OK...like many of you, my area got hit with some of that wonderful white stuff. No not that stuff...the snow and ice stuff. Anyway, the excellent municpal services of my town managed to plow us all in again. We dug out as much as we could, but since it was laywered snow and ice...it was impossible to shovel it all. I shoveled most of it away, but still had some to "rock" over. I spun my wheels a couple of times but I was able to get out. Once I made it to the highway, I noticed that I felt vibrations (approx. 50mph) and it got increasingly worse at 60 and 80 respectively.

I run winter tires on steel rims in the winter. I didn't hit anything and there hasn't been any vibrations prior to my getting out of the snow pit this morning. When driving, the car stays pretty much in a straight line for about 20-30 yards before it starts to pull slightly to the right. Could I have bent a tie rod or something????? Any insight would be appreciated.

-Mickey
01' A-4 Quattro.

 

might just be a build-up of snow-ice on the inside of the rim. It amazing how a little snow can cause vibrations but it does.

 

It's just snow unless you smacked a curb. Run it through the car wash or hose off the rims and take it for a drive.

 

OK...I'll check again. I had taken a quick look to see if I could see any build up behind and insidethe wheel, but I didn't see anything. Then again, I didn't exactly get down and check from under the car. I'll take another look.

Thanks,
Mickey

 

it takes next to nothing to throw off the balance of a wheel, either you have some snow inside your rim, or while spinning in the snow you knocked off some of your balance weights.

 

+1 on snow/ice in the wheels. Try to get it taken care of ASAP because over time it can damage your wheel bearings.

 

same thing happens to me... starts to happen whenever i go over 80km/h (50mph) and gets worse... i do have a lot of snow around the wheels and in the rim area... i did a lot of hard snow driving lately (fun stuff)

 

Yeah, that's what it was alright. I got under there and found a small amount of ice inside the back of the rim and knocked it loose. I would never have believed that little (about 3-4 ice cubes in size) would have effected the balance that much!!! Thanks for putting my mind at ease.

-Mickey

 

no problem

 

It is most definetly just snow stuck inside your wheels throuwing off the alance, pull over somehwere and just knock it out with a snow brush. i had the same problem, scared the hel out of me.