Jacking problem

paddy

paddy

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I have owned my S3 for 15 years, its been plagued with a problem from new which i think could apply to any Audi or any car.
It sometimes has a dangerous speed wobble . usually at bang on 80mph. It can be so bad it pushes the pads back in the calipers and causes a very heavy juddering on the brakes as well. on one occasion it was so bad i couldn't hold the wheel , basically what a motorcyclist would call a tank slapper.
over the years we have changed bushes and bearings, discs and even had the wheels refurbished a trued. Its always worse when it been in the garage but it will settle down over about 500-1000 miles. No one has ever got the bottom of it in 15 years.
This week i had new discs and callipers fitted to the rear and a fluid change. its now got to the the stage where the garage knows not to touch the front as it will really upset it :) Sure enough the car is drivable under 80 but darn right dangerous above. (it will drive through it)
I went hack the garage and asked them did they take the front wheels of ? , no they said we even bled the front calipers from the inside.
We are pretty sure now its jacking the car up and letting the wheels dangle as they do in a tire change. it will take 500 miles now to settle down. Of course it doesnt effect everyday driving but motorways are a nightmare.
I just wondered if anyone else has had this problem on any other model.
 
I've seen this behaviour once on a mk4 golf.. and the problem was abs kicking in on the account of a deformed abs wheel ring (that partly ddamaged a wheel sensor) on the NS front... I replaced the lot on both sides and the problem never came back. you might have the same but a garage would have seen a damaged ABS sensor... not so much a deformed ABS wheel ring if they don't take the lot apart. So you might have the same problem.. but the side that had the problem also had a lot of rusty bits stuck to the abs sensor... and the car was around 16 years old when it started acting up so you might have the same..

again a deformed abs ring isn't something you can notice if the lot is still assembled, and with how the ABS wheel ring is on most audi's it means a new wheel bearing as on most audi's it's part of the wheel bearing.
 
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many thanks for that, its exactly the sort of idea that i haven't thought of. I have changed both the ABS rings on the rear as both put up a fault code and dash light. I have changed both front wheel bearings but i dont know if they included the rings. I know on the rears the Rings were not part of the wheel bearings as i changed the bearings but the rings when they went were original
 
Sorry yes the Ring is part of the wheel bearing and i have replaced all 4, i was thinking of the ABS sensor that reads the ring. I replaced both of those.
 
got me thinking maybe it's electrical? but if it is that means it's intermittent ( eventhough it does it at the same speed all the time) and it should log a faultcode in the ecu.
 
What baffles me is its to do with the wheels hanging then put back down and it cures itself about 80% after a few hindered miles but its always there.

Last time i had new VBT discs on the front and it was terrible. We took them off and got then skimmed and the guy made a mess of it, obviously never turned cast iron before. Bought another set of stock Audi discs and no better
I have always been chasing out of balance and its only now i have linked it to jacking the car and leaving the wheels hanging.
 
One more thing pops to mind and that is your powersteering rack... either it needs fresh oil, or a software update.... or, and this might be strange, a problem caused by the CIM module... all of which should be checked with VCDS and i hate to say it if you need a software update probably the dealer can help you at an extortinate rate, or someone that has the right update and offers it as a service.
I hope for you it's not the worst case: "chassis flex" that means your car has been in a serious accident or very poorly assembled at the factory... or one (or more) of the engine mounts has gone in particular the one that is holding the gearbox in it's place or the 2 top ones (left and right of the engine)
 
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Thanks, all ideas welcome
I did run VCDS on it yesterday just in case its mad wobble on Friday had thrown up anything but all clear.
I bought this new, its never had an accident , from memory i would say its been doing this for about 100k miles so it started at 40k miles and about 4 years old.
 
steering rack is electric.
I just looked back through the bills and i have an idea this started about the time i had an Ebach spring kit fitted, i think they were front only and dropped it about 20mm ? might be worth trying a set of std springs ?.
 
well i didn't think about that, give it a go... see if it goes away... and whilst your swapping the springs check the shockabsorbers still work as they should.
 
Problems like this really get me. Garages wont get involved as they dont want to replicate a problem at 80mph and where i live you would have to do a 12 miles round trip to even find a stretch of 70mph road.
The other problem is its nearly always try it and see so i could buy new shocks or new springs or a new rack and get nowhere. i could change all the bushes and get nowhere.
I could buy a new car but who thinks a new S3 is worth £55k ?...lol and nowhere near the quality of the 8p.
I took it this morning as its sunny and dry down a good bit of road and i can feel the steering " rattle", its not bad but on a smooth bit of tarmac if you ran over a bit of small shingle it would rattle the steering wheel almost like its lose on its spline. (its not) The whole steering is "alive", it picks up everything on the road almost like there is play in something. Maybe i am just over thinking it :)
As a contrast my Vivaro has dead smooth steering like it has a damper mechanism, its pretty near perfect and while it has feed back from the road with resistance its doesnt have even half the sensitivity of the A3 with imperfection on the road surface.
 
It was running EAGLE F1 ASYMMETRIC but i changed to Falken last time in case it was the Asymmetric bit causing the problem.
The change did make it pretty awful but it calmed down after a few 100 miles. Its only now that i have twigged it could be the wheels hanging on the lift as its gone this time without the front wheels being touched, just lifted and put back down.

yes i does have spacers 10mm front 12mm back but i took them off and it didnt make any difference.
 

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well if the wheels being left dangling, causes it to act like that and not the schock/spring combo than it's chassis flex that somehow messes with it... and the onlything that is affected is the steeringrack.... maybe some wiring is the cause since yours is electrical.... weird that is's speed dependant for it to show up but if the wirigloom somehow is pinched it might be the reason
 
Well if i ever find the solution i will post it here so bookmark this page..............but dont hold your breath. :)
 
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