Can anyone tell me what could cause my car to vibrate at the front wheels? The vibration is most evident at speeds above 45mph, at lower speeds it is barely perceptible.At highway speeds though, if I hit a left turn at a certain angle,the vibration is harsh, especially at the steering wheel. When this happens, the feeling that I get is as if one of the front wheels is loose - left one, if I had to guess. There is barely any noise when this happens, but when I do hear it, it sounds like metal knocking. I've recently replaced both tie-rods, so it couldn't possibly be that I need to replace them again (unless they were faulty)...

Anyone ever have the same issue?

 

apologies, forgot to say what car it is - 2001 A6 2.7T Q

 

hub bearing, tierod (again), balljoints. Could be a number of things.

 

Thanks for the answer.
How can this be pinpointed?

I'm going to my buddy's shop, he has a lift, but I'm afraid he might not know much about Audis...

 

actually lift up the car and shake the suspected wheel, if it jiggles you found the problem. it amy also be misbalanced tires. bent rim. and like trey25 said any number of suspension parts.

 

Once again, thanks for all the help, guys! Sorry to be a retard, but I'm still trying to figure this out...

1. it is very likely the wheel is misbalanced, because it is actually cracked, so I will be rotating it to the rear anyhow... BUT:

2. The wheel does shake though. So I'm assuming it is a suspension issue. How can I actually see which part of the suspension is producing this problem to be completely sure? Or is it more like,"replace all of them to be safe"?

I'm most suspicious of the tierod (even though it was VERY recently replaced) or the bearing... Probably the bearing... I've seen some on ebay for about $50 (Audi A6 front wheel bearing kit), is that what I will need to buy then? Is there a web site that has the schematics of this suspension? I'd like to read up before I get into it...

 

Shake the tire, while hanging, at 9 - 3. If its loose, look at the steering components.
Shake the tire at 12 - 6 and do the same.

 

Swap the cracked wheel for the spare and see if the vibration goes away.

 

swapped the wheels and swapped the tierod - turned out in fact the new one that was installed only a couple of weeks ago was bad. But I'm still feeling some kind of vibration at speed. Definitely, not nearly as much as before, but still feeling something. Like a very subtle vibration that goes to the steering wheel at speeds over 45mph. But I still haven't had my wheels fixed, so maybe once i get that and alignment done, it will be back to normal...

 

If it only shakes after 45mph i would say its either a tire problem, or the wheels need to be balanced.