Buckled wheels and seemingly stiff suspension

Coldham

Coldham

Member
Hi all,

I've been a pleased owner of an a2 Tdi 90 for nearly a month now. Pleased but with gripes. When I bought the car I thought I'd get the wheels balanced as there was lots of vibration from the steering wheel. The place told me that some of the wheels were buckled but they could balance the buckle out! Well the cars now more driveable but by no means right so I'm considering getting new Rs4 style 17" wheels. If I do should I try and buy original forged wheels or are aftermarket cast ones ok? I don't want to have problems with wheels again. I'm also thinking is the suspension ok as maybe there's a reason the wheels are buckled? Maybe someone lowered of tampered with the suspension? The front gives a very hard ride but I think the rears ok. I was out there at 7am this morning pushing down on the four corners of the car! The good news is the front moves but the ride is very very hard! I've owned an s3 with standard spec for the last 6 years and the rides much softer! But then these cars have an alloy chassis which is guess is much more rigid and with 17" alloy wheels I guess it's going to be a very firm ride!? My car is a standard a2 trim not se or sport but has sport steering wheel and gear knob and seats! Maybe it's a sport without me realising?

I'd appreciate hearing other peoples suggestions/thoughts!

Cheers

John
 
Coldham said:
Maybe it's a sport without me realising?
Click to expand...

My V5 has sport written on it so maybe that`s something you could check. I think I read on this site somewhere that sport cars have a silver surround to the gearlever as well.

I`ve previously owned an S3 and the A2`s ride is a lot firmer. Unfortunately, the roads around Wiltshire are pretty poor so I get some pretty uncomfortable trips into work and back.

I`d look at finding some 16 inch wheels if you really want to improve the ride a bit. If I were to buy again, I`d be looking for an SE spec car rather than the sport I ended up with.

Welcome, by the way!
 
Geeky but interesting reading that brochure though it makes me curious where the wights-for-co2 come from :confused: It's interesting seeing the weights of the extras though :)
 
Coldham said:
Hi all,

I've been a pleased owner of an a2 Tdi 90 for nearly a month now. Pleased but with gripes. When I bought the car I thought I'd get the wheels balanced as there was lots of vibration from the steering wheel. The place told me that some of the wheels were buckled but they could balance the buckle out! Well the cars now more driveable but by no means right so I'm considering getting new Rs4 style 17" wheels. If I do should I try and buy original forged wheels or are aftermarket cast ones ok? I don't want to have problems with wheels again. I'm also thinking is the suspension ok as maybe there's a reason the wheels are buckled? Maybe someone lowered of tampered with the suspension? The front gives a very hard ride but I think the rears ok. I was out there at 7am this morning pushing down on the four corners of the car! The good news is the front moves but the ride is very very hard! I've owned an s3 with standard spec for the last 6 years and the rides much softer! But then these cars have an alloy chassis which is guess is much more rigid and with 17" alloy wheels I guess it's going to be a very firm ride!? My car is a standard a2 trim not se or sport but has sport steering wheel and gear knob and seats! Maybe it's a sport without me realising?

I'd appreciate hearing other peoples suggestions/thoughts!

Cheers

John
Click to expand...

I take its the 17" wheels that are buckled?, then i would put my money on it being a sport, another way to check most sports don't have front fogs and normally a red I on the TDi.

The 17" sport wheels are prone to buckling and well documented on here, i would go for the aftermarket wheels as they tend to be stronger than oem wheels, now if it is a sport the ride is very hard and a lot of people on here including me have fitted Koni FSD's, it improves the handling and ride no end

Cheers Phil

PS Welcome to the forum
 
Thanks for your responses

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your really useful responses guys, I checked the V5 but it doesn't say sport, looking at the spec on the car its got everything a sport has, electric lumbar, dis, sports seats, wheel and gearknob and the red i on the tdi logo, oh and the VERY stiff suspension! I do wonder if the steering rack varies(ie sharper or not handling on the se standard or sport models?) I had the tracking done today and the cars is driving loads better, suspension is a little softer on the front of the car too! Tried buying the 17" rs4 wheels but nobody's got any, or 16" either!

It was really useful looking through that spec sheet on the brochure, great for reference!

Cheers for all your help guys!

John


Deerfoot said:
My V5 has sport written on it so maybe that`s something you could check. I think I read on this site somewhere that sport cars have a silver surround to the gearlever as well.

I`ve previously owned an S3 and the A2`s ride is a lot firmer. Unfortunately, the roads around Wiltshire are pretty poor so I get some pretty uncomfortable trips into work and back.

I`d look at finding some 16 inch wheels if you really want to improve the ride a bit. If I were to buy again, I`d be looking for an SE spec car rather than the sport I ended up with.

Welcome, by the way!
Click to expand...
 
Coldham said:
I checked the V5 but it doesn't say sport, looking at the spec on the car its got everything a sport has, electric lumbar, dis, sports seats, wheel and gearknob and the red i on the tdi logo, oh and the VERY stiff suspension!
Cheers for all your help guys!
Click to expand...

Your car is more than likely to be a Sport with all of the above spec. Myself and Chubbybrown both have 90 Sports that are listed as base models on the V5, so yours is another example of this anomoly unless I'm very much mistaken. The red 'I' on the badge is only present on 90 bhp models, it's unrelated to the trim level.
I can't see it making economic sense to add so much spec to a base model in lieu of ordering a Sport in the first place, if you bought it as a base model you maybe saved some money!

For absolute proof, why not ring Audi and see what model variant corresponds to your VIN number? :D
 
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