Passat (B5) :: Car Is Floating At Highway Speeds
Apr 3, 2003
My car is just 3 months old ( 3300 miles). I started noticing that the car is floating at highway speeds. I feel like the wind is pushing the car to sideways. I started feeling this for few days. Then I verified the tire pressure. Because of the cold weather we had in the last couple of months, I never had chance to check the tire pressure. The pressure was between 37 and 40. I don't know why the dealer didn't set it to right pressure. Then I reduced the pressure to 30 for all the 4 tires. Now I feel the steering is heavy. Couple of questions.
1. Do I need to align the wheels ( I have just 3300 miles).
2. What is the tire pressure you maintain. I have 15" Continental stock tires.
View 24 Replies
Advertisement
On my 09' passat wagon 2.0t: I've been on a couple of long highway runs and noticed that my steering wheel is vibrating slightly at higher speeds. Naturally I went for a wheel balance. They showed me one rim was slightly bent from a pot hole or something, but they were able to balance it and put it in the rear. Still a vibration. Took it back to the tire shop and they checked the balance again.
At this point I was still noticing the vibration and went so far as to swap the "damaged" wheel with another off of a passat with the same wheels. No difference noticed. Is it my imagination or is the steering so light in these passats that im feeling every imperfection of the road? I don't remember the car always feeling like this. I am at 14k miles and have the crappy stock good year tires.
View 23 Replies
for the last several weeks, I've noticed a problem that seems to be getting progressively worse... there is a vibration seemingly from the front end (possibly passenger side), and it only appears on the interstate at typical highway speeds (70-75 MPH). facts:
1. It does not happen below ~70 mph.
2. It doesn't appear to be a wheel bearing - no noticeable change in tone or "amplitude" while turning at speed.
3. I use cruise control all the time on the highway, and it is more noticeable going downhill (increases in vibration), when the engine is obviously off-throttle.
4. The car is a 99 V6 5mt.
5. The axles that are presently on the car are Raxles, and have been on it for ~4 1/2 to 5 years.
6. I recently changed over (this past weekend) to my winter/stock wheels and tires, but it was doing it with the summer wheels and tires.
7. It happens regardless if the gears are engaged or not (5th or neutral - I coasted down a hill on the interstate today in neutral to add more info).
8. I've replaced the wheel bearing on the passenger side about 6 weeks ago.
I'm thinking I have an inner CV Joint that is starting to fail. The boots are intact, as I inspected them recently while replacing the clutch/pressure plate/throwout bearing/flywheel. The transmission axle flanges had no play. The vibration was occuring prior to when I changed out the clutch.
Thoughts? Inner CV joint, or...???
View 4 Replies
My steering feels a little floaty. My dad, who drives an A6, yanked the fuse on his power steering for the same reason.
View 4 Replies
I picked up a 2012 2.5L SE w/ Sunroof and Nav over the Christmas holiday.
I have been driving back and forth between Dallas and Kansas for work and I've notice an "odd" noise at highway speeds. When I have the cruise control set for the upper 70's and the car is in 6th, I can hear, for lack of a better word, a hum from the rear of the car. If I switch the Tiptronic down to 5th the hum goes away. As soon as I shift back to 6th, it returns.
View 3 Replies
2010 wagon is doing great as my daily commuter and a long distance hauler for my wife and two kids on weekends, but I'd love to cut down on the floatiness and fore-aft body motion over swells. I put Bilstein HDs and a rear stabilizer bar (really a torsion beam stiffener) on my old 2000 wagon and left the springs stock after I'd read on these boards the idea that the B5 was under-dampened, and though the changes were big improvement and good compromise. People seem to like to touring cup kit, but I don't particularly want to drop the car and would like to preserve as much of the ride quality as possible.
View 6 Replies
I've been doing a lot of decently long highway trips this summer (5 hrs @ 75-80 MPH) and I've noticed that the 2008 VR6 Passat has some kind of pressure/wind noise/vibration above 75 MPH. It's hard to describe; it's like the noise you get when you open your sunroof too far and you get a harmonic noise from it. The sound seems to be coming from the upper rear of the car; behind the sunroof and almost from the rear glass.
All of the windows are up, the sunroof is closed and even the shade is closed to muffle the noise, yet it is there. However sometimes it isn't bad. If I have the radio on I don't notice it really, but when it is off it is very noticeable on certain stretches of highway. I'm having a hard time nailing it down as it is not entirely reproduceable. I don't know if it has to do with temperature, angle of the wind, climate control fan settings, what.
I did notice a few reviewers of the new CC complaining of a similar thing, which freaks me out that it is a design flaw - yet searching on here brings me up empty so I think it might be something I can fix. My first thought is that I have a tire slightly out of balance, yet the noise seems more wind related than tires.
View 10 Replies
Noticed the steering wheel shakes just slightly at highway speeds. Happens to me when I'm at around 65-70mph and above. It's just very slight, so I really wasn't thinking its an alignment issue at all. I didn't know if this was a bit normal for these B7s or what. I've had alignment issues in cars before and this just doesn't feel that bad, but its enough to give me pause.
View 7 Replies
Spring has arrived and the whoop-de-dues are reminding me that the suspension in my 2013 passat tdi is rather soft. it rides great on a smooth highway but i would be curious if there is a way to change the suspension so that it 'floats' less on uneven pavement and in tight turns?
My goals would be:
1. float less on uneven pavement
2. track flatter and smoother in tight turns at speed
3. maintain highway comfort or dam close to it (99% of my driving)
4. remain at stock height (i am not lowering this car up here!)
It may not be possible to achieve all of this but at this point i do not know what is possible or what the pros and cons are of any suggested changes. A quick search of 'tdi suspension' on vwvortex gave me a few hits but mostly for golf and jettas.
View 11 Replies
2008 Passat 45k. No accidents. Towed twice on flatbeds due to bad fuel pump. Tires were rotated every 10k or so.
I'm wondering if there are any suspension (or wheel) issues that can lead to maybe tire wear and a loud oscillating noise. I had factory Goodyear Eagles 235/45-R17's that started to develop a very loud speed-dependent oscillating noise that definitely came from the tires, but I can't tell if it's one tire or more than one. I just had them replaced though I was not quite yet down to the wear indicators. My new Continentals are of course pretty quiet, but occasionally I think I hear very faint oscillations again on certain surfaces at high speed.
I'm worried that I might trash these new tires. I had to have an alignment/balance/rotation at about 30k due to minor steering vibrations at highway speeds. The noise started around 37k and got louder and louder. About this same time I had a flat tire that was immediately repaired; I noticed uneven wear on this flat tire which I attributed to the previous minor alignment/balance problem. I usually find out about any low pressures by the dash light, so I'm pretty sure my tire pressures are usually good. I rotated at 40k with a minor improvement that got bad again after about 1k.
View 7 Replies
I have a 96 Sierra with the 5.7L (R) engine. My a/c used to work fine...no problems. Then it started to only get really cold at highway speeds, plus you could also hear the compressor running (kind of making a clicking sound) when you push the a/c button to turn it on. I thought that the system needed to be recharged, so I bought a recharge bottle at Shucks that has a low pressure gauge on it.
It says that the low pressure port is the larger of the two and will only fit on the low pressure port, but it will only fit on the smaller port (right side port when looking at the compressor). With the a/c on max, the gauge reads 110, so I didn't try to recharge the system.
Then yesterday, my a/c won't even cool at highway speeds. It just blows warm air. The compressor is running (I can hear it, and the clutch turns). I disconnected the switch on the evaporator and the compressor stops, then restarts when I reconnect the switch.
View 3 Replies
I have a 1993 3500 Silverado that goes thru all the gears until it gets to the OD but will not go into OD at highway speeds,does not slip as it is shifting, why this is happening. Could it be that all it needs is a fluid & filter change as that is what it needs done now.
View 1 Replies
For a while I had been having vibration at between 60-80mph I think I mentioned it in a thread before too. Well anyway when I got my 30,000 mi check up they told me it was probably due to the tires being unbalanced and that my tires were in such bad shape that balancing them woudln't make a difference. So I got to new tires (and my rims as you all remember) from NTB. I took it back to Toyota to get the alignment done after that I got on the highway to see if it was vibrating still and it was so they told me to bring back in.
So today they told me one of the tires that I got at NTB was bad because they couldn't get it balance within the range of the other 3 tires so I took the car back to NTB got into it with the guy there and they eventually saw things my way and put a new tire on the car. So after that I get back on the high way the car starts vibrating right when it hits 60. So I take back to Toyota, the guy tells, I heard him mention to one of the mechanics that it might be a bad axle.
Around 6:30 or so they call me and tell me they are going to take rims and tires off a brand new Camry and put them on my car and the manager who lives far away is going to drive my car home and then back again in the morning to get a better idea of the problem with the car. And to top that off they wanted to charge me 40 bucks for a rental car, but luckily I can drive my dad's Cam to work.
View 14 Replies
Bought a 2005 Prius with a perfect history and that recently had its 60k check up at the Toyota dealer. Don't know exactly when the sound changed since I'm not the primary driver, but now it sounds like a jet airplane when it reaches highway speeds and it's hard to hear what we're saying to each other, much less what people are saying over the Bluetooth (although the built in Bluetooth noise cancellation feature is fantastic and the person on the other end of the phone doesn't hear the noisy engine). What could be causing the car to sound like we're taking off at the airport (at any speeds above 40 mph, it seems)? Our passengers comment on the near constant background noise level.
View 10 Replies
So my car started to make this noise, hear it more at highway speeds than anything else. It's like a high pitched whine or whistle. When I'm on the accelerator it goes away, soon as I take my foot off the gas it starts up. Just cruising and engage clutch goes away as well. Sounds like coming from rear but hard to tell, hear it at low speeds but not as loud.
View 5 Replies
Having trouble with a shimmy at 65-75mph .....
View 19 Replies
My 2004 Camry 3.3 V6 (3MZ-FE) has started to run a bit sluggish at highway speeds and sometimes in stop and go traffic.
This P0430 code came on after a recent oil change and flushing my engine with seafoam.
The info I've gotten from my auto parts store is that it's one of the oxygen sensors, HO2S or Bank 2. I believe, if my research is correct, that this sensor is post cat. Looking down from the front of my engine I can see 2 sensors after the cat pretty close to each other.
View 6 Replies
2004 Honda Accord sedan, 4 cylinder, approx, 95,000 miles, uses oil rapidly at highway speeds (one quart in 90 minutes), in town driving will not use any oil over 3 to 4 months of monitoring. What the problem is and how to fix it?
View 4 Replies
My vehicle works absolutely beautifully except between 75 and 105 km/hr where I experience sputtering. This does not happen under load but just when I am maintaining a constant speed. It feels like misfires but I don't get a check engine light when it occurs. Misfires would definitely trigger the check engine light. I've tried the obvious solutions:
Used fuel system cleaner in case I got a bad tank of gas
Used fuel additive to eliminate any water in the tank
Changed the oil and filter (it was due anyway)
Replaced the air filter (it was also due)
Cleaned the MAF Sensor
Replaced the spark plugs
None of this has made any appreciable difference in the performance of the vehicle. The sputtering persists.
The car does not have traditional spark plug wires. Instead it has ignition coils which run about $140 each from the dealership. I may eventually have to change one or more coils but I'll try cheaper solutions first.
My next step is to replace the crankshaft position sensor. You may have noticed that I am problem solving starting with the least expensive solution and progressing to more expensive repairs.
View 3 Replies
i have a 2004 Mitsubishi lancer es 2.0 engine, and it's an automatic. I seem to consistently get a little under 23 mpg no matter how i drive. I've noticed that when going down the highway at 65 mph, it is at like 2900 RPM, is this normal? We also own a 2010 toyota corolla 1.8 auto and it only revs like 2400, and a 2005 xB that revs the same as the corolla, i'm just confused that with a bigger engine, it would rev so much higher.
View 6 Replies
Driving on the highway the other day and I was doing about 80 and I noticed that the front end started to vibrate pretty loud so I slowed down to around 70 and it stopped. I got home and called up the local tire shop had all my wheels re balanced as I heard that could be the cause they were near perfect. Tires have about 3,000 miles on them. so yesterday I took it out to see if it would do it again and I noticed when it starts to vibrate at about 80 and I push in the clutch it stops immediately. Could my clutch be going out? or possibly like the throw out bearing.
View 10 Replies
