Recently purchased a 2016 A7 CPO with 5k. Have been driving it for about a month. Car lives in low RPM's which doesn't respond to small pressure to the pedal. After pressing down it kicks in giving the car a jerk. Between 30-70mph I get a bobble feel to the drive. Not smooth at all. Was expecting a smooth ride from such well reviewed car. Dealer has swapped the front tires but still the same. Seems engine related. Wondering if other A7 owners experience the same.

 

I find the 19" wheel package can get pretty choppy feeling over certain types of roads. I have not driven one with 19" wheels so I cannot speak for them.

 

I have a 2016 Audi A7 with sports package and 20 inch rims and my tires are inflated 35 front and 38 rear on Michelin Pilot Sport AS3 and the car is super smooth as glass at all speeds. Even smoother then my Lexus GS350 F-sport I traded in on the highways. Its a fantastic car with solid ride. I do notice that my idle is very low but its fine and the car does have a lag from a slow speed but it rockets once that peddle is down. I may even get the ECU reprogrammed for that lag but its very occasional.

To the OP: Can you tell me what tires you have and what size? Maybe the dealer overinflated the tire to the max load spec and you can look in the manual and drop the pressure 3-4 psi front and rear.

IF you are getting a vibration at speed which I hate the most, I wold have the dealership re-balance the tires and do a ROAD FORCE balancing and check to make sure no tire is OUT of round even when new which can happen at times and cause vibration when its perfectly dynamically balanced. I feel absolutely no vibration or irregular road feel at any speed in my seat, headrest or steering wheel. Make sure that the road force number are no greater than 10 lbs for glass smooth ride. Audi spec is 15 lbs downwards road force from the tire/wheel combo onto the road and it will hop and sensitive customers like me and maybe you will get annoyed with this "vibration or shimmy" at certain speed whereas others will say I dont feel a thing and its smooth. That my biggest pet peeve. So get those tires road force balance this time and make sure the technician remounts the tire to the rim to get the road force numbers to less than 10 lbs per assembly. If they cannot get them to discard those tires and replace with newer ones under uniformity warranty which every tire company has. I choose Michelins because their tires are rounder and more truer and require less road force numbers such as around 4 to 8 lbs per assembly and my cars including SUV ride super smooth at all speeds vs cheaper and OEM tires.

 

Thanks guys. I greatly appreciate the thoughts and ideas. I have 19'' Pirelli 255/40's. They are at 35 in front. The dealership just rebalanced and completed a road force test. 2 tires had excessive road force and were swapped out with new ones. What I'm experiencing is not a vibration or shake in the wheel (that is tight), I'm experience what I would describe as pulse/bounce coming through my foot and leg at the speeds I mentioned. Baloo588, your smooth as glass comment is what I would expect from the A7 and I'm glad it's not something inherent in the the A7's ride. I would expect smooth as glass based on reviews. going to ride with shop foreman next week so he can experience. Test drove another new A7 from the dealer and it also had the same exact issue, different 19 inch tires. I would love it to be the tires as that is easily fixed. Any other thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

Hmm thats very odd. If I were you take it back and take the car for a ride with the master tech and show him what you are feeling and I am sure he will acknowledge this and maybe the road force is above 10 lbs and around 12-15lbs and you will feel slight pedal vibration and bottom of the seat vibes from the front tires despite the road force. How were the rear tires overall? If you can get those numbers printed out by the tech then you will be sure why its happening. 99% of the time with new cars its the tires or rims causing vibration. I get the pedal and seat vibration with my dad's Audi A8 around 70 mph with the tires being around 12 lbs and that car is smooth when all 4 tires are below 10 lbs. These cars are super sensitive just like my Lexus, Mercedes and BMW hence why road force is best way to go.

My 2011 BMW 5 series came with 4 bent inner lips of the rims because some jackass strapped down the car so hard on the trailer during transport from the east coast that I had HUGE vibration above 70 mph and they kept re-road forcing the tires/rims and I got so mad and made the tech inspect the inner rims and feel it when it was spun on the hunter road force and they were blown away. Things can happen. This same BMW still had vibration with new rims but it was smaller and more high frequency kind at 70-75 mph that was so annoying for 1 year and the dealership couldnt solve with multiple set of tires so I got rid of the car. There were so many other complaints of the F10 BMW 5 having this vibration and some people are saying its a bad driveshaft and some got it replaced and vibration went away. BMW was no help. Then 2 years later my fathers 2012 Audi A8L which had 54k miles at that time had high frequency vibration felt in the floor boards and armrest and I noticed it immediately and he didnt and I was so upset and we had to get the master technician to drive the car to feel it and he noticed it even after new tires were put on and road force below 10 lbs. WE got the dealer to get the regional representative in and he said the driveshaft was out of balance....The good news was this car was a demo with 500 miles and 100k certified warranty so we got a brand new driveshaft covered and the A8L is smooth now and is at 105k miles already.

All Im saying is that your A7 will be smooth as silk when you have the right tires and good balancing. Now I had continentals initially on my 20 inch rims and they were too smooth that I feel asleep literally on the highway without hint of vibration other than normal road feel and noise. The michelins are much more fun to drive with and I recommend them highly as replacement. Pirellis typically aren't very round tires and I have driven A6 loaners with them and they do vibration at certain speed on certain tarmacs and I dislike them. My 2013 Ml350 had Pirellis and god they vibrated like crazy in the beginning and I got 3 of them replaced due to out of roundness and after 1 year all 4 went out of round even with careful driving and routine balancing. I switched to Michelin Latitude Tour HP and the Ml350 was perfect again.

 

Well, took a ride with master tech this AM. He felt the same road feel coming through the floor. Tried different tires, checked the rims, checked everything underneath with no visible impact issues. Other 2016 A7's on the lot had a similar feel. Told me that was the ride of the car. I can't believe an Audi A7 would have a ride like this. I'm hoping better quality tires can resolve this issue. Escalating to Audi as I want someone to tell me this is what a new A7 should feel like. Also going to go and test drive another A7 at another dealer.

 

Couple of things I can see here is that the cars on the lot will have high tire pressure to prevent flat spotting and they will vibrate for a while after sitting so you should adjust the pressure on those tires to normal load and drive it around for 10-15 miles. Also road feel is not vibration and I am sure you know that and may be sensitive like me to vibration but having this vibration from 30 mph all the way to 70 mph is not possible in all of those A7s. IF your mechanic is feeling this at speed with different tire/wheel combo maybe this is normal road feel. Drop the tire pressure to 32 front 35 rear and it will help. Otherwise do you have the standard suspension or sports suspension? Maybe considering changing the tire to Continental or Michelins and go from there? Pirellis are a bit rough tires and I dont like the road feedback they give around town on certain loners I have driven compared to my 2016 Audi A7 which came with OEM continentals on 20inch rims and now my Michelins on 20 inch rims. The A7 does not give a hint of abnormal road vibe on any surface except regular road feedback (crack, bumps, potholes, regular grooves etc) just like any other luxury sedan.

 

Try 36 front, 33 rear.

In Europe, higher rear pressures are only for when the car is fully loaded (maximum weight capacity, and high speed running). The car's weight balance is forward biased, so when carrying driver and front passenger only it seems very odd that US numbers are reversed. Has Audi America assumed every buyer is riding around with 300lb of Home Depot supplies in the rear of the car? And so changed Audi Germany's specified ride pressures.

Ride falls apart when rears are too high (and no heavy luggage in the rear). My A7 has 20" forged OEM wheels, 30mm lower S line chassis suspension - as stiff as OEM gets. I certainly feel rough roads (but my S5 is worse), but no bobbles or anything like that. It is completely smooth on good road surfaces, and handles well for the size and weight of the car. I run 38 front, 35 rear most of the time (higher in winter).

But if my rears are too high, it bobbles

 

I put 36 front 33 rear on my 2012 Audi A8L because its front heavy and thats normal load pressure for the A8L but the A7 jiggles too much when the front is more than 38 psi cold so I keep it 35 front and 38 rear for best ride. The michelins are super smooth no issues even if rear pressure are at 41 psi and dont forgot you probably have those summer stiff rubber so that contributes to firmer ride if the pressure is higher in the rear.

 

Let's be clear. What is "smooth as glass" to one person may not be to others. Secondly, the road conditions vary a lot in different locals. My car rides great on probably 90% of the miles I drive. The other 10%, or whatever, the car feels choppy. The worst are concrete freeways that have uneven seams between slabs.