pr0xZen

My '99 A6 C5, 2.4 (lets say 2.8 to not scare anyone away) quattro avant (5-spd MT) is giving my headaches again. This issue has been with me for the 4 months I've had this car, but its gotten a bit worse lately.

When driving slowly in rush traffic, on/off gas and clutch - it pulls/rocks forwards and backwards like a little temperamental, skiddish horse. Its gotten passed annoying, passengers sometimes get queezy. Otherwise - when changing gears, I have to disengage the clutch so gently as if it was made of plastic - otherwise I get a very uncomfortable *thud* inside the cabin.

I've not been able to figure this one out. I've suspected engine / trans / diff mounts, but while I love it, its too old a car to blindly throw new parts at it, waiting to see which one (if any) sticks. I really don't know what I'm looking for here. I'm fairly good at "the work", but diagnosing suspension and rubber parts etc - is my Achilles' heel at this point. None the less, given the sympthoms its clearly something in/connected along the drivetrain, and I'm hoping to get this sorted before it ends up killing my gearbox, rear diff or similar.

I did a short video of the engine, attempting to launch in 1st and reverse, with parking brake on. Now the parking brake isn't 100% (a sticky rear caliper) so I couldn't give it the full go - but it should serve its purpose. Can someone take a look at it, and tell me if this is excessive engine movement? And, anything to indicate what might be the failure point?

Video clip here