***Cadmium***

I know this has been done to death, but since new my Q7 (Set 07) 3.0 S-Line TDi has had a steering wobble (significant) at exactly 70mph. The odd thing is that as the car "warms up" it goes away.

Wheels are 20" and tyres are 3rd set but are true to the OEM and are Conti Cross Contact 295/40 x 20

The last tyre changer didn't balance the wheels particularly well but they're liveable with, however its made the "shake at 70mph until you've driven 8 miles" worse....

Imagine this.... I leave home, I hit the Motorway in about 5 mins, I accelerate to 70 and it shakes... 5 mins later it pretty much stops all by itself. Then after 120 miles I pull into the services.

I wait 20 mins while I eat

I re-join the motorway and at 70 mph it starts to shake violently, again after 2 or 3 miles it becomes OK...

Temperature issue ?

As an aside....

My other car is a Nissan 350Z (308 bhp).... there are a lot of lessons Audi could learn from Nissan..... The Nissan dealer treats me as an intelligent human being, their warranty claims are simple and always exceed my expectations. My Audi dealer treats me like an idiot, lies, cheats. And the balance issue above just fills me with dread, I'll have to actually converse with them again ;-(

It's unlikely to be the tyres as they're the 3rd set of fronts and it's done it with every set (did it on the drive home when it was new), and it's had 4 new wheels due to corrosion so it's not likely to be the wheels....

If I sound bitter and twisted toward Audi, it's because I am.

Jusforfun

Did you check out any of the 16 other who had this issue? 7with links to threads. There were different solutions offered.
Its rather sus that newer Q7s never report this problem. I suspect they replaced the track control arms with a stronger version and that Its a period vibration within the car exacerbated by minute wheel imbalances.
Several people including me notice it changes with road surface. I get it on the first bit of motorway heading north from here but no south!
I am still on original set of Eagle F1 since 06, vibe never changed with wear.

***Cadmium***

I read all the other posts. It's a bit confusing. It's Ok to say that something exhibits periodic resonance but something must excite that vibration. When the Q7 had 3 miles on the clock and was on its way home from the dealer, something excited it, which could only have been the front wheels.

It's shockingly poor engineering to have a car where a reasonable imperfection in front wheel balance (after all the car isn't a finely balanced sports model) can start such resonance. VAG had experience with the Cayenne and the Touareg so they should have sorted something so basic.

I'll explain that the arms are suspect to the dealer, but they'll tell me that they have to go through a procedure and then they'll doubtless blame the tyres, or, as they did during the wheel claim which went to litigation (I won) they'll blame the Polish people who washed the car on only two occasions.. I think dealers have a book that helps them come up with some excuse for any situation.

kkbma

Very interesting... I have the complete opposite experience: I have a 2007 Nissan Titan LE and have had nothing but problems with it/the dealer since before I took delivery. I am getting rid of it mainly because of the issues with the dealer (lying, stupidness, bad customer service all the way around). Ordered a 2010 Q7 this weekend - have had the absolute best buying experience with Audi than I have EVER had in my 47 years...

QuartzQ7

I've had the same issue but a shimmy, not as severe as you report. A "road force" balancing eliminated the problem. Others have indicated that the Q7 is very sensitive to wheel balancing issues.

***Cadmium***

I think that on vehicle balancing would be the best solution. If nothings out of balance then there'll be nothing to excite the harmonic vibration of the track rods... still crap engineering though...

To kkbma..... Don't listen to me moaning on about Audi. My buying experience was just amazing, so I bought the car in preference to X5 or Range Rover Sport. My ownership experience has been lamentable. I very soon dropped off the dealers map. When you transfer from the sales dept to the service dept things (in Coventry UK) change somewhat. My biggest issue is this.... I did a Physics degree... I restore old cars for a serious hobby. I weld, rebuild engines, I just converted my 76 Triumph Stag from an Auto to a manual transmission.

I tell you this to set the scene...

My dealer tells me that all four 20 spoke alloys are corroded after 2 years because I have used strong acid to clean them. I complain, they tell me the same again, I write to Audi, they say to go to the dealer. I try another dealer, they refer it to Audi, who say that the previous dealer is dealing with it, they then send out a warranty manager. He says it's not corrosion. I have it tested, it's Aluminium Oxide. They say it's because of strong cleaning solutions.... I say that strong cleaners are phosphoric acid based so it wouldn't be Aluminium Oxide and I have never used cleaner of any sort on the wheels other than washing the car weekly by hand.

They're not sure what to say. Eventually I go to small claims. They laugh Audi out of court. I get 4 new wheels. I also (along the way) got the pleasure of a stand up row in the dealers (which always works as they hate other customers hearing), I was called a "troublemaker", and, on presenting yet more evidence, was told that I'd driven through something (probably Aluminium Oxide) that had stuck to the wheels.

Anyway the wheels are $1100 each so it was worth winning. But when they swapped them over they took the old tyres off with a lever and bent the old wheels beyond recognition, forgetting that one of the wheels was mine and not original... (long story).... in the end I can take no more and have let it drop...

And that's without the "you can't replace your own brake pads Sir, you need to connect to the OBC to retract the pistons...." ... well not according to the Cayenne owners site, so I did it last weekend... took 2 hours for both sides....

So you'll tell that after the fabulous buying experience I wouldn't **** on the Audi if it were on fire....

And now it shakes ........

And my Nissan..... well goes like a stabbed rat, no turbo, no damned diesel, no lag, no faults..... obviously it has issues towing anything and seating more than 2, and in the current UK weather (below freezing) it's like a roller-skate on an ice rink.... but ;-)

So I'm sorry I sound jaded, annoyed, frustrated and generally Mr Negative, but Audi took a good car, a good customer, and managed to ****** defeat from the jaws of victory....

***Cadmium***

Anyone wanting to see the corrosion...

http://gallery.me.com/paul.ash/100468

kkbma

your audi experience is EXACTLY like my Nissan experience... Except even my buying experience with Nissan was bad. I am an engineer (and a woman by the way so I must not have a brain according to them) and ran into the same thing re: the check engine light and having it keep coming on - right after they supposedly fixed it - before I even left the lot - several times. I gave them a pretty straightforward reason why this might be happening, but they said nah, it isn't.... but it did end up being exactly what I told them. And the list goes on and on and on...

***Cadmium***

It's not a brand thing then, it's a dealer specific thing I guess.

The inability to assess the ability of the client and speak accordingly. And,as you say, once ones sex comes into it it just gets worse.... The way I found best to stop it was to ask questions and use words they found difficult. So when at 18 months they said the brake fluid needed changing, I asked why (a) the manual said 2 years and (b) why Audi had used such poor quality fluid in the first place. I threw the word Hygroscopic into the sentence at some point... then he leaned over the desk and said "up to you, but don't blame us when you apply the brakes and you just don't stop".

I will, I said, blame you within the next 6 months, your book says 2 years.

Grrrrrr

Anyway all the very best with your Q7... it's a great car as long as it's not the diesel one and you're no where near Coventry UK ;-)

Jusforfun

Those are "aftermarket" allbeit Audi split rims. Obviously whoever assembled them (or tried to dissassemble) used some sort of lubricant or adhesive during assembly that reacted with either the coating or the alloy itself.
I just read an old thread where you posted very good mileage from your first set of tyres. Do you know if they split them at that time?
BTW what have you got against the TDI engine? You have made several negative references to it within the thread.