I have seen an occasional post about vibration during different phases of acceleration, cruise, and deceleration. Many have been related to wheel imbalance. This weekend I took a road trip and confirmed (after noting for two months) that I get a vibration when removing power while cruising. This occurs at different speeds.

My vibration does not occur while cruising or during acceleration. It is limited to deceleration. I have had my tires/wheels checked as recently as last week and they are all fine with very little weight used in the balancing.

While I am not too concerned, I am curious if anyone else is getting the vibration. You can feel it in the seat. It is noticeable and it found me vs. me looking for it. I just have not posted because I like to give a reasonable amount of time between noticing something, attempting to diagnose, checking the board, and then finally asking.

Now, on the subject of the ML 320, RX300, Legacy Wagon. In the past week and a half, I have epxerienced one wacky ML 320 Driver, One RX300, and three Legacy drivers. Wacky is defined as "rev engine, inch forward, rev engine, inch forward, and take off at full throttle on green light."

The first couple of times the Legacy drivers did this I was completely absorbed in my rush hour classical music blitz. Thus, they just took off without me noticing them other than the jerking of their vehicle.

Finally I got the message and did my 2/3 throttle acceleration thing. I just heard the Legacy winding out albeit close in the very beginning and then proceeded on my way while looking in my rear view mirror at the Legacy (which I think is a nice design BTW - not for me).

Then after this happened three times in one week and all with Subaru's I started to get curious. Even my passenger asked what was up with the Subaru people. Did some article come out recently about the prowess of the AWD Legacy? I'm asking seriously.

Saturday, I was up early for my morning errands. At a light a Mercedes ML 320 stops behind me and then pulls into the lane next to me. He is inching up and revving and inching and he is so far ahead that I can see him looking back at me.
I can now see the rear of his truck and it is the ML 320.

He was bascially one full car length in front of me when the light turned green. However, he could no longer see the light and was leaning forward looking up and then looking back at me. I gave it between 1/2 and 2/3 pedal movement and shot past him because he could not see. I did it more to be funny than anything else.

Next thing I know the nose of the 320 is at my drivers window and completely floored. The engine was screaming. I don't know if he had moved it into a non D setting or if it was just not shifting properly. It sounded like it was revving way too high albeit my window was down.

Anyway, I downshifted and took off leaving him to worry about other things. About two miles later on the highway I was cruising at about 65 mph with virtually no one around me.

He comes flying up behind me and starts tailgating so I changed lanes to let him freak on someone else down the road. He get's behind me. I learned here that a good gear choice at that speed for quick acceleration is 3rd. So I tip'd it to third and took off on my merry way.

He was falling back but I could tell he was accelerating so I continued acclerating and then my exit approached so I left. He went flying by a few second later. The funniest part of this story is that there is a MB dealership up the road from where I exited and after I picked up my wheat germ drink I was driving by and saw his car in the service line. I hope it was scheduled maintenance.

Now last but not least the RX300 which I thought was going to blow up. The RX300 driver did the same thing. Same story and same extremely wound out engine sounds. After catching up at the next light he proceeded to tailgate me for the next three miles. Whatever. Turned on full ignore.

Those who have seen my posts know that I am averse to "race me" stories. My guess is that the Globe article in the automobile section about Audi power/prowess sent these guys into a tizzy.

They bought their vehicles based on what everyone else was buying and are angry that their vehicles are quickly becoming passe'. They bought for popularity instead of function. Whereas it appears most Audi buyers buy for useful purpose and could care less about others' opinion.

People used to ask me "why did you buy an Audi" and now they are asking "where can I get an Audi?"

My once in awhile rambling.<p>00 2.7T
17"ATP/Yoko S

 

I'm more worried about you drinking wheat germ drinks than the crazy drivers you attract ;-)

 

Wondering whether they're just coincidental, odd experiences or an inherent trait of the drivers of these types of vehicles. If it's the latter, my take on it is that these folks really wanted a sport sedan and not an FUV (no typo), and are trying to convince themselves that that's what they bought. This is more so directed at the RX amd the ML. I like Subbies too and have recommended them to friends and family.

 

Once in a while I'll play a good game of cat and mouse on the highway (SAFELY, of course), but never any stop light grand prixs. Maybe it's the S4 wheels ;-). Oh, and the "racing green".

 

Gotta be the Green!!!

 

( I am now going to hide before the Harpies surface and rail against all such antics.)

 

Hmmm... Interesting. Subaru until recently don't have a vehicle can even come close to Audi.

They now have a V6 version of Outback wagon which cranks out about 200 horse. But it lacks the torque which your 2.7T can produce at low RPM.

Subaru is a good car and it will last for a long time for most folks use. They had a lot of problems with rusting in the early and late 80s. But, like most Japanese cars, the 90's models fixed the rust issue.

If these guys are trying to catch up with your 2.7T, they are killing their engines and trannies!

Enjoy your A6!<p>Wilson
'01 2.7T, Silver/Onyx

 

ok, I know I don't really belong in this forum ('92 100) but I always thought of it as the predessor to the A6. Anyways, I have the same problem with vibration while decelerating and ONLY decelerating. Cruising and accelerating are both very smooth (wheel-wise) but it's when I let off the gas that the vibrations start. downshifting helps a little, but always annoys the passengers... thought about balancing the tires, but sounds like it won't help too much from your post...

Jack

 

sensors attempting to adjust power to the wheels. If there is something wrong with the sensor or it is getting bad information it might be making continuous adjustments that are unecessary and thus causing vibrations.

Is your car a quattro? If so I think we would have basically the same systems for that part of the car. It has not really changed from 92- 00 has it ? I truly think it is some sensor incorrectly detecting a loss of traction and is attempting to adjust power output front to back and visa versa.

This would, in my opinion, cause what may feel like driveline vibration during deceleration due to the fact that power is constantly being reduced vs. increased. The drag created by the tires would be exacerbated due to the changing of the ratio of wheel spin front to back. Sort of like tapping the brake in hundredths of a second intervals.

Oh well, I will see if I can get it checked at the next service.

Thanks,

The Geez<p>00 2.7T
17"ATP/Yoko S

 

Denver, going down 36, and there is a early 90's (maybe late 80's?) ford escort in the left lane doing about 70. I slow down so I never come more than 5-6 car lengths behind him, and flash my lights once. (Where I come from that is a friendly "I'd like to pass gesture").

The driver proceeds to slam on the brakes while giving me the finger as if he is trying to get me to rear-end him. Since I am not tailgating and have ABS (didn't think he did) nothing happened.

Since this guy seems to be quite an offensive driver, I pass him on the right (note: I NEVER pass on the right, but this guy was trying to kill me).

He then proceeds to tailgate me when traffic allows, and flashing his lights constantly. When I have the chance, I leave him behind, but with these denver drivers, you eventually get to a place where you're stuck behind cars for several minutes, and he creeps back up and proceeds to flash me and tailgate.

This guy follows me in this manner for about 20 minutes. I decide that he might not be stable, and maybe it's not a good thing for him to know where I live, so I pass my exit and pull off at the next one, at the last minute.

He is unable to get over and pulls into the shoulder and puts on his reverse lights to back up around the divider so he can continue to follow me. However, that slowed him down enough that even with denver traffic I could get away and take a back road home.

Anyway, watch out when you're out there. I got all of the above abuse for a single flash of my high beams. There definitely is a world of difference between beating the mitsu eclipse off the line (I see one at least once a week who wants to challenge me) and having some guy frantic enough to 'get' you that he will drive backwards on an 8 lane highway...



-rod a62.7tq