I have a set of HRE wheels with the stock tires on them. In the dry the car runs like it is on glass extrememly smooth up to even 120 mph. In the rain however I get a very serious vibration , the whole front end shakes at 67mph and above. I have a 2006 S4 with 15,000 miles. The dealer of course just looked at and said it is fine. The car is undrivable in the rain above 67mph. I figure it could be 2 things. Water accumulating in the wheels causing it to go seriously out of balance or the feature that dries the rotors in the rain (moves the calipers closer to the rotor) is malfunctioning. Once the rain stops everything is fine! Has anybody else had this problem?

Thanks

Arnie

 

It is very common for reverse lip 3pc wheels to have water trapping issues and throw them off balance. There is nothing you can do about it, just something you have to deal with. I have HRE C20's with stepped lips and never had a single issue but like I said this seems to happen with reverse lip wheels only.

BTW, there is no such thing as a feature which moves the calipers closer to the rotor to dry them in the rain??? Not sure where you may have heard that ...

 

its just water getting trapped inside the wheel

 

Its your reverse lip wheels as others have stated.

A4RingedONE8T:
You need to read up on your technologies. I believe all B7's have the brake disc drying feature. It basically just wipes the water off the brakes if you have not used them (like on the freeway where you have not braked in awhile and water accumilates on the rotors).

"All-new Audi A4 models come with the latest Electronic Stabilization Program, ESP®.... (edited irrelevant brake info)

...Yet another new feature is the brake disc wiping function integrated into ESP. This new function helps to keep the brake discs largely dry on wet roads even when the driver does not apply the brakes for a relatively long time.

To provide this effect, the brake linings are pressed against the discs under low hydraulic pressure at regular intervals, ensuring even more spontaneous brake response under wet conditions, too. This process goes unnoticed by the driver."

 

Ehh basically its applying the brakes ever so slightly. Thats crap, glad my car doesnt do that. 230 bucks for a set of pads is bad enough just from my foot let alone the car putting any wear on them

 

And thanks for the heads up

 

Thanks for all your comments it does make sense but it is really annoying! Is there anything you can do to prevent this? What do you guys do or is it a matter of just going slower? Here in NJ that means driving in the slow lane

 

It's so strange this always seems to happen with just HRE......we have never had that issue with anything we sell.

 

Its very common with Iforged as well. Its also inherent with a few wheel designs specifically, not all 3pc forged reverse lip wheels. IIRC Tirerack doesnt sell too many multipiece reverse lip wheels do they? A few OZ's maybe, and all the BBS wheels are stepped lip or a form of right?

 

So is there any fix for this problem? If I knew this I would not have bought these beautiful rims

 

Stepped lip FTW!

 

I had it happen to me once in a very heay rain with my Kinesis K18R's. I had to pull over let the water run out then continue on.

 

It is not just HRE that do this. The barrels for those wheels are manufactured by a company who distributes the exact same barrels for many other wheel manufacturers (HRE/DPE/IForged/etc). All of them will do it, it really has little to do with the lip. If you look inside the wheel at the barrel, you see a channel inside which is what retains the water and knocks the balance out of whack.

 

Since this is a Swiss company, I beleive, it is not a good design. I have been on the Autobahn in Germany in the rain going 130MPH. There is no way you can go that fast with these wheels. I am surprised TUV in Europe (Regulatory Authority) approves these wheels for use in Europe. What do they do in Europe? This is really nuts. 67mph is the limit of what I can take. At 70mph it is extremely scary.

 

Hello Arnie,
The rain vibration problem that you are experiencing is inherent to all reverse drop center wheels, that have a visible "hump" on the inner portion of the wheel. This geometry creates a trough between the face of the wheel and the drop center for water to accumulate, and throw off the balance. We have created a device that bolts into each wheel to lessen the vibration (but not eliminate it) that we will happily send any of our customers.

Please contact me or one of our sales reps, and we will ship you a set of these water diverters immediately.

Also, HRE is not a swiss company. All of the design and manufacturing is done in-house in Vista California. That being said, we are currently seeking TUV certification, but don't have it as of yet.

thank you,

Chad