# Vibration in Steering Wheel at Highway Speeds;



## Minulon (Dec 5, 2019)

Hello,

I have been experiencing vibration in my steering wheel at highway speeds since I bought the car.

Audi TT 2.0 TFSI 2011 S-Line with 34 000 miles

A little backstory;

I bought the car from *Audi CPO in July 2019*, after the first week I brought it back in because I noticed vibrations and the car pulling to the right, under warranty they *balanced the wheels and did an alignment*. 
Got the car back and noticed the steering wheel was not straight when driving straight, took it in again for 2 days and they *adjusted the electronic steering wheel* back to center under warranty once again.

The car was all fine but still at about 130-140 km/h (80-85 mph) the steering wheel was shaking *very very slightly* but went away at higher speeds, but that was not that weird I think, so I was happy.

Now I got myself 19 inch wheels with 2 new tyres and 2 used ones, same thing again vibrations at highway speed (starting from as low as 100 km/h or 60 mph). The same problem I had with my stock wheels that came with the car...

All 4 wheels were recently balanced so that shouldn't be the issue, I changed the rears to the front and front to rear; no difference in the vibrations... They are on cheap hub centric rings but I'm not sure that could be the cause of vibrations ? I can't think of anythng else at the moment from all that I've been reading online.
They also looked at the wheels during balancing and they said to me they rotate perfectly.

I'm sure that if there was a problem with my hubs or suspension etc the dealer would have told me about it at some point?

Now my question is, is it normal for the TT too have some shakes at speed ? I drove plenty of other cars and none really did that. For me it was quite an expensive car and I'm sad that I can't drive on the highway without having any vibrations [smiley=bigcry.gif]

Was not going to create a post for this but I'm really lost on what to do, going to dealers etc does cost a lot of money ...

Thanks in advance


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## Roller Skate (May 18, 2015)

Looking at the speeds when the vibration kicks in In I'd check none of the weights have fallen of since balancing.

It could be a list of things, I'd never trust Audi to do a wheel alignment, but that's just towards the bottom of what I'd trust Audi to do. The fact that you had to take the car back to have the steering wheel centred again ... for my money it could be that.

Mixed tyres? Cheap hub centric rings? Over inflated tyres? Under inflated tyres?

You really need to take it to an independent alignment centre, find an expert because all you're going to get is a list of best guesses on here.

Hope this helps.


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## Hoggy (May 8, 2002)

Hi, Not normal for any car to have vibes at those speeds. Do you have spacers fitted?
Get the front subframe bolts checked for correct torque.
Hoggy.


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## Knight-tts (Jan 29, 2019)

Mine vibrates a little from 75-80 mph been always like that even after new tyres fitted


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## SwissJetPilot (Apr 27, 2014)

Another unexpected cause is from tar and stones that can collect inside the wheel rim. I had a slight shimmy at a-bahn speeds, and sure enough, there was a tar covered stone stuck inside the wheel. Never hurts to pull the wheels off from time to time and give them good wash, detail and inspection for these sorts of issues.


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## MarksBlackTT (Nov 29, 2016)

Knight-tts said:


> Mine vibrates a little from 75-80 mph been always like that even after new tyres fitted


Definitely something wrong as steering shouldn't vibrate whatsoever at 75-80. Maybe an excuse for SLIGHT vibration at say 130-140 mph. Wheels unbalanced or weight come off? Tracking next.


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## Barr_end (Oct 19, 2016)

Wheel alignment Or unevenly worn, or not quite balanced tyres.
TT chassis is very sensitive, even the smallest amount of inaccuracy - poor balancer tolerance or slightly misplaced weights whilst fitting and you'll feel it. It's a pain really, but maybe worth taking the wheels else where with a known decent or road force balancer and then experimenting with speeds after this.


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## Tditt (Dec 9, 2019)

+1 for Bar_end's comment. I had the exact same problem. I went to three different garages to get mine balanced up, and each time they all said that the were out of balance but the problem remained after each re balance.

I then went to Halfords for hunter 4 wheel alignment and had the balancing done again as they said they were still out of balance. The car was worse than ever after that, so I went to a local independent place which balanced them yet again and the car is now perfect. I can only put the problem down to the balancing machines not being calibrated correctly at the other places.

It cost me a lot of wasted time and money, but it was simply incorrect balance all along.

Good luck getting it sorted.


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## carlsicesilverTT (Jun 30, 2016)

Sounds like wheel balancing.

I had exact same issue...bought tyres off a small chain internet tyre company years ago for the best price. However, their contracted garages were dives, the guys balancing equipment was not calibrated and the car was shaking bad.

Worse still when I went to kwikfit to get them balanced properly, they showed me that the wheels had been counter balanced against existing weights..a big no no!


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## Minulon (Dec 5, 2019)

Thanks for all the anwsers already, the first thing I'll do it go to a known tyre center to get all 4 rebalanced once again,* good to have confirmation the car shouldn't vibrate*. I don't have spacers but there are hub centric rings on the car, might order a new set just to rule out the bad hub centric rings.

I also find it weird that a CPO Audi car needs to get an alignment and steering wheel re centered now that I think about it, something must've happened to the car to mess up the alignment AND the steering wheel position I think ?

Going to get the balancing done tommorow and let's hope it is just that... I'll post an update asap.


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## Minulon (Dec 5, 2019)

Went to the tyre center and indeed there are 2 wheels that are very slightly bent, so going to get those fixed and I'm really hoping that makes me comfortable on the highway :?

Weird that none of the previous centers even noticed the wobble when balancing, even I could see it but oh well, glad it's just the wheel and nothing wrong with the car itself, that would be horrible.


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## Taylortony (Feb 10, 2012)

Mine used to come in about 80 MPH Audi did it for free under warranty but test drove it to 70 as they are forbidden to test above that, I waited until I got back on the track :lol: and checked it, it was fine... remember you could have a disc out of balance, that could be a reason balancing a wheel does not get rid of it, it might be an idea to take the wheel off turn it a bit and put it back on to get the optimum wheel to disc balance.


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## Hadaak (Dec 25, 2008)

happened to me way in 2011/2012 with new 19 replica rims. Was balanced 3 times by the rim/tyre seller. Still vibrated at 140km/h. A forum member on the Golf R32 forum gave a garage address in Paris. The guy took his time and did it right. No vibrations after that.


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## Minulon (Dec 5, 2019)

Hadaak said:


> happened to me way in 2011/2012 with new 19 replica rims. Was balanced 3 times by the rim/tyre seller. Still vibrated at 140km/h. A forum member on the Golf R32 forum gave a garage address in Paris. The guy took his time and did it right. No vibrations after that.


Yea it really seems not every tyre shop is the same quality in terms of balancing, it's like you have to be lucky to have it done right :lol:


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## 0ggie66 (Jan 9, 2020)

Hi Minulon
Did you get anything resolved on the vibrations?
Cheers
Andy


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## Minulon (Dec 5, 2019)

0ggie66 said:


> Hi Minulon
> Did you get anything resolved on the vibrations?
> Cheers
> Andy


Oh man I totally forgot about the post after the first few days, I have never gotten the problem fixed. Some days it was way worse than other days on the exact same roads, had them balanced countless times and it all looked well in spec on the machine every time. To this day I still have no idea what the issue could've been.


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## wsantos (Sep 7, 2020)

0ggie66 said:


> Hi Minulon
> Did you get anything resolved on the vibrations?
> Cheers
> Andy


I had the same issue with my 2008 FWD model. The car seems to be very sentive so after many attempts I found a couple of local garages that I can rely on for balancing the wheels. I couldn't find anyone in the area (West/South Yorkshire) using the Hunter Road Force Variation balancer which seems to be the most reliable system. Have you looked into this?

I had the issue on stock wheels and on a custom set that I fitted last year. Managed to resolve the issue eventually in both scenarios. 

I'm running 17“ wheels and settled on 32 psi (front) and 27 (rear) which also seem to have helped.

Good luck. 

Sent from my SM-G996B using Tapatalk


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## SwissJetPilot (Apr 27, 2014)

*Are your “tire dots” where they should be?*

Tire manufacturers recommend the correct positioning of the *red and yellow dots* with respect to certain “landmarks” on both steel and alloy wheels. These dots can be used to mount tires for optimum initial balance and minimum ride disturbance – where the dots go depends on which dots – and which wheels you have.

First, if the tire has a red dot, the yellow dot is ignored! The red dot is then lined up with either the “low point dimple” (on steel wheels) or next to the valve stem on alloy wheels. Regardless of the type of wheel, if there is no red dot, the yellow dot is positioned next to the valve stem.

Why do the *tire dots* go where they do?

Simply put – the tire is a bit lighter in the area where the yellow dot is located, and a bit thicker where the red dot is located. On an alloy wheel, the valve stem marks the heavy point of the wheel. By matching the light point of the tire with the heavy point of the wheel it’s likely to give the best initial balance.

On a steel wheel the low point dimple marks the thinner part of the wheel – so it makes sense to match the red dot to the wheel dimple. Abiding by these guidelines results in a precise – uniform placing and usage of wheel weights when balancing your vehicle’s tires.


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## wsantos (Sep 7, 2020)

Interesting point, I never thought the dots were related to this. I just assumed they were part of the production quality assurance process. The trouble is that they vanish quite quickly and by the time I moved the tyres onto my new wheel set, the dots had disappeared. But I'll keep this in mind next time I get new tyres. 

Sent from my SM-G996B using Tapatalk


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