pgeorgan

Hi all,

I have a situation: My TT RS was driving just fine until I scraped a curb pretty bad. To be honest, it only cause a little bit of shimmying at highway speeds as a result. The alignment was way off but before adjusting said alignment, they also pounded out the rim (in the front). I also had them pound out the other front rim because a different dealer said it was bent, as well (slightly). After "fixing" the two front rims, doing a road force balance, there is still considerable steering wheel shimmying at 75mph+. The tires are Michelin Sport 4S. Single-digit #'s on the front and 11 and 15 lbs in the rear (15 or lower is "spec). The wheel/tire involved in the incident was moved to the rear (the 15# one).

Now, I had a problem in the past where the dealer I purchased the car from was attempting to swap out the original Toyo Proxes for new ones and "couldn't get any to balance within spec". My guess is the rims were bent but they didn't want to replace them bc I had a wheel/tire package that would've covered that. I agreed to let them put Michelins on. That ultimately "resolved" (masked) the issue, but now that I bumped one of the front rims, a different dealer is insisting I dump the Michelins (all <4,000 miles, btw) for an all-season tire.

What gives? They are saying there's nothing wrong with the rim I scraped after they pounded it out. But I also know the tires were completely fine before the curb incident. Since then, I paid to replace the offending tire. Now, every tire has the same readout from before, after road force balancing, except the new, original offending wheel + new tire combo, which dropped from 15 to 13 lbs.

I've read this and other TT RS forums and most people seem to agree that any road force over 10 lbs can be noticeable. I don't see why I should put all-season tires on my car when there was nothing wrong with the Michelin Sports. I've said repeatedly that I'd pay for the wheel I scraped to be replaced, but they won't sign off and saying that's the culprit.

Any input would be appreciated. I'm really at my wits end with this thing.

pgeorgan

Sorry, they won't "sign OFF" on saying the scraped rim is the culprit. (Why can't I edit posts?).

Also, am I missing something with respect to road force balancing? I don't feel like when the dealer performed this that they tried various wheel/tire combos. I think they just RFB the existing pairs.

Vegas-roadster

I know nothing about force balance but you should be able to balance any tire you want. Don't know what you mean by "pounding out" a rim but I would bet my money that at least one of the rims are out of round

pgeorgan

"Pound out" as in bang metal... Aka fix the wheel through machine force. Sorry, thought that was clear.

Yes, the problem is the dealer claims the wheel is fine.

Road Force Balancing

Vegas-roadster

The only way to check if the rim is true is to take off the tire and spin the rim relative to a fixed scribe at several depths into the rim. I seriously doubt that has been done as most mechanics would not bother. The other possibility is that the tire is out of round which can be checked the same way. The tire can be shaved and/or returned to Michelin.

pgeorgan

I replaced the tire. Very marginal improvement. I mean, should I accuse the Audi dealer of not knowing how to check a rim? I've seen worse situations of incompetency, but I have made such an issue, you'd think they'd triple-check just to be sure...

Tivon Nelson

I have recently acquired a 2008 Audi tt from my brother. He was deployed for quiet some time and the car sat the duration in what I would consider poor conditions. I finally convinced him to give me it and while bringing it home I was on the highway going about 40-50 whenever I'd take a corner or turn or hit a bump the car would swerve the opposite way. Was terrifying felt like the car would do a full 360 or something I pulled over and stopped at a near auto zone I was told before from a lady that it was tie rods and she swore up and down about it but I didn't feel that was the case. I assumed either the sway bar, end linkages, or even bushings. I finally got it in the air and was able to get pics. Its looks like the sway bar end links are shot. Please help me locate this issue if you see one.