can check by your VIN.

The control arm swap fixed my vibration problem.

control arm change
 

my '09 s-line had the 60-65mph vibration. livermore audi checked my tires and replaced one of them. the vibration was gone. later, they replaced the control arms and there is no vibration. my impression is that with the old arms, the tires need to be perfect. now that they have replaced the arms, i don't have to worry about the issue. by the way, do you have pirelli tires? they're the worst.
don c.

Good advice, i will check the VIN to confirm which control arms are on the car. Once I get the OEM wheels/tires back on the car I'll see if there is any noticable vibe. The car came with the dredded Pirelli's, but don't think their is much we can do about it.

Which tires do you have? I spoke with the dealer today and we are going to try 3 more things:

1) check ride height of the coilovers to make sure there isnt a difference in height for any of the wheels

2) remove the 5mm H&R spacers that are on the rear wheels only

3) If 1 or 2 don't help, I might consider changing the 19'' max performance continental tires with michelin all-season. From what I've been hearing these cars are very sensitive to any changes to the dynamic of the suspension. It might not also help that I'm using max performance tires in 30 degree weather. I know it's stupid, but didnt have the money this year to buy tires.

I have an early 2010 A4 P+ with stock rims/tires. I had the high-speed shimmy of the steering wheels, corrected with road-force balance and replacement of the control arms.

However, I still have a slight high-frequency vibration at all speeds, but more noticeable at higher speeds. There is no visible movement of the steering wheel like before, but after a few hours on the highway my wrists feel like they have been typing for an hour.

The dealer says that there is no vibration. I've had many cars previously, including 2 Audi's, and this is definitely not normal. My guess is that the new Audi's are extremely sensitive to any causes of vibration, and there is no easy fix. I am thinking about springing for all new tires (on my dime), but I am open to other suggestions.

The car looks very nice, and I try my best to enjoy it, but this has been the worst new-car driving experience I've had. Unfortunately, I'm prob. stuck with it for 2 1/2 more years.

Im with ya. And when we spring for new tires and the problem is still there, then what? I'm not really buying in the new tire thing. If we are replacing with same size tires, would the stock tire compound really be that bad to cause a noticeable vibration?

Solved my own problem. Turns out the H&R 5mm rear spacers were the culprit. I took them off the car and went for a drive and I experienced zero vibration. I had the new controls arms put in about a month ago too(probably didnt need them). I'm pumped. Sucks that something like a 5mm spacer could mess with the ride. Even better news is I can go lower again since I kept running into rubbing issues with the spacers!

+1 - I'm on the same boat as well now.

Either you got a lemon, your dealer improperly installed the control arms, your dealer improperly performed the other repairs, any two out of three of the above or all three of the above, Bill. Just check my buddies at Consumer Reports, True Delta and now, JD Power and Associates.

Go to another Audi Dealer and have the SA ride with you.

I have a 2009 A4 with control arms recently swapped out by the dealer. This is, of course, after numerous trips to the dealer to go through the process of tire rotation, road force balancing, etc.

However, with the new control arms in place, I still have a vibration at 70-75 mph. Not as much vibration as it was, but it is still there nevertheless and it shouldn't be imo. Ultimately, dealer concluded control arm fix was done properly and nothing more can be done. Interestingly, the dealer gave me a Kia Rio as a loaner last week and (while whinny) it was smooth at 75mph! To then get back into my A4 and drive home only to feel the vibrations on the highway was quite frustrating to say the least.

This prompted me to call AOA. I very politely explained the situation and that I was unsatisfied with the way my $40k+ new car rode on the highway – from day one. I shared with AOA my research on the Pirelli P6's being less than highly rated tires and AOA said they would contact the dealer and see what they could do, but no promises were made.

To my surprise, the dealer has now called and he is going to put on four brand new tires gratis! Although I was unable to convince Audi to give me a different brand of tire, I will gladly take a new set of the Pirelli P6's in hopes that it solves the remaining vibration issues.

Good for you!!

Sometimes the squecky wheel does get the grease, or at least all of 'em replaced!

Unless the tire replacements work, you either got a lemon, your dealer is incompetent or both of the above, CPS2010.

Otherwise, the control arm replacements (and sometimes, other repairs that are needed, often including tire replacements-usually removal of those piece of junk Pirelli’s replaced with far, far, far better tires) work like a charm or (if it is even possible), the control arm replacements work better than a charm. That is why my buddies at CR, TD and now JD P&A love all of the Audi models on the B8 platform. :)

I got 3 new tires after road force test found them defective. What was the result of your test? I believe they have to be balanced under 27 lb of force or less. One of my tires was 40 lb and 2 were 30 lb. If the tires are under spec then replacing them will not really solve your vibration problem.

While force balance specs will show tire problems, there are cases where the force balance is within spec but the tire is slightly out of round or has some other deficiency. I've also had cases where the wheel itself was slightly deformed and passed with force balance (despite a vibration) until the wheel itself was force balanced without a tire mounted and revealed the problem. Been there, done all of that. Audi quattros are sensitive beasts when it comes to wheel vibration.

Ok, here is an update to my 2/23 post regarding four new P6 tires from the dealer (again, post new control arms). Got the car back this afternoon and initial feeling was that the highway speed vibrations are gone. But I wanted to take it out for a longer run on the highway and tonight I did just that. Traveled about 50 miles in total at various speeds on different highway road surfaces. To cut to the chase, I am quite happy with the result! For those interested, here are some specifics.

Prior to the new tires...

1. I still had the steering wheel and seat vibration at 70-75mph even after new controls arms were installed.

2. My preferred hwy speed is 75 and that is where I really felt consistent vibrations.

3. Reproducing the vibrations was easy. Accelerate up to 75mph and hold it there for five seconds and bam...there it was.


Now, with the new tires....

1. Traveling at 75 is a joy :)

2. On my post new tire 50 mile test drive, I kept it steady at 75 for a few miles and found no vibration (save for the occasional bump or grooved pavement).

3. I then did the same thing at different speeds - 65, 70, 67, 72, 77, 74, 80, 85 and 82 (though the 85 was only for a mile or so). Again, there was no steering wheel or seat vibration to speak of. Changing the Information Display to show the MPH really helped in maintaining the speed.

4. Now, to be honest, there were a couple of times when I thought I may have felt the vibration, but I was really really "looking for it". Again… “I thought” ….. “I may have”. You get the point.

5. I then did the same range of speeds again, this time using the cruise control. Not sure why I did that, just wondered if it would make a difference. No difference, which was nice. Not usually a big fan of cruise control, but it was kinf of nice given the smoothness of my ride.

I had the radio off for almost all of this test, but with the radio on and the B&O volume cranked up a bit, I did feel some vibrations on my seat bottom, but I attribute that to the bass more than anything else :)

So, I think the new rubber did the trick for me. I can say this for sure…prior to the new tires, I cringed every time I approached 70-75mph. I anticipated the vibration being there and it almost always was. And then I would get disappointed in my new car. Now, at least for the last 50 miles or so, I really enjoyed driving my car. Finally.

One last thing....before anyone with similar issues runs out to get new tires, please consider the following…..When I picked up my car earlier today, I carefully inspected the tires and wheels and noticed that the little balancing weights on the wheels themselves were each moved to different places. So, clearly the dealer balanced the new tires prior to putting them onto the car. Could it be that that was all I needed? Another tire balancing? Possible, yes. But I don't think so. I had the OEM tires rebalanced previously and then road force balanced twice and also two supposedly slightly out of round rims fixed, all before the new control arms were put in place. So, I think the OEM P6’s were the bulk of my problem.

Bottom line, whatever the cause of the vibration problem, it appears to be gone. Hopefully gone for good! I, for one, am now a happy driver.

While I've had experience with mis-calibrated force balancing machines, poorly trained operators or those performing it incorrecly, it sounds like, in this case, you likely had at least one bad tire and no wheel problems. (Obviously, If you had a bent or defective wheel, new tires/balancing wouldn't have helped). As I pointed out in an earlier post, a defective tire or wheel can exhibit force balancing within spec and still be defective causing vibrations - Quattros are notoriously sensitive to these issues. Believe me, I know - I have the t-shirt, mug and cap (and scars) over the years to prove it.

Glad it worked out for you. I've had nothing but excellent customer service results with AOA, especially over the last two years.

AOA and my local dealer, Autohaus Lancaster (PA), have been remarkable in helping alleviate my vibration issue... new tires, balancing, arms. Great customer service. Once you've identified the problem, it's easy to imagine that "phantom" vibration is still there even after it's been eliminated. BUT damn, it's a great feeling to get to highway speeds and it feels like it's riding on glass.

"phantom" vibration - That is a great way to describe it. I find myself still waiting for the vibration to kick in. It's a wierd feeling no doubt.

Kinda like losing a leg that you can still feel?