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Guys is this weird or what? I had 8mm and 10mm spacers on the front....

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Old 04-19-2007, 03:16 PM
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Default Guys is this weird or what? I had 8mm and 10mm spacers on the front....

with both i had steering wheel vibration, the 8mm was horrible and the 10mm very slight at between 50-60.

I was not the only one.

I got some 5mm in today for the front, GMG decided to check my wheel balance, mind you I have 1100 miles on the car and without spacers its perfect. Nothing changed. Remove spacers car is perfect..add them and slight shake.

So they checked the wheels and both were off almost an ounce. One side we removed the weight and the other side added some. Now with 10mm spacer its perfect.

But why? Are these wheel balanced on the car at the factory?

Just strange.
Old 04-19-2007, 03:31 PM
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Default Some wheel spacers are hub-centric, some are not...

and if you walk the wheel off the hub too far without a hub centric spacer you may have vibration from the wheel not being hub centered. A lot of wheel balancing machines behave differently, some center balance, some static, etc.

Cheers,
Old 04-19-2007, 05:43 PM
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Default That was not the issue or my question Alex, I knew that....

what makes no sense with Stasis suspension and 10mm spacers you get vibration.

Remove spacers no vibration. Add = vibration subtract = normal

Rebalance wheels + spacers = normal

What is wrong with this picture?
Old 04-19-2007, 07:10 PM
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Default The two things he mentioned...

1. Yes, by removing and reinstalling the wheels it may have helped seat them better.

2. Variation in wheel balancing he mentioned. It's not uncommon for some drivers to experience a 55mph vibration and to swear they have had the wheels and tires rebalanced twice already so it cant be the problem. Then to have them rebalanced a third or fourth time and it to be fine.
Old 04-19-2007, 07:19 PM
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Default

I had 5's on my B6 s4 with no vibration at all. They were h&r.
Old 04-19-2007, 07:38 PM
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Default Again...not my question...

The wheels were not balanced according to the State of the Art machine at GMG, yet without spacers performed perfectly. How does this happen?

The computer said it was over an ounce off ! After rebalancing they worked perfectly with 10mm spacers.

I am wondering if the wheels are balanced on the car at the factory?

Thanks
Old 04-19-2007, 07:58 PM
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Default ...

To put it differently, a wheel can show balanced at the factory and not on another machine. You could take them next month into another facility and throw them on a gsp9700 or whatever and find them off again. I assume you had them balanced with the tires on so you have to take into account tire changes over time that affect balancing as well not to mention the variations in balancers. And again, the fact they performed well without spacers but gave vibration with points to the spacers possibly contributing meaning they either werent off enough to affect felt vibration w/o the spacers but were with or reseating them on your spacers for you second run with them contributed to the correction in vibration in addition to the rebalancing.
Old 04-19-2007, 08:34 PM
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Default That makes sense, interesting that with just over 1K on the rims/tires

that it would change that quickly.

The variance does not bode well for longevity of the balance then though.

Thanks
Old 04-19-2007, 08:37 PM
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Default I agree...

If I was too concerned I could honestly go to check balance every month and find it off a tiny bit, but as long as I dont get vibration I leave it alone. Ive been on 4 different gsp9700 machines in one month before and found different readings...it can be annoying.
Old 04-20-2007, 06:19 AM
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Default It's not a wheel balance issue...

The Audi hubs on the B6/B7 platform are slightly undersize and/or the wheel hubs are oversize. I think it's the former from trying different wheels on cars.

Try this, get the load off of one or both front wheels. Loosen the lugs. Try your very best to center the wheel on the hub and snug the lugs by hand. DON'T load the car fully onto the wheels before they are torqued.

Test drive. Now you will find out what is going on. I've had PERFECT wheels/tires with very little runout in either direction that cause vibration at the speed you mention.

Audi has a problem with the cars they haven't addressed. -Pete


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