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Autocross Champion
Just like every Saturday night.........
6
Wheel Shaking at Highway Speeds 70+
- Thread starter iiCaptain
- Start date
Just like every Saturday night.........
iiCaptain
New member
Update: So checked everything I could think of and still nothing, so I put the car on jack stands (in my driveway, pointed in a safe direction) and ran the front wheels up to 70mph. Disabled, TC and ESC, I could feel xds doing a little bit of vibrating to get the wheels spinning the same speed, but once I got to around the car started to vibrate pretty good. More than I think XDS would cause. So I took the car to a shop to get the wheels rebalanced and to check my alignment (because an alignment check is way overdue).
Sure enough all of them were out of balance, with 3 of them being about 1 ounce out of balance and the left rear was out of balance by about 2-3 ounces. The tech also mentioned that on one of the rims the weights were put on in the center of the rim, and that they should be placed on the inside lip and the outside (as close as possible to the back of the spokes). Otherwise he said he went over all of my suspension and it all looked good, same with the alignment.
Took it for a drive and it feels a lot better now. On a smooth road at 75-80 uphill it doesn't vibrate like it did. Any vibrations left can probably be attributed to small imperfections in the road and the gti not being a luxury sedan. I need to take it on a longer drive to really see how much it fixed it, so if I find out it didn't fully fix it I'll update this thread.
Sure enough all of them were out of balance, with 3 of them being about 1 ounce out of balance and the left rear was out of balance by about 2-3 ounces. The tech also mentioned that on one of the rims the weights were put on in the center of the rim, and that they should be placed on the inside lip and the outside (as close as possible to the back of the spokes). Otherwise he said he went over all of my suspension and it all looked good, same with the alignment.
Took it for a drive and it feels a lot better now. On a smooth road at 75-80 uphill it doesn't vibrate like it did. Any vibrations left can probably be attributed to small imperfections in the road and the gti not being a luxury sedan. I need to take it on a longer drive to really see how much it fixed it, so if I find out it didn't fully fix it I'll update this thread.
Thanks for posting follow up for those looking for solutions in the future.
Driving tires unbalanced for quite a while can of course cause them to wear in uneven manner, often causing them to cup. The uneven wear pattern caused by the bouncing can also wear out your shocks rather quickly.
Replacing tires sometimes is a necessary part of the solution.
Yes, I learned the hard way.
This is a common problem in the MK6 Golf/GTI, before you spend money on troubleshooting you can quickly narrow down if it's a balancing issue or worn suspension bushings by increasing the air pressures in the front tires to maximum allowed. This should create a belly/bulge in the contact patch of the front tires. Drive it at the speeds you had the shakes, if the problem goes away or greatly reduced, the wheel balance is ok, take a look at the front A Arm bushings or both cupping on the outer edge of your tires.
Several years ago we had the problem after some track days with the Golf. This was similar to the "shimmy" problem I had with my BMW E39 540 Touring. Same solution, I replace the rear A Arm bushings with stiffer Febi "press in bushings" for an Audi S3 or some model like that...can't remember, the price was crazy cheap tho for what they were but a pain in the a## to press in install. I recall I bought them at a popular website in Arizona. That solved the problem but now the Golf is almost at 300k km the shaking sometimes returns. My Son drives the car and has not complained but I notice it sometimes, no plans to address it unless he complains.
Cheers
Several years ago we had the problem after some track days with the Golf. This was similar to the "shimmy" problem I had with my BMW E39 540 Touring. Same solution, I replace the rear A Arm bushings with stiffer Febi "press in bushings" for an Audi S3 or some model like that...can't remember, the price was crazy cheap tho for what they were but a pain in the a## to press in install. I recall I bought them at a popular website in Arizona. That solved the problem but now the Golf is almost at 300k km the shaking sometimes returns. My Son drives the car and has not complained but I notice it sometimes, no plans to address it unless he complains.
Cheers
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