sly1

I have a friend whose steering wheel vibrates at 65 - 75MPH. Since his tires were worn, he ordered four new tires which of course were balanced and he had them do a front and rear end wheel alignment. After all this, the steering wheel still vibrates. Any thoughts about what could be causing the problem?

ITALSKIER

Wheels could be out of round

gtt

Each item should be checked one by one and driven to test.

JohnLZ7W

Does your friend own an A6 or an S6?

sly1

It's an A6 but how did you know.

sly1

Johnrg: I'm betting on worn wheel bearing. When I drove his car I heard a low whinning sound coming from his left front tire area. The owner of the car didn't even hear it. In the old days you could look at the bearing but now it's packed in a unit. One thing I didn't know is that a bad bearing could cause a steering wheel vibration.

JohnLZ7W

In fact I think a few folks have gone as far as buy backs and swaps for other cars. I'm not sure anyone has really figured out the root cause yet.

sly1

<B>Wheels could be out of round</B>

That would be the first thing you would typically look at but since he has the same vibration with both the old and new tires, I'm thinking it may be something else. Maybe a wheel bearing as Johnrg suggests.

sly1

JohnLZ7W: I use to race cars and worked on suspensions many years ago and I'm far from an expert, but I can't believe that a root cause of the problem can't be found. If you look at the components, there just aren't that many that can cause your steering wheel to vibrate.

gtt

I'm just guessing at all the possible causes but your right about it not normally causing that kind of vibration except possibly in a bad case.