FYI, Nate says those output flanges all have play in them. So that's good because you need to go to ZF for those parts.

Chefro, It sounds easy but the rubber actually makes it a PITA. I did think about buying press and I have access to Liquid CO2 (-187below zero) But I have pressed a lot of crap and rubber is not a fave. Trying to match up pipes to catch the outside edge of the bushing will take a while. Then I have to freeze the arm and I just don't know if it would be worth it. Plus who makes thier bushings? they don't say. Although I would like to save the money and start a rebuilt control arm business at the same time.

TwinTurboC5, I haven't checked them but I have rotated them all around the car and the trouble seems to be in the front end. I can also feel it in my seat and I did some driving tonight and really think it's the control arms. Also it gets worse over time and is corrected with an alignment and R/F balance. So a bent rim would always be bad.
Where your rims Audi rims? I was watching a BMW in front of me today with a bent rim and it did come to mind.

I am going to take a movie of how the front jiggles now and compare it to after and post the results for everyone. The front jiggles too much and I think that is what I am feeling as I'm driving. I don't have any idea how it causes the steering wheel wobble.

 

Hi Jackm up,

I wasn't implying that your issues are caused by a bent rim...only offering suggestions to help you remedy it. Yes my wheels were the factory five spoke 17" inchers in my pics. They were easily seen as being bent when my wheels shop put them on a balancer and spun them. The wobble in two of mine could easily be seen with the naked eye.

 

TwinTurboC5, That's how I took it. I appreciate the help. Did it look like they were bent by curb rash or something or do you think they were born that way? I was also concerned about the hub and crap stuck in between the rotor and hub as well. I'll jack it up today and put a gauge along the shoulder of the rim and see what happens. I would not be surprised at all if the vibration is a combination of ten different things. At this point I would be amazed if it wasn't.

 

Jack-

I would be very interested to hear what you do find out. I have been chasing the same type of problem ever since I changed my control arms, TRE, and sway bar links. In response to your question on which CA kit to go with, I chose the $320 kit that you seem to be looking at now and the brand was Karlyn. They are made in Germany, but I don't believe that they are the quality that the Febi kit is. If I had the choice over again, I would go with the Febi kit from PureMS. Don't bother with just the bushings, you would need to remove all the CA to press the bushings in and out anyway. If you were really inclined to swap bushings, you could keep the old arms and change the bushings in them and use them in another 60-80k miles when you need to do this all over again!

In my case, I was getting bad tire wear on the inside edge of the driver's front due to the bad CAs. Are you getting tire wear problems? If not, the CA may be fine.

When you say steering wheel wobble, do you mean the whole column vibrates or does the wheel vibrate rotationally? My problem is the steering wheel rotates back and forth about 2-5 degrees, but the car does not shake. Actually, there is a freshly paved stretch of hiway that I travel everyday and the car is very smooth. Only the steering wheel moves.

I did remove the brake calipers and rotors to get more room to work on the CAs, and I did think that maybe some foreign material got between the rotor and the hub. If you think of the physics of it, that would make the tire wobble as it rotates and thus cause the steering wheel to wobble. If you find this is your problem, let me know. I haven't had the time to take the brakes apart again, but I would if I knew it would fix my problem.

Keep us updated. I'm sure there are others that are interested.

Jamie

 

Jamie,

Did you replace your control arms trying to get rid of it or did it happen after you replaced them.

Between 50-65 sometimes 40 the steering wheel rotates left and right quickly. Just like you. For the most part it went away with the alignment and balance But I still feel it a little and I'm worried about scrubbing my new tires.

I'm checking my rims to make sure they're straight and if the control arms don't do it. I'll probably do the struts next.

I'll keep you posted. I ordered the Meyle kit couldn't find a Febi. -until your post that is.

 

Jack,

I replaced the CAs to get rid of the uneven tire wear and some minor clunking on the driver's side. After I got everything back together and aligned, that is when the steering wheel shake started. Since the tires that I had on the car only have about 5k miles of life left in them, I put on my other set of rims and Continental tires from an A4 and the wobbling went down but not away. It shows up at around 60 and starts to go away around 85. BTW - Continental tires FTW! They are very smooth at 85mph.

I had a friend flip one of the tires (directional tread) that are almost dead around so I can put it on the back passenger side along with the other bad one on the back driver's side and have two evenly worn tires on the front. I went to rebalance all 4 and noticed that I may have one bent rim that has one of the bad tires on it. I will be putting those tires back on the car tomorrow and I will let you know if having two decent tires on front brings back the wobble or cures it. I suspect that the worn out tires will only enhance the underlying problem, and since the bent rim was barely noticeable it will not affect anything. I'm only hoping that it's a tire problem because those are easy to change, but I doubt it's the tires.

Good call on the Meyle kit, though. It is a very close second to the Febi parts. Glad you stayed away from the Ocap. Have heard that in hot weather, the Ocap bushings moan and groan right from brand new. If you don't have significant uneven tire wear, I would try replacing just the TREs first and get them as close as you can to where the old ones were and take it for a quick test ride to see if that fixes the problem. My friend noted that a steering wheel wobble without the car shaking is usually either an outer or inner TRE.

 

Sorry I missed this...

The Meyle kit is the one I would've done too...

The 'left to right' thing in the wheel is most likely the tires following some rut in the road due to a misalignment. Since you had a good alignment and your bushings are cracking, I'd say most likely you are not holding the toe. There will be vibration and then this 'grab' with defections in toe.

 

jackmup,

I have been fighting the same issue for the last 60,000 miles! Mine acts just as threeputtpar describes: starts at 60, gone at 85. Mine is both a steering wheel wobble and a vibration. The steering wheel wobble comes and goes. The vibration also. My feeling is that the Audi is overly sensitive to tire irregularities and after market tires are ones that weren't good enough for OEM. Also, most aftermarket tire places don't know how to mount tires properly (the dot goes by the valve stem) or balance them them to the degree of accuracy required by Audis. I have a set of Goodyears that seem to lose balance after a week of driving. As an experiment, I took it to 6 or 7 different tire stores and everyone reported that the balance on two tires was out. The only one who could get the balance reasonable was a Goodyear owned store. I think this is because Goodyear forces their stores to maintain their equipment whereas the local discount store does not.

Having said that, new, quality, control arms and tie rod ends will make a huge difference as will an alignment (hold onto your wallet for this one!) at an Audi dealership. There is a special tool needed for part of the job that no one outside of an Audi dealership has. Does it make a difference? I'm not sure but its going to be the next thing I try.

Make sure to wait until the car is on the ground to torque all the bolts!

Good luck,

Bob

 

What's the special tool. I've been using alcohol it's seem to work. After the third or fourth drink I don't notice much of anything.

I read blogs for a few hours last night and it seems that most people who have had this problem report good news after replacing the lower control arm. Also a few noted that you can't get a good feel for how bad it is until you start diassembling the front end. I hope this does it.

Then again threeputtpar just did his.

UPS will be here on the 19th so I'll probably do them next Friday or Saturday then bring it back and have it aligned again.

 

For all who are following this thread-

I've put the original rims and worn out tires back on my car and the wobble is all but gone! If I stare at the steering wheel long enough, I can see it wobble once or twice at around 70mph, but it is faint. Here is what made the difference for my car.

I'm sure that the new control arms didn't hurt, but what I think made the real difference is before I put the rims and tires back on, they were dirty so I gave them a really good bath. I think that cleaning out the center bore on the rims is what did it, since it was far easier to get the rim to seat on the rotor hub than it usually is. When the snow starts and I take these rims and tires off again and put on the winters, I will take a Scotchbrite pad to the mating surfaces of the rim and rotors and clean out the center bore of those rims also. The winters were on for the last week and they were making the steering wheel wobble also, so they could certainly use a good cleaning.

I really hope this helps/works for anyone having this problem. In my situation, it helps that I have my own Snap-On balancer so I can do that as many times as needed. I even calibrated it about 6 months ago, so I know it's accurate.

Jamie