Steering Wheel Vibration

[Jazzy A3]

I have a 99' T sport with 68K miles on the clock, with standard pads and discs - the streeing now vibrates under braking. Could be the pads or the discs are warped. Pads were not mentioned when I just had it serviced and had the wheels balanced. Have warped discs been a common problem?

[A3Andrew_UK]

I've got a slight wobble on the steering wheel under fairly heavy braking, would be interested to know what it's likely to be, guessing it's worn / warped disks.

[Dallan]

What's the age/mileage of your A3?

If you car is three/four years old - or more - and still running on the original discs then there is a strong possibilty that the discs are worn/corroded to the extent that they are running 'out of true'.

Just had to grit my teeth and fork out for new discs and pads to get my 4 year old 1.8T Sport though its MOT..... mileage 37500!
Braking was fine on the rolling road thing they use, but on inspection the front discs were in a mess! Great lumps of oxide could be peeled off the front discs... particularly the inner surface.

New discs and pads...... brakes are much better. MUCH!.
Have a good look at the inside surface of your discs... there is a cut-out on the splash plate where you can see all the nasties.
D.

[A3Andrew_UK]

Mine's just over 4 years now, and most likely to have the original pads as it had done 88K in 3 years, mostly motorway I guess with not much brake use.

The disks still look fine (now @ 106K) and there is not much lip between where the pads rub and the last outer 5mm or so of the disk. The front pads look a little rusty around the inner cooling gaps, but no sign of oxide lumps! I can easily see all around the disks as I'm running 9 spoke RS4 replicas ;-) The brakes still work fine so I'm not too worried about replacing them yet...

[Gambba]

The most common reason for discs to be warped is due to wheel bolts being incorrectly torqued either unevenly or just not tight enough. If the problem only occurs under braking, then it's a strong liklihood that the discs are warped or that the pads are not freely moving. I've had warped discs on my A3T which I beleive may be down to my style of driving and possibly bad maintenance i.e. not checking the wheel bolt torques.

If you're are going to replace the pads and discs then I would suggest thatyou use some aftermarket items to improve the standard poor brakes. One option is to fit TT carriers and fit some larger EBC discs and pads.

[dporte23]

I have a A3 TDi, with 107,000miles on it, Mainly moterway mileage, I have the same problem, If I brake at high speed, 50 - 80mph I get a bad vibration through the steering wheel. So I changed the disks and pads for New cross drilled ones, Proplem still there then I changed the Track rod ends and checked the tracking, all ok, but problem still occours. Has anyone got any Ideas?????? Please help! The other option is that The ABS is pulsing, this i think is unlikley, and or the Steering rack bushes are worn and causing play, which shows up when the brakes are under load>>>

Thanks