Shuddering During Heavy Rain - Causes?
09-15-2021, 06:10 PM
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Shuddering During Heavy Rain - Causes?
I have a 2015 Q5 3.0T and discovered an issue that I can't seem to get identified at a shop yet. I first found it when I was driving on the highway in heavy rain. The front of the car started to shudder bad. Felt like a horribly unbalanced wheel and acted similarly. Got worse and louder at higher speed, etc. I pulled over thinking that either I had somehow lost a wheel weight or a lug nut or something. I couldn't find any issue. Drove it again...nothing until I hit about 35 mph and then it started again with it being underivable past 45 mph. I scheduled a service appt immediately, but the next day in the dry...nothing. Not an issue at all and like it had never happened.
It has happened again a few times when the rain is bad enough and again took it to more speciality shops with no luck. It has been bad enough that I was just going to replace the vehicle since I couldn't find a resolution or even have an idea about what could be going on. But, I really don't want to replace it, just want to figure out the issue and get it fixed. The issue triggers no lights on the dash. I have an OBDeleven and there were no codes. If it was electrical or even like water getting into the intake, you would think something would trip.
The last shop that I just went to had a thought that it might be a bad ABS sensor on one of the wheels. That maybe the water is impacting the readings and the sensor is thinking there is a loss of traction and triggering the ABS to "control" the vehicle. Seems slightly plausible and seems to fit all the conditions (no lights or codes, getting worse at speed, no apparent issues in the dry, etc). The next steps we talked about were to wait for the next bad rain and turn off traction control when the car starts shuddering. They think that would deactivate the ABS and if the sensor is the issue, the car should drive normally, giving us a direction to go for how to fix it.
Anyone else ever have an issue that presented like this? Is there anything else I should/could add to the list of things to try to debug this issue?
It has happened again a few times when the rain is bad enough and again took it to more speciality shops with no luck. It has been bad enough that I was just going to replace the vehicle since I couldn't find a resolution or even have an idea about what could be going on. But, I really don't want to replace it, just want to figure out the issue and get it fixed. The issue triggers no lights on the dash. I have an OBDeleven and there were no codes. If it was electrical or even like water getting into the intake, you would think something would trip.
The last shop that I just went to had a thought that it might be a bad ABS sensor on one of the wheels. That maybe the water is impacting the readings and the sensor is thinking there is a loss of traction and triggering the ABS to "control" the vehicle. Seems slightly plausible and seems to fit all the conditions (no lights or codes, getting worse at speed, no apparent issues in the dry, etc). The next steps we talked about were to wait for the next bad rain and turn off traction control when the car starts shuddering. They think that would deactivate the ABS and if the sensor is the issue, the car should drive normally, giving us a direction to go for how to fix it.
Anyone else ever have an issue that presented like this? Is there anything else I should/could add to the list of things to try to debug this issue?
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