Ess8

I have this ultra annoying vibration in the steering wheel at speeds between 50mph and 75mph. The shake is so bad, my unoccupied passenger seat visibly occsilate.

My new wheels and tires have been road force balanced by Audi to no benefit, but recently, I have been getting a strong pulsing from the front brakes under heavy braking at highway speeds (and only at highway speeds - brakes are perfect around town)

Could warped front brakes cause steering wheel shimmy at highway speeds even without applying the brakes? I think the brake disc warping came from my old wheels that were on the car when I bought it... They were on so tight te LF wheel bearing was growling and I had to use a breaker bay to get the bolts out.

Thanks for any help!

Ed

Perpetual Novice

it sounds more likely that your LF wheel bearing is failing/damaged. can you describe the growling?

Ess8

that would get louder while cornering... Not very loud, but it did go away after I re-torqued the wheel bolts.

airbil

Ed,
"Road Force" balanced? WTheck is that? Is that a $200 charge?
I suspect a bent wheel. It don't take much.
Try switching front to back. If still the identical result at least you know it's not the wheels.
Wouldn't hurt to check the mounting surfaces of the wheel to the rotors and the rotors to the hubs. Road Force balancing dont include properly cleaning anything for sure.
Maybe an alignment problem. Hit any holes / curbs lately?
Could just need to be Serged or Pizzo'd.
Let me know if you need some other wheels to try

pkrasusky

...swappo them wheels F to R and try again, report back. When all else fails, it could always be "Paul'd" - but that'd be waaaaaay to JNR for you to handle.

I too'd be suspect of that wheel bearing. Unfort. my experience has told me such things don't simply "heal".

Or just drive faster than 70 - wuss.

More importantly though... Ed lives! Called you last week to catch up but you were "off".

Even moooooore importantly, see you 8/25 - BIATCHSLUTHOOR. Yeah that's right...

jazbo123

BTDT.. I had green pads that were filthing up my rotors. Problem went away when I changed pad and ground rotors.

Be sure to break in the new pads properly. For some reason these cars are sensitive to pad formulations, some just don't work well.

PaulW

If aftermarket, you probably need better hubcentrick spacers.

jazbo123

My rotors were so sludged up that they did cause highway shimmy w/o braking

Ess8

"Road force balancing" may/may not equal muffler grease as they relate to automotive elixirs..... But it sure is expensive. $400 from my local stealer.

Wheels/tires are new (see my pic poster) and the car had the same vibs as when I was running stock AVUS... I think the problem is worsened by my 20s. Hubs and spacers and centering rings are clean.

Instead borrowing wheels from you, can I just borrow your wallet?

Ess8

I had my old URS6 Pizzo'd. Much like frightening surgery, it is best not to be present durning the operation.

I'm pretty sure the wheels/tires are true as they were RFB'd and the car did this b4 the dubs.

Sorry to have missed you last week, I was at the Mohegan Sun spending your kid's college funds.