2013 BE Avant - Chassis Alignment Issues

I have had my A4 from new and have had a few issues with the car steering to the left with the steering wheel straight. Audi have had the car back a number of times to check the alignment and despite th rear toe being out of tolerance have advised there is nothing wrong with the alignment and as such refused to adjust.

As part of this I have consequently noted that the car doesnt quite look symetrical and have measured that the offside is shorter than the nearside by 20mm give or take from the front wheel arch to rear. In addition the nearside wheels are aligned front to rear but the rear offside wheel is 20mm offset from the front into the chassis. I picked this up as I could never get both sides of the car parallel to a parking space at the same time.

Has anybody had any kind of alignment issues with the faceliffted avants?

I initially thought that getting all four wheels set up correctly would sort the car steering to the left but now it looks like there is a more fundamental problem. Audi have the car back next week-to what end Im not sure but they have been a real nightmare to deal with and have demostrated extremely poor customer service. Im therefore looking at escalating the issue to Audi UK while at the same time seek independant verification of the alignment issues. Anybody have any experience of tackling Audi UK? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Mike

Well the plot thickens! Audi had the car for a day and according to their investigation found nothing wrong with either the wheel alignment or the chassis alignment and didn't do anything to the car except now it drives straighter with the steering wheel straight.

Admittedly I was expecitng the response I received from Audi but seeing the car in daylight they have definately done something to it! Based on their alignment measurements, they are all now almost perfectly within tolerance. They must have forgotten that I saw the previous measurments on the screen when they did the previous alignment and the rear toe on both sides was very much in the red.

The left side which was longer is now not longer as it's the same length as the right side. How they've managed it I don't know but the car looks a lot more symetrical than it did and can now actually be parked straight! (seriously, don't laugh but it is very true).

Does anybody have any idea how this realignment could have been acheived on an A4?

Myself and a colleague who are both experienced engineers have been left scratching our heads as we wouldn't have expected it to be possible to reduce one side by 20mm. In fact the more I think about the possibilities or lack there-of the more I think it must be some kind of optical illusion, except the measurements don't lie and both my wife and I also measured the car with the same result.

If Audi had turned round and said that they had found a problem and fixed it to the best of their ability I would be reasonably happy but the fact they have kept played dumb gives me cause for concern. The only explanantion they did give me as to why the car would effectively steer to the left was that two of the four tyres were manufactured during a different week to the other two! I must look like an idiot because they certainly like to treat me as such. I've never heard aything like it in my life....

Photo's of each side taken back in April. The lines for the parking space are perfectly parallel as well...

Drew Baby said:

quite how they can re jig the car to visually alter the car then deny doing anything is amazing, no wonder people loose faith
regards Andrew

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Hi Andrew, thanks for your reply. I've been stunned by Audi's attitude throughout following taking delivery of the car. Apparently the choice phrase to use to give them some incentive is 'lost faith in Audi'. With regards to the tyres, they swapped them around to put the ones that were manufactured on the same weeks together (front/rear). The fact that the fronts were worn equally and that the rears were worn to a different level from the left tyre to right seems to me to be the wrong thing to do. I'm going to get them to change the tyres back to their original positions...