# VW Atlas Shacking, Steering Wheel Vibration



## ThomasM (Jul 30, 2020)

I have a 2019 VW Atlas R-Line. Vibration is felt in the steering wheel and seat at cruising speeds of 60-75mph. The tires have been balanced 3 times, 2 times at the dealership and once at a reputable tire dealer. All of which did nothing to fix the issue. The dealer informed me that the tires need replacing and gave me a quote for $1,200. The tires (Continental Crosscontact) had less than 10,000 miles and less than 2/32 of wear. Still under warranty. The dealer as a last resort did a road force balance which showed a little improvement but the vibration was still present. After a great deal of discussion/arguing the dealer agreed to send the tires back to Continental for replacement under warranty. I am still waiting on the verdict.
Question is, has anyone else resolved this issue by replacing the tires? Or is this a much deeper defect, mechanical, causing the vibration?


----------



## speed51133! (Aug 5, 2002)

Shaking.


----------



## RLineWeasel (Jul 1, 2020)

Agree with the post above that it's a tire issue. 
I replied to another thread on here about vibration, explaining my reasoning for it being a tire issue, and not a wheel / tire balance issue.


----------



## lnd3270 (Nov 3, 2020)

After stalking this forum for months, I joined for the sole purpose of responding to your post. I realize it's from July, but wanted to chime in in case you were still having this issue. I had a 2019 Atlas bought as CPO from a VW dealership in April 2020. I made 5 trips to the VW dealership for this issue over a 6 month period. Drove great when I got it. I took it in for the first service, the tires were rotated and I left with the car vibrating badly. I could feel it in the seat, steering wheel, pedals, all over the car. I couldn't use my visor mirrors it shook so badly. The dealership said the alignment was off just slightly enough for me to notice a and wanted me to pay $400 for an alignment for a car I had been driving just a couple of months. No thanks. They decided to rotate my tires back to the way they were previously. No change. Then they determined that the tires were worn unevenly, cupping, too soft, and just crappy tires in general. They still had a good bit of tread left, but we ended up replacing them with a new set of tires for our peace of mind through a local, reputable tire shop. My husband's company has used this tire shop for years and years, so we trust them completely. The shaking/vibration intensified with the new set of tires. Tire shop rebalanced tires and added more weights before eventually replacing the set with another brand new set. No change. What was strange was that each time the tires were balanced/rotated, the car would ride fine for a couple hundred miles before the vibration would start up again, worse than it previously was. The VW dealership checked my wheels and they were "100% true." They put my 2019 wheels/tires on a brand new 2021 Atlas and the 2021 Atlas wheels/tires on my 2019 just to make sure the tires weren't the problem before proceeding to replace the differential. They claimed the vibration went away completely, trying to blame the tire shop, but it did not, so we didn't think tires were the problem. During one of my many service trips, I found out the car had been wrecked prior to owning it (the dealership claimed it was clean and marked the box as so on the CPO paperwork), they took it back and I got 2021 Atlas. I wanted to keep the same black wheels, so they took them off of my 2019 and put them on my 2021. Low and behold, my brand new 2021 Atlas- straight off the truck with 3 miles on it- was vibrating in the same manner though not as bad as the 2019. They ended up doing the road force balance on all of the wheels and said they just couldn't get the back two to balance out the way they should and replaced both wheels with brand new. VIBRATION DISAPPEARED! (while the wheels were obviously part of the problem, I'm convinced the 2019 had another issue going on that just compounded with the vibration from the wheels.)


----------



## mdtony (Mar 3, 2008)

Wow, sorry to hear about all your problems. Sometimes wheels are just hard to balance. I was having this issue on my old VW cc. But at the end of the day someone finally got it right and vibration dissapeared

Good luck to you guys.


----------



## 2018 SoCal Atlas Owner (Oct 4, 2018)

*Shaking, Steering Wheel Vibration . . .*



ThomasM said:


> . . . Question is, has anyone else resolved this issue by replacing the tires? Or is this a much deeper defect, mechanical, causing the vibration?


Check out the following link: https://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?9336587-Atlas-Vibration-faster-than-70mph


----------



## KarstGeo (Jan 19, 2018)

Have it on our 18. Not bad but noticeable after 75. We rarely drive it that speed and at 30k miles/3 years coming up soon I'll replace the tires which is the likely culprit.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk


----------

