sidespar

The symptom is a clunking/rumbling/crunching kind of noise during normal driving coming from the front right side of the car. I jacked the front right up,and I noticed that I could 'push' the wheel upwards about a quarter of an inch. The front left wheel doesn't have any vertical play like this at all.

And here's the story:
I recently drove my 90 for the first time in a month the other day. I had just turned the rotors and took the car out to bed in the brake pads. On the first 60mph-10mph heavy braking session, I heard a loud 'pop' from the front right of the car. I decided to go ahead and finish bedding the pads in with 10 or so more 60-10mph stops. When I got back, I checked the rotors and pads, and everything looked good, so I couldn't figure out what that pop was. Since then, I've noticed this rumbling issue, which seems to be worsening the more I drive the car.

I think I've had this problem before, and I can't remember if replacing the strut mounts fixed the problem, or if replacing the entire strut did. I know that I had to put on new struts AND mounts.

So, what does this sound like? Is there anyway to test whether it's just a bad mount and not a bad strut? Maybe something just got loose? The pop I heard sounds a lot like the pop you hear when you try to tighten the nut at the top of the strut assembly.

Thanks.

95naudi90

<ul><li><a href="http://www.vintageaudiperformance.com/Mount-Savers.html">also, may want to check these out</a></li></ul>

sidespar

Is there a write-up for mount replacement? Specifically, how do I compress the spring?

VAP

From "Anatomoy of an OEM strut mount, Part 1" listed below on this page:

"If pressed beyond that via hydraulic or large capacity arbor press, hard braking or when encountering a large bump/pothole in the road that tries to push the mount floor past it's travel limit it will simply split the mid-brace loudly and explosively and the mount will go into full collapse."

Could explain the noise you heard and will be evidenced by mount seat sitting up squarely against the underside of strut tower bore when car is parked.<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/9080/msgs/403409.phtml">Anatomy of an OEM strut mount, Part 1</a></li></ul>

95naudi90

STFA, cvTech has a perfect write up with pics

S4gasm (LoTR)

i have a article in the tech section..check my sig.

Brdman*

the links tend to rumble when the joints have play.

sidespar

Last time this happened, I ordered new mounts only to find out upon installing that the inserts were bad too (probably from driving on bad strut mounts so long?), and I then had to order those.

VAP

if less than 1/4" mounts are likely good. If more than 1/2" mounts are trashed. But as Brdman pointed out the swaybar links are also known to make a similar sound when worn/broke. Short of that only "going in" (surgery) is the only 100% way of knowing.