Tom Perkins

audijim113

My 2006 does something similar. Does your act a little squirrely at highway speed. It's barely noticeable but I seem to be correcting my steering slightly to compensate for it. I did not feel this on a 2005 A8 that I had just previous to this car. The 2005 had 250.000 miles. This one has 130,000. I had it checked by a suspension, brake front end guy who is probably the best in my area that I've known for 15 yrs. Previous to this squirreliness there was a clunk and he replaced my sway bar links and said everything else if OK.

I'll be watching this thread to see what others say.

Tom Perkins

That's interesting that you've felt the same sensation. Mine's pretty good at speed although it is less stable than my previous A4 2.5 tdi sport Quattro, that thing was amazingly stable at speed.

There must be something worn or not working as it should to cause this, hopefully someone else has experienced the same and found a solution.

richard-tx

Get some good tires on the thing and that squirrely feeling will go away. When it comes to tires you get exactly what you pay for.
I like Continental.

audijim113

Don't know about Tom Perkins, but my 06 has four, brand new Perelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus at about $250 each. It's got to be something else in my case.

MP4.2+6.0

Same first places to look as for all other front suspension baloney with late 90's A4 engineered components they used from the parts bin for D2 and D3 A8--the front upper suspension arms and then the front sway bar links.

As the front upper arms wear at the inner bushing, play as well as greater deflection develop. I think it is subtle to notice, but both on off throttle/braking and this kind of odd corner feel could both be part of it. Also look at your front tires. If inside of front tire tread is scrubbing off, then (assuming decent baseline alignment) the upper arm bushings are likely worn. I started to realize that over the years and two Audis with same basic front arm design when I saw inner tire wear, it seems tied to the upper arms. I theorize what is happening is under braking (and maybe your situation too) the suspension is moving around more than intended and essentially is experiencing momentary unintended alignment changes. Hence the tire scrubbing as one aspect--even if you get it checked and at rest/on alignment rack it appears to be set to spec.

Sway bar links are now so cheap in OES ($60ish for a pair of Lemforders in USA), almost a no brainer to change on a D3 if not done w/in last 5 years or so. They will wear noticeably by 60-90K miles/100-150K km. The third place to check are the sway bar mount bushings to the subframe, but the other two areas are the normal earlier starting points.

After these three, the remaining suspect areas are the tie rod ends and then the little known steering rack play adjustment. I have posted on the last one in the past if you search, but would verify situation with the earliest two first.

audijim113

As mentioned, my links were just changed but the idea of a rack play adjustment seems realistic. It almost feels like a 60s chevy with a tiny bit of play in the worm gear steering box.

MP4.2+6.0

... Got it. And the upper arms? Best guy in the world or otherwise, from personal experience unless you literally pretty much pull the pinch bolt on ball joint end and then move the arms around by hand you really can't fully evaluate the bushing end in many cases. Honestly, I think few to no mechanics do that (nor folks on the this board), so wear is often not seen until they are really trashed. I tried many a time visually, including right before pulling the pinch bolt. Visual vs. pinch bolt pull led to a lot different conclusions on wear and cracking levels. At 130,000 miles, basically your arms should have been replaced like 50-60,000 miles ago, and would need them again unless recently done already. Again, see my lengthy prior post if you search, pics and all when you flex them. Do you have any unusual inner tire wear as a related pointer as mentioned in my previous reply?

FWIW, last time I ended up doing mine and after all the other items I mentioned were done/eliminated I returned to the arms and did the pinch bolt pull. Underlying sympoms were slightly old feel w/ a little play, starting to see some inner tire wear (which was the tipping point for me), and a very slight shimmy under moderate braking from freeway speeds, like down an offramp. Balanced wheels, switched between winter and summer sets (as in, not tires), and all that. Net, night and day with new arms (bushings) and fresh alignment.Drove like virtually new again; I first bought it CPO a year old with low miles. And dealer had already done the bushings once inside of warranty--leading to my same point yours mileage wise should be on third (not second) set about now.

And yes, besides the arms there is the possible rack adjustment if you know the feel. Have done it over time on every Audi I have owned--half a dozen or more--and it does improve feel if you dial it in for wear. Painfully difficult/tedious to reach and move the adjustment nut on virtually all of them--except the first 70's one pre power steering.

Tom Perkins

I've got good quality Michelin tyres on the car, all matching, not old and in good condition. I agree that tyres make a huge difference to the feeling of a car but don't think it's the problem in this case.

Tom Perkins

Thanks for your thoughts, appreciate it. Certainly some points to check there.