I bought my 97 a6 in January. Since then I noticed that when I slow down my tires make a noise with every rotation, and at higher speeds (about 40), my wheel start to vibrate a little bit, sometimes more than a little bit. It's getting really annoying. I had the wheels balanced and rotated, and they guy told me that three of my rims are bent. But I haven't done anything about it yet. So I'm wondering, should I worry about it or not? Am I causing damage to suspension or steering by keeping these wheels on the car. Should I get new rims? Do I have any other options (like fixing these rims)?

Some people complain about tires. P6000 and SP5000 are famous for this. In particular SP5000 have metal belt inside and this belt needs to warm up before wheel became round. Also people suggested to balance wheels on a cheap equipment (it really might help). Also the balancing weight needs to be attached in the middle of the rim (3.5" from the side of the rim).

I am not sure, how harmful the misbalanced wheels for your car, but they are harmful for your mental health and might affect handling.

I had a terrible experience with the SP6000, they could simply not be balanced sucessfully, we came to the conclusion that the tire was actually going out of round at highway speeds.

The other option one may try is having the wheels "load forced balanced". This takes a special machine with someone trained on how to operate it.

Was told never to reveal but maybe will eventually if i get the ok
one tool you need is a wheel balancer..hint

Find a locla tire plance or dealer with a "Road Force" balancer from Hunter. The hunter website has a list of dealers with their machine. They will tell exactly if it is a wheel or tire problem and can match the tire to the wheel and eliminate all chances of shimmy. It costs $10.00 per tire. I was told my wheels were bent, but the hunter machine found it was the tires out of round instead.