markinarch

I noticed a few months back that my steering wheel had some vibration and I started to get a hum from what sounded like the front tires or possibly just the right side tires. I had the tires rotated and balanced and the steering wheel vibration and tire noise remained, speed dependent.

I finally took my car to Audi (just 500 miles before warranty is up) and they said the front tires were cupped and that they recommended replacing the tires. They said the suspension looked fine and nothing was loose. So what caused it?

My questions to you guys is what I should do? I still have 300 miles left on warranty and I know that our cars have had suspension problems with control arms and bearings. Was Audi just giving me the run around so they wouldn't have to replace something with a couple hundred miles left? Should I take it to an independent shop for diagnosis? I'm not an aggressive driver so I don't think my driving style created the cupping and the tires are only 10 months old, with 15000 miles on them. I have had the tires rotated and balanced once.

Thanks.

Redd

http://www.tirewear.org/steps-on-how...-tire-cupping/

Could be a simple tire pressure problem.

And fwiw, I've found that "simple" tire pressure gauges these days are all over the place. Sometimes, 32psi in the tire reads 15psi on the gauge, sometimes 32psi on the gauge reads 45psi in the tire....Inexpensive tire gauges these days are mainly JUNK.

Not that I trust the electronic ones any better, but you need to "trust but verify" or yes, you can consume a set of tires in no time.

markinarch

Thanks for the tips. I usually am pretty good at checking my pressure but only have like a $7 electronic guage... I'm thinking it is a suspension component that is at fault.

need_TQM

I had a problem with DW's on my A4 getting noisy - the dealer said I needed an alignment but after it was done the before and after specs were nearly identical - I complained and they agreed that there wasn't an issue with alignment. After some research, I felt that my issue was the blocks wearing more on the leading edge vs the trailing edge. Cure might have been to make sure the rotation direction was reversed when rotated - which I didn't really do. Maybe the DW is more prone to this issue - the stock P7's didn't do this, although they wore out fairly fast...

Good luck.

snagitseven

It's usually not recommended to reverse the direction of radial tires as the belts, once seated, can become deformed if reversed after a few thousand miles. Front to back same side for rotation is preferred.

As to the cupping, while I realize the design is different from the DW, I had Conti DWS on my A4 for about 30K miles w/o any issues. I would vote for either an alignment issue or tire pressures. Note that the manual provides the recommended PSIs for a normal load, driver and a passenger, and the door label is for max loads, driver, four passengers and a full trunk of luggage.

need_TQM

That used to be the case, and still is for directional tires (indicated on the sidewall), but now I think most manufactures recommend "X-ing" during rotations.

http://www.michelinman.com/tires-101...-rotation.page

and so does motorweek...

http://www.motorweek.org/features/go.../tire_rotation

markinarch

driving to work my low tire pressure flashed on my dashboard even though I just filled them a couple days ago! I'm taking the car to Discount Tire, where I bought the tires, to see what the heck is going on.

Side note: This is the first time my car told me what tire was underinflated. usually it just says to check my tires one is low. This time it said "(rear right)". Does it always tell you which tire and I have just never paid attention?