[micdw]

My A5 has handling problems which have been well documented here at this stage but question for 1.8 owners,

On acceleration from a stand still (flat out acceleration), has anyone experienced the front wheel(s) seeming to jump off the road surface repeatedly. I would expect the wheel to just spin on a wet smooth road but mine seems to kick up off the road.
This rarely happened when new but now (13000 miles) its pretty repeatable given the right conditions. The strange thing is, its my passenger side wheel which does this but if I sit a passenger in the front seat, it doesnt happen presumably due to the additional loading on that corner
Anyone seen this?

I have handling problems from day one and I can feel a looseness in front passenger side also but with numerous trips to dealer and engineers inspection on my behalf and another on Audis behalf, im getting nowhere.

 

[PrinceA5]

Not here, mine's has half the km of yours.
I remember I experienced that in my sister's Opel Astra, that lasted only for a couple of hours. I don’t know if that’s a coincidence, but prior to that the car was standstill for a while. Something with the tyres maybe?

 

[TuffLittleUnit]

Yes, mine's done it a few times recently as the roads have become more slippery. It's usually accompanied by quite a hard jarring, a banging noise and the traction control indicator going bonkers.

I had assumed that the banging was "engineered" rather than a fault, rather like the way the brake pedal judders when ABS kicks in.

It only does it when I drive like a lazy [email protected] and hoof it with the front wheels turned; usually out of my drive onto the main road where I live (NB I don't cut people up!). As you say it's repeatable and my solution has been to drive the car more sensibly.

My A3 used to do it too (and that had DSG so you can't blame my lack of clutch control) which is why it hasn't bothered me too much on the A5.

What I am finding is that I'm getting quite a lot of noise (grinding?) from somewhere around the front axle when I turn slowly into and out of parking spaces. It doesn't always happen but it's becoming more frequent and noticeable. I know you can expect this with full lock on but this can happen on more gentle turning too.

Routine driving is fine and I have no handling problems with the car. Given that it's a company car it can wait until the next time it goes in for a service.

EDIT
Funnily enough, my car's just coming up to 13,000 too!

 

[robb]

Not driven my car in some time but I have done a couple of 0-60 tests in the dry when I first got the car and it barely even wheel spun.. my old A4 never had such a problem (FWD 2.0TDI). But my golf GT TDI I have before that, lol, used to judder so much felt like the engine was going to drop out.

 

[speary]

Mine has done i little bit, usually when pulling out of a junction.
My previous (03) A4 cab 1.8t sport did it a lot. Dealer changed suspension bushes but it still did it. Also checked against another identical A4 and that did it also.
I just think its a "feature" of the setup

 

[micdw]

Yes, mine's done it a few times recently as the roads have become more slippery. It's usually accompanied by quite a hard jarring, a banging noise and the traction control indicator going bonkers.

I had assumed that the banging was "engineered" rather than a fault, rather like the way the brake pedal judders when ABS kicks in.

It only does it when I drive like a lazy [email protected] and hoof it with the front wheels turned; usually out of my drive onto the main road where I live (NB I don't cut people up!). As you say it's repeatable and my solution has been to drive the car more sensibly.

My A3 used to do it too (and that had DSG so you can't blame my lack of clutch control) which is why it hasn't bothered me too much on the A5.

What I am finding is that I'm getting quite a lot of noise (grinding?) from somewhere around the front axle when I turn slowly into and out of parking spaces. It doesn't always happen but it's becoming more frequent and noticeable. I know you can expect this with full lock on but this can happen on more gentle turning too.

Routine driving is fine and I have no handling problems with the car. Given that it's a company car it can wait until the next time it goes in for a service.

EDIT
Funnily enough, my car's just coming up to 13,000 too!

It feels to me that the suspension is not quite rated correctly for the front drive setup together with the smaller 1.8T engine. I think a stronger shock would cancel out the jumping off the road. Has anyone fitted coilovers I wonder? This may well cure this.
Also the diesels get a stronger shock im sure with the additional weight on the front. I would try these out if I found a set going handy.
Is it front passenger side everyone finds this banging?
Mine is moreso when I turn left with full power but its getting worse and happens now on slippy road driving straight with full power.
It also feels to me from feedback trough the steering and from the noise I hear that when the wheel jumps up, all the loadings (from acceleration) on the suspension arms/bushes is quickly released and one of the arms is moving at itsmounting/bushing and hitting back against a bump stop or something.
I dont need to be taking off and abusing the clutch to cause it, just simply accelerate from crawling speed

Have we got the same suspension design as the quattros? I guess if the rear wheels were pushing too, we would never get this problem. Is it a case of being the poor relation (model wise) and little development being done.

I also have a wheel bearing type noise on occasion at the same corner

 

[andy-integrale]

Isn't it just commonly known as "tramping" and a consequence of putting too much power through the front wheels....

Another side affect of a lot of power through FWD is the torque steer when overtaking and crossing cats eyes or white line markings.

I think the only answer is to not be so aggressive with the right foot.

As micdw says, I don't think you would find this problem with quattro.

 

[micdw]

Isn't it just commonly known as "tramping" and a consequence of putting too much power through the front wheels....

Another side affect of a lot of power through FWD is the torque steer when overtaking and crossing cats eyes or white line markings.

I think the only answer is to not be so aggressive with the right foot.

As micdw says, I don't think you would find this problem with quattro.

Tramping yes, but it does it WAY to easy and the suspension should be capable of holding the wheel down on the road when driving on a very slippy surface. It should just spin the wheel up.
Im going to sort it. It may take time & money but its so poor that i would rather drive a €5k car than this crap or
I might just swap for a 170bhp TT quattro diesel.

 

[RGBArgee]

Not sure you would like a TT after a 5

 

[TuffLittleUnit]

Tramping yes, but it does it WAY to easy and the suspension should be capable of holding the wheel down on the road when driving on a very slippy surface. It should just spin the wheel up.
Im going to sort it. It may take time & money but its so poor that i would rather drive a €5k car than this crap or
I might just swap for a 170bhp TT quattro diesel.

Nah ... on my 1.8T it's not "way too easy" ... as I said it's only when I drive like a [email protected]. I don't mean driving hard/aggressively, I mean ignoring everything I was ever taught and just flooring it i.e. like an 18 year old who's just passed their test and their testosterone is in overdrive. It's happened about 4 times for me in the 300+ hours of driving time I've had in the A5 and every time I've thought "yep, that's me being a nob".

 

[micdw]

Not sure you would like a TT after a 5

My last car was a mk1 TT quattro 1.8T 180bhp.
Sold it because it was a bit bumpy on the poor roads here. It had no handling, tramlining etc problems even though on same size tyres as my A5.
So went for the A5 thinking it would offer a nice drive and a little bit more forgiveness on the rough surfaces but its a pain so I might get a 3 day test drive of a new TT quattro to see how it works out.

 

[speary]

As you drive your A5 more and get to know it you will know when this tramping will happen and can therefore use your skill and finese to modulate the throttle to get a smooth quick take off

 

[micdw]

As you drive your A5 more and get to know it you will know when this tramping will happen and can therefore use your skill and finese to modulate the throttle to get a smooth quick take off

I know how to drive it alright. Its just very poor. I drive race cars regularily and also road cars on race track including front, rear and four wheel drive but Ive never driven a car this bad.
This tramping should only really ever happen when the power of the engine overcomes the grip of the tyre on a high grip surface. .i.e. pushing the shock to its design limit. The shock should not be under any kind of pressure on a smooth wet surface and should be able to keep the tyre more or less in contact with the road. The grip levels are not high enough in this sitution for this to happen everything being right.

My understanding of tramping is as follows:

Tyre looses grip and spins up. Tyre suddenly grips the surface. When it grips, it can slow down to actual speed of car or if grip and power exceed the ability of the suspension/shock, it will pop the wheel up in the air and repeat.

Are there coilovers available which allow me to keep the factory ride height I wonder? cant really lower the car on these roads aprt from maybe 10mm.

 

[micdw]

Something of interest also, I drove the mazda 3 mps around a race track. Not sure of the bhp but certainly 230bhp+ through the front wheels, and it had none of this crap. I think its a case of our 1.8T being the poor relation in the model range whereas the mazda is the range topper performance version. It just shows what is possible through front wheel drive and certainly my Audi is getting nowhere close.

 

[robb]

I would suggest KW V1/2/3's, numerous people have had these fitted to S5's and A5's and have nothing but praise for them, even after lowering. I had a quote of £1500 for the Version 2's so decided to go with the H&R lowering springs as I only really wanted the looks not the performance. Unless your properly hammering it I dont see how your having so many issues, I have tons of grip and cant even wheelspin. I only ever go quick on motorways really, country lanes around norfolk are littered with painfully slow drivers and other slow moving traffic. The main thing I think that lets the 1.8 down is the brakes, there just far too weak for my liking.
I'll let you know if I run into problems after the remap as its claimed to improve the torque and give 50 more bhp, but I'll do some before and after dyno's.

 

[speary]

I know how to drive it alright. Its just very poor. I drive race cars regularily and also road cars on race track including front, rear and four wheel drive but Ive never driven a car this bad.
This tramping should only really ever happen when the power of the engine overcomes the grip of the tyre on a high grip surface. .i.e. pushing the shock to its design limit. The shock should not be under any kind of pressure on a smooth wet surface and should be able to keep the tyre more or less in contact with the road. The grip levels are not high enough in this sitution for this to happen everything being right.

My understanding of tramping is as follows:

Tyre looses grip and spins up. Tyre suddenly grips the surface. When it grips, it can slow down to actual speed of car or if grip and power exceed the ability of the suspension/shock, it will pop the wheel up in the air and repeat.

Are there coilovers available which allow me to keep the factory ride height I wonder? cant really lower the car on these roads aprt from maybe 10mm.

I the olden days, with rear wheel drive and leaf springs and light weight over the driving wheels "axel tramp" was caused by the energy in the driving wheels winding up the tension in the springs and then they would let go and cause the tramping/bouncing, I guess its similar in the front WD A5 but to a lesser extent.
Another thought is that for the weight and power the 1.8t is a little over tyred and actually has too much grip, so when the fronts let go they do the bouncing thing. The 3.0 and 2.7 are much heavier over the front wheels so are more likely to spin rather than bounce
Just my thoughts

 

[micdw]

Another thought is that for the weight and power the 1.8t is a little over tyred and actually has too much grip, so when the fronts let go they do the bouncing thing.
Just my thoughts

You might be spot on about it being over tyred. It is a problem created out of a poor balance between power, weight, & grip(tyre and shock). Ive 245/40/18 as specified. Im nearing the end of a set of front tyres and might go for 225/45/18 as an experiment to see if it has any effect on things. Im hoping for an improvement in handling anyway. My rims are 8.5" wide and depending on which tyre manufacturer I look at, I see different figures in relation to maximum rim width for a 225/45 tyre. Any ideas?