Steering fight

[wankys4]

Help - Anybody get a lot of nervous steering fight on fast uneven 'A' roads???

On uneven A roads where the road piches left and right the steering wheel swings with the road, creating a very very nervous car.
Either I have a dogy steering rack, set of bushes - or - nobody talks about the atrocious steering fight on these cars.

Help anyone - its not my H&R's or all the new front bushes or the alignment - its something else . . . any one help with any thoughts or experiences.
I want to love this car but I am begining to dream of a 540i.

[Nige_RS4]

Search the forum, this has been discussed before. From memory, the cause seems to be certain tyre mfrs and/or steering geometry - did you have a 4-wheel alignment (by someone who knows what they are doing) carried out after you had the H&R's fitted? Also check tyre pressures.

[fade2grey]

I'm not sure on the S4 as the suspension seems pretty complicated, but check your track rod ends & your top mounts if youve checked the rest already.

A

[KayGee]

Have to say I drive 50 miles a day cross country, on all sorts of roads and think the S4 behaves very well. Very bumpy or rutted roads produced some tram lining but nothing like what you are describing. I presume it has always been like that even before the H&R's were fitted?

[sash]

My friend had a very similar situation on his A4. Turns out the wheels had low pressure and it was causing his car to feel like it was pulling all over the road. Also if you have put wider alloys on they do tend to follow the road more. I had 17s as standard and upgraded to 18s and have noticed the increased tramlining. Its not that bad though. Also check your balljoints. If you raise the car and your front wheels have play on them when you pull or push on them then this also may be a reason.

[Morpheous]

Has your suspension been removed recently??
More importantly have you undone the top bolt of the track rod end.
If so get down to the dealer to have your suspension AND track curve adjusted. If it’s wrong i.e. the bolt has been undone, the movement of the suspension will back feed to the steering causing your complaint.
Had mine adjusted after someone buggered about with the suspension, drives lovely now.
This can be a bitch to set up correctly, probably even harder if the suspension has been butchered about.
Did you know, and a lot of so-called specialists don’t, when adjusting the suspension to the FACTORY settings, the car must be raised to that of a standard A4!! THEN ADJUSTED Spacers are used on a ramp jig there are points under the car especially for this. You can just make them out in this pic. Or you could if I could upload it. Got one of a poped 4.2 eng too.
Don’t expect the car to drive nicely if you don’t do this. More importantly, don’t waste your money having it set up incorrectly.

[wankys4]

Morpheous,
Thanks for your reply to my posting on Rs246 re the steering fight on my S4.
Can you help with any more info, i.e. the garage that set your car up and the photo of the spacers. My S4 is down at Kim Collins at the moment and I would like either them or your dealer to sort this car out.
The car has H&R suspension but the problem was there before the suspension was fitted, bought the car from the Nazis at Nottingham Audi.

[Golich]

You can read all about this in the Erwin/bentley workshop manuals.

[Morpheous]

Prefer elsa myself.

[Golich]

elsa?