sasha@lazytrips Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Good morning all, I know that this is a question on a non-z car, but with the knowledge around here I thought I'd ask anyway. The wifemobile is a 3.2 V6 Audi TT Mk 2 (the newer type). Everything about the car appears fine except one problem that has recently arisen. When driving under 50, there are absolutely no issues whatsoever. Nothing noticeable at all. When driving at 50-70, a tiny vibration begins in the footwell - no other signs. When driving at 70 (and very much more obvious at 80 - obviously not on public roads), the steering wheel and footwell begin vibrating considerably. Hard to tell if the rest of the car is also vibrating and where it's coming from other than the footwell and steering wheel vibrating more. Now, the car has been to a number of garages including Audi who appear clueless as to what the issue is. All tyres have been carefully checked, all wheels fully balanced. The rears & the fronts are the same, so these were swapped round, but the exact same problem persists. The front brakes are virtually brand new with new Audi discs & yellowstuff pads. The rears are fairly worn, but these cause absolutely no issues at lower speeds and nothing under braking. The rear discs have a small lip, but aren't close to rubbing and are not warped. I was gonna book the car into another garage for this coming Saturday, but before it goes there, I was wondering if anybody can think of what the issue could be ahead of that. People have looked underneathe the car, at the suspension, etc. Everything appears to be absolutely fine and other than the vibration (pretty hard vibration at 80), there are absolutely no other symptoms. The car does not pull to one side (even when vibrating), etc. Any thoughts would be extremely appreciated. Got to take the car to Europe in two weeks' time and can't take the zed as will need the use of rear seats once we get there, so time is precious. Thanks much in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BulletMagnet Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Surprised the wife is complaining about a V6 powered vibrator... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogyRev Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Are any of the under trays loose? I see loads of cars on the motorway with wild flapping plastic underneath and always think to myself how people can not notice a difference Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 My guess would be the tyres. Even if the wheels are balanced you can still get a tyre that's out of round and can cause the same issues. Get back to Audi and get them to physically swap the wheels with another set from another TT, at least that way you rule out it being anything to do with the wheels/tyres if it doesn't solve the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted October 11, 2011 Author Share Posted October 11, 2011 My guess would be the tyres. Even if the wheels are balanced you can still get a tyre that's out of round and can cause the same issues. Get back to Audi and get them to physically swap the wheels with another set from another TT, at least that way you rule out it being anything to do with the wheels/tyres if it doesn't solve the issue. Hm. I wonder if sticking my 19'' rota gtr's will do. Audi will charge me for just looking at them and the local garage might be a better bet here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzee Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 May or may not help, but try searching the model of your car in google. I found a few things, but not associated to 3.2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted October 11, 2011 Author Share Posted October 11, 2011 May or may not help, but try searching the model of your car in google. I found a few things, but not associated to 3.2. That's the issue here. Did that, went on the specific forums, etc. No help other than "balance the wheels". I'll see if I can swap the wheels round this weekend. The problem is that there are around 950 of these cars in the whole country and a lot of the parts are completely different to all other TT models (including brakes, suspension parts, etc) - making it much more difficult to diagnose. It actually sucks knocking that your wife's TT is some 6x more rare than your zed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasso Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I had a similar problem with an Opel Manta years ago, although that was rear wheel drive and as such the problem was diagnosed as the Uj joint on the drive shaft. Problem would only occur between 60-90mph over 100mph and the problem went. This was of course on a track Not sure what drive the TT has? I would have thought rwd or if it's a quatro? Just seems the same problem as I had, but then tyre's seem the most likely place to start? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebized Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 If it is still under warranty insist on the car being checked by one of Audi GB's fault finders, rather than the dealer's technicians. If it is out of warranty but you reported the problem to the dealer before expiry, they should still do that. I have no idea about the Audi mechanicals but I assume it is a 4 x 4 model - is one (or more) of the props out of balance maybe. I assume all the suspension bushes, engine/gearbox mounts have been thoroughly checked - something that is not always clear from a cursory inspection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ace Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 My brother has the exact same car with the exact same problem it's an 08 V6 TT he has just had a new set of very expensive tyres put on it and the steering has a very slight niggly shake at 80ish he's had the wheels balanced 5 times at different garages they have all found the balancing out so I have suggested to him that the problem must either be he's gone down a pot hole and the alloy can be slightly out of shape or he has a duff tyre the only way of finding your problem is as mentioned above try and get two wheels off another car and try them to see if you still have the shake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R35LEE Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Very good advice here. If you cant use 2 other wheels then swap the rears to the front and vice versa and see if the problem moves to the rear of the car My brother has the exact same car with the exact same problem it's an 08 V6 TT he has just had a new set of very expensive tyres put on it and the steering has a very slight niggly shake at 80ish he's had the wheels balanced 5 times at different garages they have all found the balancing out so I have suggested to him that the problem must either be he's gone down a pot hole and the alloy can be slightly out of shape or he has a duff tyre the only way of finding your problem is as mentioned above try and get two wheels off another car and try them to see if you still have the shake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 The rears & the fronts are the same, so these were swapped round, but the exact same problem persists. He's already tried swapping the wheels around I can't believe that the now sadly defunct V6s use completely different wheels to the rest of the TT range, as long as the wheels clear the calipers they'll be fine for test purposes. I wouldn't use Zed wheels as they're staggered, and you say that the TT tyres/wheels are identical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R35LEE Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I should have read all the thread then Where are you in the country Sasha? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted October 11, 2011 Author Share Posted October 11, 2011 The car is in Nottingham. I'm sure I can figure out some wheels somewhere to go for a test run. I did the swap between the fronts and the rears, but nothing changed, so although it could be a tyre issue as it seems most likely, it may well be a joint somewhere which they just haven't spotted. I would presume that if it was a tyre issue, swapping wheels round would make it feel different, but it didn't. It could be one of the joints and I might ask the guys at the local garage to have a very close look at all the bushes & joints this coming saturday. Unlikely to be any part of the driveshaft or engine or anything like that as the car also does this in neutral and when you give it the beans at low speeds, there are no signs. So it's got to be wheels, tyres, some joints somewhere, suspension or some bushes really, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daryl Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Could it be wheel bearing? Just reading all the responses,and see the wheels have been swapped over,the suspension checked etc. Jack the car up at the front drivers side,and see if you can wobble the wheel at all at the top and bottom. Would only take a tasty bang into the kerb or a pot hole to damage the wheel bearing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ace Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 reading your first thread again I see you have had new discs and brakes fitted so did you have the problem before you had these fitted as you could possibly have a disc not balanced I know there from Audi but they could be out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted October 11, 2011 Author Share Posted October 11, 2011 reading your first thread again I see you have had new discs and brakes fitted so did you have the problem before you had these fitted as you could possibly have a disc not balanced I know there from Audi but they could be out. Thinking about it, that could be an issue - problems started pretty soon after the brakes were changed, so that'll be worth checking although there aren't any braking issues that you can sense. But might be that - booked the car in for a week today & will relay this as a potential issue. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK350Z Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 You didn't say in the first post that you have had a decent alignment check done. Have you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waltzinblack Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 You didn't say in the first post that you have had a decent alignment check done. Have you? +1 I've been having a similar problem in the Zed, and was told it was probably balancing or if not alignment or geometry. I sure hope it's not a wheel bearing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted October 11, 2011 Author Share Posted October 11, 2011 You didn't say in the first post that you have had a decent alignment check done. Have you? +1 I've been having a similar problem in the Zed, and was told it was probably balancing or if not alignment or geometry. I sure hope it's not a wheel bearing Spoke to two tyre places and a couple of people came in the car. All said that the alignment is unlikely to have this kind of an issue without the car pulling or any other effects. :s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff-r Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Audi's with funny noises mine's had funny noises for ages, I should post a thread up and see what suggestion I get Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ace Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 reading your first thread again I see you have had new discs and brakes fitted so did you have the problem before you had these fitted as you could possibly have a disc not balanced I know there from Audi but they could be out. Thinking about it, that could be an issue - problems started pretty soon after the brakes were changed, so that'll be worth checking although there aren't any braking issues that you can sense. But might be that - booked the car in for a week today & will relay this as a potential issue. Thank you! The discs may be true in running so no shaking will be felt under braking but all discs are balanced from the makers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ace Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 You didn't say in the first post that you have had a decent alignment check done. Have you? +1 I sure hope it's not a wheel bearing when wheel bearings start to go normally there's a dronning you will hear not a shake I'm pretty sure it's not a bearing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetSet Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Could be a joint, even the slightest movement within the joint will set off a vibration. If possible get under the car and check for any play. Usually the car becomes undriveable after a thousand miles or so. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 car's gonna go for another full inspection on Tuesday and hopefully they'll find what the issue is. Got an Audi garage very close by, so hopefully can get whatever bits need replacing fairly promptly too. Thanks much guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.