Hey folks,

I have spent the past 20 minutes reading over the numerous vibration issue posts here and have learned alot but I have some questions that were not answered there. I have a 2002 A6 3.0 Quattro with 38,500 miles. Factory wheels and (I assume) ContiContact tires. I have a vibration that occurs between 60 to 75 mph. It is not noticable prior to 60 and goes away over 75. No change with accelerationor otherengine functions. Seems to be speed related only.

I took it to a local place (not knowing then as much as I know now about the sensitivity of Audi balancing) and they balanced/rotated tires. No help. Then took it toa dealership (Tom Williams in Birmingham, AL) who charged me $107 to balance and rotate. Still no help with vibration problem. The dealership said that their very sensitive balancing machine which measures road force saysthe problem isbad tires. Recommended new ones. Tires have no visible problems and lots of tread left.

Here's the issue: since the proper balancing at the dealership, I've driven 300-400 miles. The vibration is still there but seems to be getting better. Is this my imagination or could it be possible??? I'm pricing new tires now, but not sure if I should just try to wait it out. I know that new tires have to have a few hundred miles of "conditioning" but can this happen with existing tires after a balance? I'd sure like to save the $$$ if possible. Thanks in advance!

DL

 

I put 114,000 miles on my 02. The first thing I had trouble with was the shaking and vibrations. The ContiContact In my eyes was not a good tire. They would go bad by 25,000 miles, literally belts and such delamanating. Then went to BF Goodrich. Nearly the same results without the belts failing, but they would shake so bad you couldn't stand it anymore. Tried Pirelli's next. Now that was a very smooth tire until you guessed it, 25,000 miles. They all still had good tread left. You could do a road force balance and they would be ok for a week, or sometimes even a day, then go right back to shaking again. I could only average around 25,000 miles per set. The highest being 28,000 from the BF-Goodrich, but you literally couldn't take the shaking anymore. They dealer told me the Michelin tire was the best, but I never tried it due to the cost. I'm thinking it would have been worth trying. I now have a 05 A6 and it has the ContiProContact on it which seem like the tread might go 50 maybe 60,000 miles. I only have 10,000 on them and a bit of shaking is occurring. The Audi is very fussy about imbalance and it will let you know when you have a bit of mud inside the rim or a rock lodged in the tread. I will also tell you when its time to get rid of the tire even if it has tread left to be wore off. The one thing I learned in 114,000 miles is they eat tires for breakfast, if you start to have handling issues and vibrations, chances are its the tires. Try some Michelins, and make damn sure the dealer installs them doing a road force balance! No local shop realizes how perfect these Audi need to be!!!!

 

it seems this is becoming a common occurrence so remove the wheels and check if the spigot rings for centering the wheels on the car are in place,
whats a spigot ring you might ask
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...ings&gbv=2

 

Don't need rings using factory wheels though.

 

Interesting thread. I have Pirelli P6 All -seasons on the factory wheels (second set) with about 15k miles and they ride extremely well. I had serious problems with Coopers on my 18" SSR rims and replaced both the rims (with Velocity RS4 replicas) and tires (ContiExtremeContact). Although Discount Tire recommended the Coopers, they admitted their mistake to the extent of giving me a huge credit on the Contis. I have 2k on the Contis and they seem to be riding very well. They do grab any pavement irregularities and turn it into pulling to one side or slight vibration in the steeringwheel. Time will tell. The car has almost 103k miles.

I do not have spigot rings for the factory wheels, had them for the SSRs, and do not have them for the Velocities - I wonder if that will be a problem. The purpose of the spigot ring seems to be to center the wheel on the hub when the wheel hole is larger than the hub. The factory rims seem to fit snugly around the hub.

 

As Knapp said, I have factory wheels. BUT, that local shop did the first balance and may have done away with my spigot rings, if they didn't know what they were. I read that in an earlier post.

BUT, my next balance was at an Audi dealership with a road force machine...they should have checked all this, right? They said flat out that the problem is the tires. Is it possible that my vibration is getting better, or am I just doing some wishful thinking?

By the way, these are the tires I have now: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....nSpeedRating=T

AndI was looking at these tires to replace mine, if needed: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....nSpeedRating=T

Thoughts?

DL