spirals

Just picked it up 3 weeks ago (after trading in my 06 s4) and had a couple of set backs. First the alignment was out. Went to the dealers and they told me that it wasn't the car, it was the road (like I'm a moron). Went to a family alignment place and found that the car was basically driving down the road on an angle. Got it fixed and the dealership reinburst me. Now that the alignment feels good I've noticed a slight steering wheel shake in between 60-70 mph. The strange part is that it's most noticeable before the car warmed up. when the reaches tempeture it still there but it's very light and only between 60 -70. I've had the wheels checked for balance and roundness and even had audi replace two tires that were defective. It's not THAT bad, but it is annoying. I thought maybe there's something wrong with servtronic steering system or the hydrolic suspension. If any body out there has any insight please let me know...

craiglieberman

A) Go to a different dealer.
B) I assume the car was new, unused and undamaged.

A vibration could be as simple as a wheel balance issue to something more ominous, like suspension damage from an inattentive lot boy. By your own admission, the vibration is very light and from my experience on this forum, it seems as if many new buyers are, how should I put this, ****. No offense.

I'd crawl under the car myself (but of course, many Audi owners refuse to get dirty)and look for damage.

Then I'd go to a chassis shop and have control arms, tie rod ends, ball joints and the lot inspected for damage. If nothing is found, you may fall into that **** classification. To be sure you're not, have another RS4 owner drive your car.

I had a buddy swear his clutch was not working right on his RS4 cause he couldnt shift into second smoothly. I drove it and it was like butter. The problem? Bad technique and he was ****.

Good luck with your issues, and welcome to the RS4.

daveak05

Check front tires for tread feathering...which could have resulted from bad alignment. That would definitely cause quivering of steering wheel at speed.

BluDemon

I have the Michelin tires on my RS4 and it seems that when I park on some surfaces my tires flat spot. I know it sounds strange that it wouldn't do it all the time .... when I park at work they have a vibration for the 1st few miles or so then smooth as can be..... at home the car can sit for days and no vibration when driving off. I'm still on the factory balance and it's so minor I'm not going to worry about a rebalance until I replace the tires. My B7 A4 was horrible with wheel vibration and it turned out to be the crappy Dunlop sport maxx tires.

Which way was your car pulling? Did they move the tires around and it still pulled? Some tires have a tendency to pull to the right and when moved around the car straightens itself back out.

Vijay

And cars aren't perfect. A little wheel vibration here and there may be something that can never be fixed. i've noticed a similar phenomenon on my Porsche Cayenne, but it's sporadic. Just yesterday, I was driving at 75 and felt a slight wheel vibration. I sped up to 85 for a bit, then slowed down again and the vibration was gone. Go figure.

spirals

thanks for the feed back. For future reference I am **** about my cars i.e., air pressure in the tires, a steering wheel on center etc. However there is something that's not right with this. I'm not sure how the Audi service is around the country but where I am (outside philly in delaware county) I've had zero luck with dealers. They ALL suck. In my S4, every time I would get on the gas hard there would a small knock when i took my foot off the pedal. When i brought the car in for service they told me it was nothing. After further review they found that I had a broken engine mount. This on a car with only 5,000 miles. Then, they had the ***** to tell me that I was driving to hard. FU Audi. Anyway when I talked to a dealership 40 miles from my house I convinced the salesman to sell me the RS4 for $62K i couldn't pass it up.
So, I've strayed from the subject. Having a fellow RS4 owner drive my car would be good but I'll have to find one and there is one more dealer in the area I can try. I am a 4th generation ironworker who's willing and able to lay on the ground while getting dirty and look under the car (even though I won't know what the hell I'm looking at or for).

daveak05

when a wheel is out of balance, vibration will usualy be felt in a tight range(3-5 mph) and smooth otherwise.

Also, I've always found that the vibration will be felt most when you are slowing from a higher speed and coming into the speed range where there's vibration.

Other indications are passenger seat shaking, shifter shaking, or you can feel it in the seat of your pants(rear wheels).

For steering wheel vibration though, check outside front tire tread for feathering, or a scalloped appearance, instead of tread being smooth and uniform from tread block to tread block. Then of course there are other potoential causes of steering wheel shimmying...such as play in steering, loose sway bar mounting bolts, worn ball joints, etc.

daveak05

On a brand new $70k car, you shouldn't have had the alignment issue to begin with. And if the steering wheel is wiggling, not acceptable. Still, don't expect perfection.

dtwa8

My '08 Cabriolet exhibits the same symptoms and I will be eager to find out what you learn. I had attributed the slight steering wheel shake to the tires flatspotting overnight (I have P Zero Rossos). Once they're warm, no problem. Regarding the alignment, I do get some tramlining, which is normal with wide, low aspect ratio tires on bad roads (nobody has worse roads than we do here in Michigan). I haven't complained about the alignment because on some roads the car tracks perfectly true and because I didn't want to take a chance on the dealer making it worse. As you have found out, Audi dealer quality is, you might say, not uniformly high.

daveak05

I think you covered it very well. Yes, joker in the deck is flat spotting on cold tires when first driven. The wonder of nylon caps.