Ok so its this is a pretty general question. My car which i have had for three months now has recently developed (after i had new tires put on) a vibration that is insane. I took the car back to the shop and had them balance them again. this didn't help at all. When i bought the car it had a vibration but not this bad. The tires were also bald on the inside. I have a feeling that the car is out of alignment. Does anyone have any ideas. I have heard many things could be wrong such as drive shaft is unbalanced. The vibration starts at 60 and progessivley gets worse as the speed increases. The rims do not have any dings or dents that I can see. I have also heard that alignment can cause this since my previous tires were worn completely on the inside. My car is also a quattro. HELP HELP

 

balancing your wheels is one thing. alignment is another. you may want to check your steering alignment, toe in, toe out and all that crap. another possibility is the steering damper. (not sure if Audi has them but other cars do). if its broken, vibration from the front wheels happens at speed.

 

ok so let me mention a few more things. The vibration is the worst in my the floor board and seats which means its in the back. There is vibration in the steering wheel but not terriblely. I took the aftermarket wheels off with the new tires and put the original wheels back on with completely bald tires. The vibration was still there althought not quite as bad. I have heard another theory that suggests that wheel locks can cause a vibration. My car came with all the lugs having locks. If that makes sense.
I think i def. need an alignment but i don't think that this is what is causing the vibrations.

 

One thing you might try is to tighten the wheels while they are off the ground so the lugs can help pull the wheel concentric with the hub. You didn't mention if the aftermarket wheels have concentric rings in them or not. Or maybe when the new tires were put on someone didn't put the concentric rings back in the wheels.

Good Luck...

 

ok i have never heard the term concentric rings before... please explain..... someone else mentioned hubcentric rings are these the same things? I am wondering if this is truely the problem.

 

I don't know if this is your problem or not. I can't see the hub of your wheels from where I'm standing so its up to you to check it. I can only give you an observation of what I think after reading your post. I'll give you a URL here so you can read and know why Concentric rings are used and you check to see if they are on your car.
Read about them here: http://www.prestigewheel.com/Catalog/HubRings66_67.pdf

Good Luck...

 

actually i was at the site earlier today. I know my wheels do not have these on them and honestly whethers its the problem or not its a cheap solution at this point. I'm confused on how to measure for the right rings. The article explains but not well enough. I don't want to order the wrong ones.

 

Get your car in the air, put it in drive and have someone accelerate the car SLOWLY until you can see which wheel(s) are causing the problem. When you are looking at the wheels get good and level angles of sight on them Top down and straight down the side of the car if its a wheel you will see it hopping. If not look at the drive shafts to the wheels you should be able to see even a slightly bent drive shaft will be clearly visible when it is in rotation. Four jackstands and a hydraulic jack are cheap compared to having a shop tear into it.

 

The inside is 57.1mm ID thats the measurement of your hub. Measure the diameter of the bore of the wheel and thats your outside measurement. So they will be 57.1 ID x what ever the wheel measures. You can get them here:
http://www.1010tires.com/hubrings.asp

Good Luck...

 

hey thanks so much i ordered them today. When i get them i'll post whether it helps or not.