Austin Area TW Chapter (all gens welcome, even T4Rs; heck, just make it a Toyota and we're good)

Ugh speaking of third brake lights....... I started the process of replacing the 3rd brake light on my VW R32 over the weekend. Its in the rear hatch so the first challenge was to remove the plastic trim pieces just to get to it. I then take it out and and test it on my work bench only to find out it lights up when I applied power to it directly from a battery I use just for these purposes. That means I have a break somewhere in the wiring which leads to me taking apart more shit. ........ I tell you I have a major LOVE/HATE relationship with my VW. I LOVE the way it sounds, drives, looks ...... I HATE having to work on it b/c nothing comes easy.

Why even mess with the 3rd brake light when the other two brake lights work just fine you ask? State law now requires all vehicles that came with a third brake light to function at inspection time and I can't get anybody to pass me without it

 

Some German made cars can have some crazy electrical demons in them lol My buddy's audi starts turning on random lights and flipping the locks while its driving. I wish you luck on finding the break.

And I hate the law too! Hopefully the law doesnt get to me before my light comes in on thursday

 

Lol!!! I've just read a lot of stuff on here.

The real guys to bow to are the ones doing it

 

Before you go tossing money and parts at the truck, diagnose what the issue is. At 80mph, steering wheel vibes, you have a front end issue. Could be wheel balance, could be something loose. My best guess without actually driving the vehicle is wheel balance. Is there any other times it vibrates other than 80mph? What are the symptoms? What speeds? Where are you feeling the vibe? Steering wheel, floor board? What are you doing when you feel the vibe? Braking? Accelerating? Coasting? Reading some of the stuff on this forum is like going on webMD to find out why your nose is running and you end up thinking you have cancer.

 

I have a friend with a B5 S4 and it does similar things. His sunroof leaked years ago so water wrecked havoc on his electrical system since they hide so much wiring in the A-Pillars. I read a little more last night that its probably a break in the wiring where the hatch folds up away from the body. If that's the case its not going to be too bad but i'm OCD about this car so whatever it is I will fix it with OEM parts and make it look like it never happened.

As for the law, I never had trouble not having the 3rd brake light on. It was only last year when I went to get inspection when this came up to bite me. I did a brake light mod on this car to where I've doubled the amount of lights that come on so that also might be why the police have never pulled me over for it. Either way i'm fixing it so I can enjoy this car once again legally.

 

Very true. I went on WebMD to look what's up, and it told me I needed a penis reduction. After conferring with my wife, she assured me that this was not correct.

 

No vibes other than 80mph+

I can feel it in the driver and see it in the passenger seat pretty bad. I have a half ass video I took yesterday (except I can’t figure out how to upload it here) that y’all might be able to see where the vibes are. I’m either accelerating or in cruise control when I feel the vibe. The steering wheel doesn’t shake near as bad as the seats.

 

Upload the video to YouTube and post the link here.

 

No problem! IMO, you really cant go too overboard with waterproofing.. It'll save your ass in the long run it seems.

 

Steering wheel is shaking though. How bout take off vibration, you should feel accelerating from a stop, somewhere around 20mph.

 

Not really at take off.

It really only gets like that at highway speeds.

Steering wheel shakes nothing like the seats do. I'm having a buddy post the video on youtube so i can post it on here. Nothing special but you can see it getting worse.

 

Would not remove tire/wheel balance from the possible causes. I have a set of tires on that if the rears and fronts are rotated, I get a vibe at 55-60 mph. It's been balanced and re-balanced a dozen times when they are in the vibe config, and it will not go away. I finally just gave up and kept the non-vibe config, and have not rotated over the last 3 years or so. Conveniently enough, the tire wear is consistent front and rear and across each tire, so not a great loss.

 

All you folks that get tax returns.... I paid in $38,000 in taxes this year and I’m getting $340 back what gives...???

Rant over with back to regularly scheduled programming.

 

Well, maybe 80mph is not tour speed then. Try 75 instead. In reality, I think there's a few things that need to be checked. The wheels are def that, whether out of balance, or maybe you've got an issue with one of the tires. I was going to suggest torque your ubolts to 85ft#'s to be sure you're not getting vibes from them being under torqued. When 4wp re balances your wheels, ask them to look if the rims are strait and true and the tires aren't wobbling. Could always be so.e sort of manufacturing defect.

 

My return sucked as well.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ6IAzyJhsY

 

All this talk of vibrations got me thinking about my take off vibration.

@Texoma - After I got my new wheels and tires I still feel the same vibration you felt when you mentioned I had the wrong lugs with my 17" Factory wheels upon installing my lift. I did install the OME driveshaft kit and still feel it at take off. I'm going to double check the torque on the bolts after I installed the kit but from there what should I check next? Been meaning to ask you this now for a while......

 

Saw this on saturday and couldn't stop laughing with his sound effects lol

Here's the terrible quality video I took. My coworker that uploaded the video decided to edit it with his own style. Disregard music lol

 

Lol - looks about like my passengers seat on any given ride.