Bad Engine Vibration
 

Soooo, there I was today, at the very tail end of a 3 hr road trip when I downshifted onto an exit ramp.

Suddenly a Giant engine vibration kicked in.

It's definitely in the engine. When I rev it in neutral, it's pretty major....

I limped it the last five minutes home into to the garage.

It's a 2005 6 sp, manual with about 45K miles.

I'm thinking engine mounts...

What do you guys think happened?

Is the check engine light on? Did you read it using ODB II scanner? There is an active recall on the coil packs; so if its that you'd be covered.

There isn't a check engine light on and I don't have an obd... But interestingly, looking at the service history, all the coils have been replaced already.

UPDATE:

Just dropped the car off at the dealership.

While I waited, they replaced all 8 coils again. Didn't help.

They now *think* that it's a bad motor mount. Not broken, but apparently they are dynamic? According the dealer, they say that the mounts can stiffen or soften depending on conditions. (Load, rpms, angle, etc). They think one or more of them might be stuck in full stiff mode.

But they gave me a loaner and are investigating further.

I'll keep you posted...

could be a bad flywheel...that will cause a pretty serious vibration.

Just a thought

UPDATE #2

The dealership has ordered a new motor mount. They think one is stuck on stiff. I'm not sure why they can't tell for sure though...

They are waiting on one from Germany.

Also not sure why they don't keep those in stock.

UPDATE # 3

New motor mounts are installed and vibration still exists.

The dealership called to ask me today if I give them permission to disassemble the transmission. A $910 job.

They are afraid of a cracked flex plate.

If they find that, they are saying that this is not going to be covered under my CPO warranty. Something else could've gone wrong but they seem to be leaning this way...

I've owned the car for about 500 miles.

It's my pride and joy and I don't drive it very hard at all. Most of those 500 miles came on two large road trips.

Next week we'll know.......

That's BS....That part should be covered under the extended warranty. Before I would have them touch the $910 job, I would call around to other Audi folks and tuning shops and see if they are willing to put in the arguing time with your warranty company. Don;t accept the "not covered" statement as fact until you shop around. JMO

Excellent advice. I had the same thought this weekend. The next closest dealer to me is 2 hrs away. I may pay for a tow anyway though.

Again, I'm pretty sure this is a bad fly wheel. Friend of mine had one go bad in his A4 Quattro 3.0 6MT. Had a very bad vibration..turned out to be fly wheel. And I could be wrong, but almost sure that Audi will not cover this under warranty due to it being a "wear" item. The part alone is pretty expensive. If it is for sure a fly wheel, I'd shop JHM Motorsports for a good aftermarket flywheel. The OEM S4 (04-05) are known to be weak.
The dealer is knowing that if they pull your trans apart that they will be doing the fix as well...so will be charging dealer prices for the flywheel and any other parts needed. Please continue to keep us up to date...