I am so desperate for some help. I sincerely apologize for this being so long! please read though and try to help me. Here's the story: I have an '06 a4 2.0 quattro s-line with stock 18's. i bought some new wheels and tires for my car in March this year, they were 17 inch OE Wheels r8 replicas (wanted to get smaller size for winter and long road trips for a cushier ride and better handling in the winter) the tires were continental extreme contact dws, anyway, my car started vibrating after i put that stuff on, so i went back about three different times and had them balance the tires again each time, but it was still there. So we tried different tires, pirelli's this time....same problem, so we replaced the wheels with a whole new set of the r8 replicas from the same company, same problem. So I had them get different rims, some diamo 17 inch rims.... same vibration problem.
They suggested to have a mechanic look at the car, luckily under warranty at the time, i went to the dealership and they eventually replaced the drive shaft, but i still had the same vibration problem. I had them order me some Hartmann 18 inch r8 replicas, thinking that the better quality rims would help, just got them on yesterday and it's still vibrating. I already know about them having to be hubcentric, the oe wheels ones were, the diamo's weren't and these hartmann ones aren't either, but they did use the correct centering rings. I don't know what else to do. Could it be something wrong with my car that the dealership just ignored or overlooked? I noticed a couple other people on here saying that they had some vibration issues similar to this too, but they didn't post a solution... any suggestions on what it could be, would be very much appreciated! Oh, and the stock rims barely vibrate at all... but i can't possibly believe that three different wheel manufacturers make crappy rims, especially hartmann. and i don't want the stock ones back on. and, i know this isn't the wheel and tire section but that place doesn't get as much traffic as this place. Again, sorry for being so long.

 

is the tire shop balancing the new wheels? do they know what they're doing?

 

Put the stock ones back on and see if the problem goes away. That will tell you a lot.

 

Be sure the shop is using a Road Force balancer. If you have low profile wheels, the other style balancer just does not do as well. I had my stock 17's done on the non Road Force machine. After two attempts and lowsy results, I found a shop with the Road Force machine. It made all the difference. Sometimes its called the Hunter Road Force machine. The road force machine takes into account the low profile stiff sidewalls. if a shop says you don't need the road force machine, that is total garbage. After my experience, I actually had a tire shop direct me elsewhere because the service guy told me "you need a road force machine." That shop got rid of theirs because they are a high maintanence pain, but at least the guy was honest and sent me elsewhere. It is more expensive, but worth it.

 

Thanks for the replies!
yeah, they have been road force balancing them. i even had the dealership do their road force balance too. i assume they know what they're doing. "they" is discount tire, but even if they didn't, i did take it to the dealership and both places said that the wheels and tires balance out really well. the discount tire by me even had me take it to another one of their stores and they said the same thing.

I have put the stock ones back on a couple times in this whole process, they don't vibrate near as bad, there is a slight vibration with the stock ones, just nothing as bad as the other rims. I'm just wondering if there could be something loose down there, because it's not a constant vibration, example: last night i drove on the freeway and my steering wheel was vibrating pretty bad, moving my hand back and forth... but on the same freeway a little later in the day, the steering wheel wasn't shaking, it was just through the floor of the car i could feel it. it's the weirdest thing i've experienced with a car.