It's been nearly a year since I have had my allroad. I've been reading lots of posts here about a shimmy/vibration/wabble, but since I've never noticed anything wrong, I just shrugged it all off.

Last week I had the tires replaced with Michelin Pilot Sport A/S in stock size at Costco. Shortly after, I drove a few miles to the dealer to get my warped rotors replaced (10,000 miles). The dealer said they noticed a shimmy and recommended for the tires to be balanced. After the dealer said something, I noticed it too. I went back to Costco and rebalanced all the tires, but I am not sure that made any difference.

Now that I am looking for a problem I am noticing a very slight vibration in the steering wheel at about 40-45 miles per hour. It goes away at higher speeds. The vibration is very slight, and some times I am not even sure it is there. I probably would not have noticed it unless I was looking for it.

Is this the same problem that is so widely discussed here? Does having the stiffer tires make it more noticeable? The people that do have it, was your vibration more severe? I am just not sure if I should just ignore this and move on, or start the process of trying to have this fixed, though I see there is possibly no "cure".

Trust nobody but yourself to make sure of things like this.

with a torque guage. They looked up the proper torque in a book. How could I check this without such a tool (or do I just buy one?)

Audi actually replaced my '02 with an '03 because of the problem. The '03 still has it but no where near the severity of the '02.

re-torqued after about 50 miles of driving, but I doubt that needing a snug-up would cause your problem since they checked the torque to begin with. You can get a decent torque wrench that "breaks" when you hit the correct torque at Home Depot (Husky -- their house brand). You can pay less for simple ones with an indicator arm and needle, but they're harder to use and less reliable.

Installing tires on rims and balancing can be more involved and can go beyond the tire shop's skill level. Wheels and tires sometimes are not perfectly round. If the high spots of the tire and wheel are together this can cause a vibration. As the tire spins on the balancing machine there should not be any type of a hop and it should spin smoothly. Generally the better Michelins have very little of this but it can happen. It's usually taken care of by turning the tire on the wheel about a half turn. A couple of places I've been to in the past actually have a machine that applies pressure as it turns the wheel and measures the roundness of the tire/wheel.

My wobble symptoms sound similar to yours. One thing you can do to test further is to change to tip mode when wobble occurs, car will typically be in 5th gear around 45 mph. When you feel the wobble, downshift to 4th and see if it disappears. Balancing the wheels (road force balancer) seemed to help mine, also probably a good idea to have the car aligned if you just put new tires on (My Goodyears were unevenly worn just after 13K). If you drive a lot in the 45 mph speed range and the wobble bothers you, one option is to switch from "D" to "4" - this seems to change shift points and also keeps tranny below 5th gear. Hope this helps, let us know if you come across a remedy that works.

On my previous cars, when the tires were out of balance, the shimmy would increase at highway speeeds. The fact that it goes away after 50 mph makes me think maybe it is something else.

I was just thinking when stopped at a stoplight, that at idle there is a little shake in the cabin and it is felt through the steering, very similar to what I feel at 45 mph. Perhaps it is just that same vibration due to low rpm in 5th gear at 45? Could it be?

45-60 mph, 5th gear on a flat stretch of highway. Mine was more pronounced than a very slight vibration in the steering wheel, almost like a wheel weight was thrown from the tire. It would disappear under exceleration or by going over 60 mph. After many trips to the dealership, they were able to reproduce it and replaced my axles. This has fixed the problem for now.

It depends on the vehicle and tire/wheel combination. I have had vibrations at lower speeds that seem to disappear at higher speeds. I have also had them get worse at higher speeds and not a problem below 50mph. I have a small vibration with the original wheels and tires on the ar around 45mph. I am now running Michelin Artic Alpines with the 16" Italia wheels. Not a vibration at any speed. I had Audi check the original equipment ones and they did not find a problem. Next spring I'm going to a good tire guy. Not saying that this is your problem but it may be worth getting a second opinion. I have no experience with Costco so I can't say how good they are.