I search for the answer to this question but only found a few things that might help...but I wanted to confirm with you guys. When acceratingor braking,I feel and hear a vibration coming from my front wheels (especially steering wheel vibration). So earlier today I lifted the front of the car where both front tires is off the ground. I put both of my hand on the left and right of the wheel and shake it back and forwth. There is about a inch of movement and the tie rod ends lookloose(worn out)near the bushings.Isit suppost to shake or be stiff when you lift the car and shake it? Is this the problem or could it be something else?

 

They're definitely NOT supposed to have slack to move. I'm no mechanic, but I'll give you a free bump. I would try to stay away from driving the car at all...

 

I actually have the same problem. It's the tie rod ends. there's a little plastic washer thing in there and *mine* is shattered. The Audi tech dude said he's never seen one that bad before. wheel moves about an inch or so....Mine happened from a recent minor accident...but it could happen from hitting a curb or pothole or something. It's a normal wear and tear thing but ours should not be as bad as they are...in fact the tech really didnt want me to drive my car home because he deemed it unsafe to for public roads. I'm going to fix both sides (only my passenger side is the one wobbling tho) and it's gonna cost me about $500 to fix. You can do it yourself but you'll need an alignment after.

 

thanks alot for the confirmation! but 500 dollars is to much... i seen tie rod ends for 16 dollars and the alignment is only $60.

 

I had both of mine replaced soon after I bought my car. The drivers side was almost completely blown out, and the passenger side was showing sides of wear. I went ahead and had both done with an alignment, but I think only paid like 300 somthing.

 

I paid $450 at 110K mi. to have mine replaced.

 

I'd check the upper control arms too. I changed my tie rod end and then before aligning it found out the inner and aft upper control arms were what was giving it wiggle too.

As for the tie rod end, it shouldn't be too much if you're just doing the outer and not both the inner and outer tie rod. Most places sell them as a pair but you can get them by themselves sometimes too and be charged half the labor for the repair if that's all that needs replacing.
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500 for the tie rods i had mine done for 110 labor and30 parts.