kariya

Hey guys,

I have an '09 A3 with quattro. I have been experiencing some vibration from the front driver side when I go pass 120 km/hr.

I brought it in to two dealerships; went to Uptown and they told me I had an out of round tire and recommended that I replace a tire plus get an alignment. I insisted that they swap a set of tire from one of their A3's to be sure its a tire issue. Anyway, I brought it back a second time, the manager took it out for a test driver and they retracted from their original diagnosis and he told me there is nothing wrong with the tires.

Not satisfied with the outcome, I went to another dealership, they told me my tires ARE out of round.

Needless to say, I will not be going back to Uptown in the future. Just wanted to see if anyone is having the same problem.

wirebeans

I don't like Uptown, I work 5 min from them and I will never take my car to them for any type of service. 2 weeks ago I was in a hurry heading out to Montreal, my oil light came on.... That was 5:50 and I went to Uptown thinking they are the closest to me, got there 5:55. The reception girl told me all the service guys are gone. I told her my oil light just came on and only needed a quart of oil, no one cared ??? I ask the sales guys and the sales manager and they told me they don't have access to motor oil !!!

I will bet any amount if their own car has low oil they be able to find a quart of oil in the dealership.

Just plain erogan, I will not be doing any business with them period

PwrDriftr

You may just want to get your tires rebalanced. I'd try that and see how it goes. It's much cheaper than buying new tires.

wirebeans

X2

if the dealer won't do it out of courtesy, don't go back to them, any tire shop will do balancing for 10 bucks a tire

kariya

They rebalanced the tires the first time. Did not fix it.

OH9EH4

i'm having the same problem on my 09 A4. Got my tires balanced 2 days ago and at about 110 i still fee vibration. i'm thinking alignment nexy...

I wouldn't just go to any shop to get the tires balanced. Get them road forced balanced. Uptown did mine. I had a guy do them in Markham when I swapped out my winters and he did a terrible job (hence I went to Uptown for road force...)

wirebeans

If the tires don't balance, than the tire is either out of round or it's cupped, happens quite often, not sure if it is the way the suspension is set up on these vehicles but a lot of people seems to have similar problem from vibration to howling (my case) and once I changed to new tires the problem seems to be gone.

I know tires aren't cheap but you can always sale the used tire for some money in classifieds.

Not sure if the dealer actually balanced it right though, take it to a tire place and have them go test drive with you and get a 2nd opinion.

while getting the tire balanced is a must, but also have them watch for bent spots, you never know if the rims are bent on the inside with the roads in GTA.

The only way to be 100% sure is to take the tire off, inspect the rims and then re-mount and balance, also high speed balance is a must otherwise you may experience vibration at high speed. With that out of the way if you are still getting vibration then it may be a linkage problem with steering wheel rack and pinion.

OH9EH4

so alignment would do jack....

wirebeans

Unless your car is doing right turn or left turns on its own, the alignment is not the issue

Cost is $90-120 to do an alignment depending on who you go to.

I think its a tire issue, it should be included in the first year warranty so don't take no for an answer, go to another Audi dealer if you can.

kariya

So to recap, Uptown does not think I have a tire issue (out of round). The car was bought from them.

I went to another dealership which says my tires are out of round.

I started this thread to see if any A3 owners were experiencing vibration issues.

Wirebeans: I see on another thread that you were having issues with out of round tires
(P6). So it seems as though, it might be a common A3 problem regardless of the tire brand as I have Continentals on mine.