CPO 2015 Passat TDI Question...

Matt927

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Location
Northeast
TDI
several
Noticeable vibration/oscillation in steering wheel at right around 75 mph cruising on the highway. It almost seems when I go around a slight bend in the road the vibration changes slightly in the steering wheel. Plus the vibration in the wheel is not constant. Can not feel it in any other part of the car, not in the seats/doors, etc.

Car was recently purchased CPO'd at 33,800 miles.

Road force balanced all wheels and alignment performed by a dealer and one specific tech that has worked on my previous TDI's for years and does excellent work. Selling dealer did replace warped pads/rotors and changed both front tires. Balance job was a little screwy so we started with a proper Road Force balance and alignment. Car is not being serviced at selling dealer.

Car tracks perfectly, steering wheel dead center, no bent wheels, zero vibration under 70 mph or so.

I am not super concerned as the vehicle has the additional 24,000 miles CPO warranty. Spoke with SA and we are going to look more into at the 40k.

This is my sixth VW but first Passat. Just wondering if there is a common cause other owners have seen?

Any opinions? Tie Rods/LCAs? Wheel bearing?

Thank you for the help!
 
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rustycat

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Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Location
seattle
TDI
2015 passat sel
I think I would swap the rear tires for the fronts and see if there was a difference. It certainly is the cheapest and easiest first effort.
 

Matt927

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Dec 29, 2013
Location
Northeast
TDI
several
I know when it was Road Forced, one of the fronts ended up on the rear. No difference at all.
 

thundershorts

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Jul 15, 2010
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west chester pa
TDI
2015 passat tdi sel premium 2015 golf s tdi gls tdi b5.5, 2002 eurovan,Peugeot 505 td,Citroen cx25 prestige
What tire brand, mileage on them? Most likely bad tire/tires. How much in weights on each wheel?A quality tire will require very little weight to ballance. Kumos and some others get "lumpy" after a few thou miles.
 

BJS02

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 12, 2013
Location
Florida
TDI
'15 Passat SE 6MT
I vaguely remember someone posting similar complaint that led to an extended wait for one of the CV shafts. This was the result of an engineer coming down from Chattanooga.
 

jjblbi

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Joined
Sep 27, 2000
Location
lbi, nj
TDI
2014 Passat SEL TDI
Confirm wheel lug nuts torque. I almost changed rotors due to a vibration which turned out to be one wheel way over tightened.
 

Matt927

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Location
Northeast
TDI
several
They are all torqued to proper spec. The only other thing I notice with the car is I get a good amount of feedback in the steering wheel when going over bumps/potholes at slow speed. Like the vibration almost reverberates into the steering wheel.
 

jrm

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Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Oregon
TDI
2013 Passat SE with nav (totaled)
While my Passat drives perfect even with 90k on the stock tires I'm battling this same problem in my civic, iv replaced everything- even new wheels, struts, control arms, rotors, nothing has helped and its only at 70 in my civic :(
Mine will drive perfectly smooth for one day, then vibrate like crazy the next- I'm going to try new axle's as maybe extra play or a lump of greese inside the boot? 325K on OEM axles, but the boots are perfect shape due to my giving them a spray of silicone during every service
 
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Matt927

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I vaguely remember someone posting similar complaint that led to an extended wait for one of the CV shafts. This was the result of an engineer coming down from Chattanooga.
Did some reading over on Vortex. Looks like that is my issue. Found this post:

"I've had an incurable high-speed (70+ MPH) vibration in the steering wheel since I bought the car. My local dealership has beat to death the possibility of a rim or tire problem with countless Road Force balancing (nearly no improvement), tire replacement (barely noticeable improvement), even one rim replacement (some improvement but not a cure). With VWoA customer care involved, they got a Technical Quality Manager down here from the Chattanooga plant, and his assessment was I need new half-shafts. They replaced the passenger-side one but it made no difference.

That's the story sans prologue, which is: I suspect this has been going on since before I bought the car. When I test drove it, the local road and traffic conditions at the selling dealership (100 mi. away) prevented me from getting above 65 MPH (it still drives smooth at this speed). It also had a clean "bill of health" - both the CPO inspection report and CarFax were flawless. (In fact, the only owner was VW-Chattanooga's Corporate Fleet <https://www.facebook.com/Volkswagen-Corporate-Vehicle-Services-225362310879128/>.) Half way home from the sale, where the speed limit goes up to 70 MPH (and traffic is flowing 80+ MPH), that's when I discovered a vibe in the steering wheel that (1) comes and goes while holding speed and (2) starts at 70, gets bad at 75, gets worse 79-81, diminishes to 85, and then almost goes away at 85+. I went back once to the selling dealership, and they gave me a new set of tires, which wasn't much help. That's when I started taking it to my local dealership.

Now that it's been found to be a more serious problem than just rims and tires, I got VWoA involved. They're not happy that a "CPO" car has an issue like this, since it's their guarantee behind the car and its certification. Once it's fixed, they plan to question the dealership that sold me the car in the first place, armed with the document trail of all the repairs needed."

Have an appointment next week at the dealer.
 
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740GLE

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Aug 19, 2009
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NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
What next, the drivers side?
 

Matt927

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Northeast
TDI
several
That was a thread I pulled off of Vortex, but his description of the problem is exactly what I am experiencing. I have not taken my car in yet. Next week.
 

Funguy

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Jan 18, 2005
Location
Front Range of Colorado
TDI
2015 Golf Sportwagen dsg and 2015 Passat 6 M/T
How about checking if the lock-nuts are in the specified positions? I had a similar problem and found that moving mine to the correct position made the vibration noticeably less.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
rotate lug bolts when rotating tires!
 

Funguy

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Front Range of Colorado
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2015 Golf Sportwagen dsg and 2015 Passat 6 M/T
If you have the special lock-nuts you are supposed to use them in specific positions relative to the fill valve iirc
 

BroncoAZ

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Apr 25, 2009
Location
Flagstaff, AZ
TDI
2015 Touareg Lux, 2015 Passat 6MT, 2009 Jetta (long gone), 2011 Touareg (bought back 02/18)
I have a similar issue in my 2015 CPO Passat, I’love be taking it to the dealer in a couple of weeks. I believe I may have a warped rotor as well, but it could be this same issue.
 

Mark_J

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Deer Park, Washington
TDI
2015 TDI Passat SEL Premium, 2017 Fiat Spider, 2017 Ford F350 6.7 Diesel crew cab PU, 2016 Harley Trike, 2016 Tesla Model X P90D (I know went to the dark side)
If the lock-nuts are supposed to be in a specific positions relative to the fill valve, what position is it? Never heard of this but I have the same slight shimmy @ 70 - 75 MPH. Closest to the valve stem???
 

Funguy

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Location
Front Range of Colorado
TDI
2015 Golf Sportwagen dsg and 2015 Passat 6 M/T
It's in the manual, on page 360 in my copy. Looks like 90 degrees from the valve stem. so valve stem at 12 o'clock it would be at 3 or 9 o'clock.

Didn't make a huge difference but it helped that little shimmy at 75 mph that bugged me.
 

damaclean

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Nov 17, 2017
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Mississauga,Ontario,Canada
TDI
2015 Passat Highline TDI
They may have the high side of the tire with the high side of the
Rim, check amount of weight for balancing, too much, break bead of tire and turn 180 degrees
 

Mark_J

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Deer Park, Washington
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2015 TDI Passat SEL Premium, 2017 Fiat Spider, 2017 Ford F350 6.7 Diesel crew cab PU, 2016 Harley Trike, 2016 Tesla Model X P90D (I know went to the dark side)
I'm 63 and would have never thought the position of the wheel lock would make a difference. SO never checked in the manual. On my 2005.5 Jetta it didn't seem to matter, but the lock is different, maybe the same weight as the regular lugs. If it ever stops reining, I will move it and see how it feels. Thanks everybody.
 

Funguy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2005
Location
Front Range of Colorado
TDI
2015 Golf Sportwagen dsg and 2015 Passat 6 M/T
I'm 63 and would have never thought the position of the wheel lock would make a difference. SO never checked in the manual. On my 2005.5 Jetta it didn't seem to matter, but the lock is different, maybe the same weight as the regular lugs. If it ever stops reining, I will move it and see how it feels. Thanks everybody.
Same with me. I think I found that by accident while looking for the wheel bolt torque values in the manual. The Passat wants a higher torque than any other car I can remember owning.

Please post if you move the bolts and it makes a difference. It helped my car but it is still a tiny bit goofy at speed and I like to know your results.

PS I would just as soon remove those lock bolts and replace with regular bolts. Maybe I will one day
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
you should have received a black box that has your regular lug bolts and the lock key in it.

The lock lug bolts are dealer installed option to pad their profits, and piss you off on the side of the road at 11PM.
 

BroncoAZ

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Apr 25, 2009
Location
Flagstaff, AZ
TDI
2015 Touareg Lux, 2015 Passat 6MT, 2009 Jetta (long gone), 2011 Touareg (bought back 02/18)
My 2015 came with the black box, but no lug bolts inside. Most dealerships I work in have 5 gallon buckets full of lug bolts or lug nuts in the PDI bay.
 

Funguy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2005
Location
Front Range of Colorado
TDI
2015 Golf Sportwagen dsg and 2015 Passat 6 M/T
I'm second owner on this car. No black box or regular bolts. I thought they were OEM on the '15 Passat. At least they didn't etch the vin number all over the car........Oh wait a minute, Yup they did that too.
 
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