Need help with a vibraton issue at highway speed

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So, for the last 75k miles, the Audi has has a steering wheel and body vibration at speeds of 55mph and up. I've only tried to get it up to 90+ once to see if the vibration subsides, but it only vibrated at a more rapid frequency. The symptom is that the steering wheel will oscilate slightly back and forth when driving straight forward, but it feels like when it is turned in either direction the vibration goes away. Unfortunately, I cannot release the wheel when turning to see if it vibrates like I do when going straight. The car does shake a bit and it feels like a side to side shake for the most part, but on a cold morning for the first drive it feels more like an up and down shake. Once warmed up, it goes back to the side to side.

I've replaced all of the control arms with quality units, and that includes ball joints and bushings. Just had an alignment and tires have less than 8k miles on them and have been rotated once with no change. Both of the front driveshafts are new units and the motor mounts are less than a year old. Brake pads and rotors have less than 10k miles on them. I've even replaced the front hubs and bearings with no luck. The only thing that made any real difference was that my worn out winter tires did make the shake a bit worse, but one of those tires did have a belt separation. The front shocks are new, also, but I kept the OE springs.

The car tracks straight and the new tires don't show any unusual wear in those 8k miles, so I'm at the end of the list of possible culprits. About the only thing that I haven't replaced is the brake calipers and brackets, so I'm thinking about doing that. The shake used to increase at the first application of the brakes when coming down from highway speed, but just at the point where the pads first start to contact the rotor. When firmly applied the shake would be the same as it was at speed, until I slowed enough that I got below 50mph.

Both sets of rims are the Audi OE ones, and they are all confirmed true. The current tires with 8k miles were Road Force balanced when new, and all were under the limit of force. They did not make an improvement.

Anyone have any other suggestions on what to look for? I'm all out of ideas here and would really like to cure this problem. The car used to be a real good highway cruiser until this shake started.
 
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Inner/ outer tie rods, steering rack bushings, rack itself? Don't count on "I shoved it and it was tight" particularly if not at ride height. The ball and socket can tighten up when the car's in the air and the suspension is hanging unnaturally.

What happens if you deflate the tires, temporarily, to "mush" levels...eg 20 psi?

What size tires are we talking about?

What if you accellerate to 70, throw it in neutral, and coast down through 55?
 
I knew I'd forget to list something. Both inner and outer TRE are new, but the rack is still the original. All three bolts are tight on the rack. Changed the fluid a year or so ago and no difference.

I can certainly try to lower tire pressure and see what happens. Will that just mute the shaking and confirm something? The tires are 235/45/17 97V Goodyear Eagle GTs.

I will also try the neutral trick. Would that point towards the trans and diff or even the prop shaft? The prop shaft is a two piece design with a bearing support in the middle.
 
I had a friend with a PU truck with the same symptoms. It drove him crazy opver several years. Finally had the drive shaft balanced and it all went away.
 
I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that, but it's not unheard of in the A6 community to have prop shafts replaced because of the bearing wearing out.
 
Originally Posted By: SubLGT
This may be helpful:

http://tires.about.com/od/Tire_Safety_Maintenance/a/Help-My-Car-Shakes-And-Nobody-Knows-Why.htm


I lol'd at this: In the steering wheel = can be anything.

Apparently I have a gremlin-infested car.
grin.gif
 
So on the drive home yesterday, I ran it up to 75 and on the off ramp dropped it into neutral and there was no change. I'm assuming that this rules out any transmission or front/center differential issues?
 
If you havent already, you might want to find an Audi forum to see if other owners have similar vibration problems and what they found for a fix.
 
Had the opportunity to set the psi on the fronts down to 20 from the normal 32, but the shake remains. I can feel it less in the steering wheel, but it is still felt through the body of the car as it was before.

Diagnostically speaking, does this mean anything?
 
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