s3 alloys on fwd a3, juddering baddly on dual carriageway past 45mph

[marshall-12]

hi guys,


as said i have a problem, i recently bought a set of audi s3 alloys 8l off my mate and have put them on my car, my a3 is a fwd if that makes any difference to fitment.
only seems to happen on the dual carriageways and only when im accelerating past 45, when i let off the accelerator it does judder a bit but no way near as much.


now, i know what your thinking.. wheel balance. his car was involved in a crash so possibly even bent or nackered wheels. but this morning i went to kwik fit and had them all balanced with no issues at all. if they where bent in any way they would have shown on the balanceing?


my front brakes however, are quite bad, they scrap and are pritty much metal on metal (i have ordered a new set of grooved disks and mintex pads which are on the way) could this be my problem?
i only really noticed they where this bad when i took my old wheels off and noticed how low my pads where and the nice groove on the back of the disk. and tbh, they have got a lot worse since i bought the car a couple weeks ago.


but i never had this problem with my old wheels?..


ive also checked tyre sizes, all the same, the rotations are on the right way, though 1 tyre just says outside with no arrow. im guessing that just means the tyre has to be facing outside.


im pritty sure its not a missfire, engine sounds fine and accelerates. just seems to be at its worse in 5th accelerating past 45 on some sort of carriageway i dont really notice anything on normal roads even past 50.


its defo coming from the front, im not running spacers, its not lowered though its a sport so -20 mm standard i think.


any help/advice is much appreciated i really dont know what this is :/

 

[S3featesV9]

do you still have your old wheels? if so, put them back on and see if juddering stops or not.

could check your engine mounts too. as when your in 5th the load is greater, maybe causing this issue.

 

[vfr800]

Hi

I had S3 8L wheels on my A3 8L for about 7 years and had no trouble except the car ate through standard suspension bushes like there was no tomorrow.

S3 alloys are wider, perhaps if there's a bent wishbone or subframe the wider wheel is amplifying a problem you don't usually notice? (i'm just guessing)

Do your normal tyres wear evenly?

Have you had the tracking/alignment done?

Liam

 

[marshall-12]

hi guys thanks for replys.

what would swapping wheels back suggest the problem though? as balancing was done on my s3 alloys with no problems.

my tracking is out, my steering wheels isnt that straight. could that be it though? causing juddering?

 

[vfr800]

go get the alignment done and you'll find out - you'll be knackering your tyres anyway if you don't.

 

[marshall-12]

yeah i guess, end of the day alignment needs doing, but i dont want to be wasting money on something i cant sort if you get me.

 

[vfr800]

How are you wasting money by getting the alignment sorted? if, by your own admission, the alignment is out and the steering wheel isn't straight then you'll be throwing money away on tyres.

It's only going to cost £20-£30 to get the alignment done. How much is a tank of fuel or pair of tyres?

Oh BTW I forgot to mention - careful on the brakes with the S3 alloys. I found that they're far far heavier than the original A3 wheels and they will cause serious brake fade a lot earlier. Or at least that's my experience with standard A3 brakes.

Good luck.

 

[marshall-12]

i ment as in i wasted money on tracking. theyve only just gone on, tracking will get done. i just dont want to have to sell them.
i cant see how alignment would sort the juddering though?

yeah ive noticed that already with the brakes! lol

 

[vfr800]

I dunno. In my head I can see how it might, and if it were me I'd get the tracking done now, but hopefully someone who knows what they're talking about will pipe up and offer a knowledgable opinion.

I tried new fluid, discs and uprated pads but I think it just needs a better/bigger brake setup with those wheels.

 

[marshall-12]

i cant get tracking done till next week due to work, i think im gonna put my my old wheels on, see if its still there :/ really annoying, i love these wheels hope i dont have to get rid.

ive got grooved disks on the way with mintex pads.

 

[666markyboy]

If the car they came off was involved in a crash i'm gona say there's something wrong with the wheels... i once had a set of wheels that would vibrate when on the motorways ... no end of balancing or moving them to different places on the car would fix it... in the end i took them to i guy who's hobby is motorsport and he has a bit of an allo wheel buisness too... he inspected them properly before balancing them and it turned out they wern't buckled but actually had flat spots on the rim.... his way of explaining it was imagine your wheel is a fifty pence peice ... you can balance them perfectly and they dont look buckled but once you get to a certain speed it's like bouncing up and down.... get them to spin the wheels on the machine and look at the inside edge of the rim as this is the weakest point of the wheels... i'll bet their either egg shaped of have flat spots... he blamed speed humps being hit at speed in our heavy cars

 

[marshall-12]

wow really :/
ill change them over tomoz, if the problem hasn't gone i suppose i'll have to look into getting rid on the low.
shame, i really like them :/

 

[Dan-Jnr]

I agree with putting your old wheels on and seeing the juddering is still there.
To me that would prove there is a problem with the wheels.

 

[Jimgrim77]

Put it on a rolling road. Test for buckling.

 

[marshall-12]

hey guys, i checked behind my wheels before work when i noticed quite a big shine from passenger front, theres 60 grams of weights in there :/ 15 on drivers side, none at all on the rear.

60 is alot, as thats the side that is juddering, they have either messed up, or lied to me when they said that everything is fine and that its buckled

quite annoyed tbh