Erik Bruce

I’ve had a few weeks with my 2017 Allroad and loveeverything about it with one huge exception. At highway speeds I’ve never had to give a car as much steering input aswith this car.I’m coming from a B7 A4 Avantwhich tracked solidly at speed without a lot of steering input and correction,even with its somewhat worn suspension.TheB7 reliably stuck to the direction I first steered it.The Allroad needs constant steering adjustmentsand sometimes feels quite skittish at high speeds, not stable or planted at all.I can’t quite nail down what is causing thisbehavior.I don’t think it’s wheel alignmentbecause it doesn’t favor one side, and when the pavement is perfect the car settlesdown. The messier the pavement, the moreI have to work to keep the car centered in the lane.That makes me think the suspension and/ortires are too soft and follow every irregularity.It also seems like the steering is way too sensitiveat 70/80 mph.Lane changes at speed canbe an adventure, with just a slight movement of the steering wheel sending meabruptly into the next lane if I’m not careful.I’m getting used to that now and accounting for it but it feels odd tohave such touchy steering in an Audi.Italmost feels like the steering motor is using the same amount of power assistat highway speed as during low speed city driving.My understanding is the steering is supposedto become much firmer at higher speeds. Setting the steering and suspension to dynamicmode makes only a subtle difference at best. I keep toggling between modes buthave a hard time feeling much difference.
I haven’t driven a A4 sedan so I’m not sure if all of thisis unique to the Allroad.
Curious if it’s just my car that has this issue andsomething needs to be fixed. If it’s thedesign, any thoughts on how to improve it?

bnewton89

After replacing the OEM Tires with something a bit better, the car feels much more stable and planted without all of the skittishness at higher speeds.

Erik Bruce

Sorry for all the typos. I pasted from a Word doc and for some reason some of the spaces between words were deleted. Not sure why I can't edit it.

Robmac123

Have you tried different settings in drive select ? With comfort mode the car does feel a little as you describe. I'm convinced my B9 in comfort mode is way softer than my previous B8 was. Maybe dynamic mode would feel more what you're looking for.
with individual mode you could play mix n match with different settings to try to get something you like the overall feel of.

I agree the standard tires are not great. Replacing them with the same size but better tires might help the feel a bit, but some of the feeling you describe may be due to the relatively tall sidewalls. I think you might be happier with 19" or even 20" rims with some good quality tires. The lower profile tires on 19's or 20's would also help eliminate the vagueness, at the slight cost of a little comfort (and a lot of $$ of course)

erdb

(reposting for readability. Using my previous user account which allows me to edit):

I’ve had a few weeks with my 2017 Allroad and love everything about it with one huge exception. At highway speeds I’ve never had to give a car as much steering input as with this car. I’m coming from a B7 A4 Avant which tracked solidly at speed without a lot of steering input and correction, even with its somewhat worn suspension. The B7 reliably stuck to the direction I first steered it. The Allroad needs constant steering adjustments and sometimes feels quite skittish at high speeds, not stable or planted at all. I can’t quite nail down what is causing this behavior. I don’t think it’s wheel alignment because it doesn’t favor one side, and when the pavement is perfect the car settles down. The messier the pavement, the more I have to work to keep the car centered in the lane. That makes me think the suspension and/or tires are too soft and follow every irregularity. It also seems like the steering is way too sensitive at 70/80 mph. Lane changes at speed can be an adventure, with just a slight movement of the steering wheel sending me abruptly into the next lane if I’m not careful. I’m getting used to that now and accounting for it but it feels odd to have such touchy steering in an Audi. It almost feels like the steering motor is using the same amount of power assist at highway speed as during low speed city driving. My understanding is the steering is supposed to become much firmer at higher speeds.

Setting the steering and suspension to Dynamic mode makes only a subtle difference at best. I keep toggling between modes but have a hard time feeling much difference.

I haven’t driven a A4 sedan so I’m not sure if all of thisis unique to the Allroad.

Curious if it’s just my car that has this issue andsomething needs to be fixed. If it’s thedesign, any thoughts on how to improve it?

CoMeader

I'd suggest starting with the tires. I also came from a B7 Avant (06) with the sport suspension and disliked the way the Allroad handled when I took delivery. Before I could delve into the issue too much, I put snow tires on. The car drove much better on the snow tires, but as soon as I went back to the OEM tires the handling went down the tubes again. Strangely enough not all of the B9 Allroad's Ive driven have this same behavior, so I suspect that the tires quality varies quite a bit. I'll be replacing the OEM tires shortly and expect the handling to be quite a bit better. I've had the car looked at by my dealr, and they didn;t find anything "wrong" but they agreed the tires may be too soft to properly control this car.

One other thing you might want to look at to improve the handling is a strut brace. I put in the 034 Motorsports brace, and the handling go noticeably crisper with the biggest benefit being the car doesn't react to crosswinds nearly as much. I'm giving some thought to installing their anti-sway bar.

I've got about 15k miles on my Allroad in the past 6 months, and I think once you get the handling sorted you'll really like it.

Dan in St. Louis

Just a wild thought--is it possible that in order to improve gas mileage Audi reduced or eliminated toe-in on the front tires? That might increase any tendency to wander.

englandlongbow

I agree with erdb.

Before I took my 2017 AR, I had been driving a Honda Civic, which offered me very impressive handling feeling. Comparing to AR's soft and vague ground planting, the Civic really behaves more sharply and crispily, and much more funny. I could easily make out a tire sound by a 90 degree turn while still feel very confident of the car's limit. For sure AR is much more luxurious and high-tech equiped comparing to the Civic, but the latter offers definitely more machanical fun and joyness.

erdb

Thanks for everyone's feedback. I'm going to start by adding an aftermarket strut brace. Thanks CoMeader for pointing me in that direction. For anyone else who is dissatisfied with the car's front end stability you might read this thread on the B9 A4 sedan page if you missed it.

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a4-...brace-2915125/

Also, I found the tires had been set by the dealer at 40psi (cold temp pressure)! Stupid me assuming the dealer would prep the car correctly! I corrected them to 35psi per Audi's recommendation and they do seem a bit less inclined to wander with pavement irregularities. Still not great but maybe okay if the strut brace stiffens up the front end.

Le Chef

Get a good dealer or independent to make sure your geometry is correct, and ideally corner balanced before you add equipment. If the geometry is out it will only be exacerbated by adding stuff.