ok well to keep it short (or shorter than I had it b4) I was told by the Audi dealer it was the Outer Tie Rod Ends. I did them myself the other day after picking two of them up at Vast Performance and I swear I have a whole new car. I know what I've been missing now

 

Oh and yeah i had the same problem around 45+mph. It was getting pretty bad. Dont wait on it. Im so happy now

 

Excellent, Glad you got it sorted out! Enjoy the ride.

 

For one Nitto make some of the best tires on the open market- contis= garbage. I switched from GY GDS3's never had a problem with them either. A little more "grippy" than the Nittos but much more noisy. TheInvo's combine the quietness of the Conti"s with the grip of the GY F1's (wellalmost anyway).

This problem started with all the OEM crap on there so the arguement of the wheels not being oem are causing the problem makes no sense to me. The soft compound that is used to make the OEM wheels are part of the problem. The wheels I have (RS6 Replicas)have been tested for "trueness"- (3 times now)they are good, wheels and tires are not the problem here. The problem with the car is somewhere in the suspension- not the wheels.

I'm starting to get the shimmy again after less than 1k miles. So after replacing ALL the control arms (5 per side) and replacing the bent wheels, I'm getting the shimmy again. AARRGGHH. So what now? Tie rods? Shocks? Aside from the power steering componants there isn't anything else on there that isn't new. I'm starting to think I should just trade and eat the loss. This crap ain't cheap!!!

 

Maybe those tires are not as good as you think. I'm telling you, I've had the same expirence as you. Spent thousands to replace all the suspension components, and it always ended up being the tires. I put 114,000 miles on that C5. Never had a set go much over 25,000 miles. I know you have new tires on but this car, but itwill tell you what tires are good and which ones are not. You will spend money on tires for this vehicle. The C5 is hard on tires. Tires and wheels have to be perfect, and balanced with road force balancer.

 

Try tie rods and brakes next

 

What has become of this thread? Here it is 2009 and this problem still exists. We got a 97 A6 wagon, 2.8L a couple of months ago and have been pursuing this shimmy much as others have before, but I see nothing since the 6/14/2008 post...? I just recently joined the Forum so I'm catching up on alot of stuff others have been through.... as I encounter them.

 

may be the wheel is not set properly. you should take it to the mechanics

 

I'm unclear on your response-- Steering wheel? We discovered a great shop, Gary's Safety Center in Bay City, MI when we got into Merkurs.... but this Audi is mystifying. Following that somewhat old thread was like deja vu from the past.
Right now the feeling is that there is wear in the strut body allowing the new strut cartridge/insert to flutter at "neutral" load, as for instance when changing lanes--that minor directional change sets the shimmy going, but added load by slightly stronger correction, or conversely, straightening the direction, stops the shake. Lordy lordy....

 

Working on this yesterday has resulted in about 80% improvement. Ours is left front related, occurs on normal gentle moves to the passing lane or minor lane corrections to the left. Now instead of the "wheel coming off" sensation, we get a very quick 'bu-bup' but no further continuation.... Finally feel like we may be onto something. At least the car is driveable. Not going to put a ton of $$ into this.