tomstrain

i drive a 2004 d3 a8l with 1bk suspension. I have been feeling a wiggle in my steering wheel from 50mph-60mph. I hooked up odis to the vehicle and found air suspension leak and over heating shock absorber. Also just recently ive noticed the rear passenger side going toe in and negative camber.. i have to jack the vehicle up to reset the suspension so that the camber goes away but the toe stay in.. i am at a loss.. ive poured my blood sweat and tears into this thing and its still under 100k miles. Can these problems cause a bouncing of the vehicle and steering wheel wiggle at 50-60 mph?

aebarto11

I'm going through the same wiggle issue myself and it's pointing to control arm bushings. The upper bushings historically go out on the D2s and D3s at that mileage. The lowers are suspect too. I also had rear alignment issues that ultimately ruined my rear tires. From my understanding it's not hard to knock the toe out of alignment. I had already worn he inside of the tires almost down to slicks before I noticed it. Check your sway bar links too - they are pretty inexpensive and easy to replace. Make sure you go with lemforder brand bushings because I have also learned the hard way that aftermarket brands are not that great - regardless of their price point. There's multiple posts about changing the bushings out on here. It's cheaper to just buy the bushings vs. the entire arms with bushings installed but you need access to a press if you just get the bushings. At the end of the day it still easier to just have your tires balanced to see if that might be the culprit as well. Good luck!

aebarto11

I could be wrong and someone else might chime in, but I think the issue on he rear alignment on at least my car (07 D3) was that the camber bolt is really too small to do a good job of holding the toe in place. My guy told me it just doesn't take much to knock it out of alignment. It was enough of an issue for me that I have him check it every six months or so to make sure I don't go through my new tires again. My issue is that my toe had turned inward and my camber was a little in which wore my tires heavily on practically the whole inside of the tire. Hope that helps!