NR04

Yes, I cut out one of the ridges and just reinstalled the black plastic dust cover. I think H&R springs lower the car by quite a bit so my guess is you're riding very close to bump stops. Whether that is the culprit of the noise or not, you should get a better ride once you properly set the bump stop. Good luck and let us know what your mechanic finds.

saifxnyc

ok npr he sprayed the rubber inside the springs i have a picture here. He said its probably the strut mounts but where are the bump stops in this picture? He sprayed WD40 on the rubber and it has stopped creaking a bit but it is still major creaking driver side a bit and the car has 250 miles on it since the installation and audi aligned it not to long ago and the alignment is off bad i am going to the dealer this monday the check that out and will be buying struts mounts i also want the new bump stops would that solve the problem he thinks so? Where can i buy good strut mount and bump stops i don't want to spend a fortune i already have!

http://genuineaudiparts.com/parts/20...iagram=1352340

NR04

#3 is the top strut mount. It's a metal bearing piece with rubber surrounding. Depending on your mileage, it could be worn out or not. I ended up replacing mine during the strut installation because they were fairly cheap to replace so I purchased them before actually inspecting them. Lemforder is the OEM brand and a lot cheaper to buy from other sources (like RockAuto) than the dealer. However, upon inspection, I didn't need a new set. They had 50K miles.

There is also a rubber mount on the bottom seat (#10) but your new strut comes with new seat with rubber.

#9 is the bump stop and #6 is the dust shield.

Once again, the bump-stop's job is to prevent extreme compression of the strut/shock hence avoiding early failure of the inner seals. The actual material of the bump-stop is hardened rubber so it actually acts as a spring with a very high rate. In other words it softens the impact.

Here is the issue.... Let's say the stock and non-sport suspension system has 2.5" of travel before the bump stop reaches the strut body and prevents further compression. If you lower your car with shorter springs (let's say by 2"), you will only have 1/2" of travel before the bump stop comes in contact with your strut. That's why a lot of people end up either cutting their bump stop or getting new sport ones when lowering their cars.

Audi sport or S-line version bump stops are pretty expensive. And I couldn't really find a right after market ones. That's why I went the cheap route of just cutting some off my original ones. Keep in mind that I only lowered mine by about 1" from stock. Yours is definitely lower so I'm guessing you don't have much of a travel in your strut/shocks right now.

Either way, that shouldn't make the creaking noise you're talking about. If your bump stops are preventing proper travel in your suspension, your ride quality would suffer but there should be no sound.

You didn't mention whether your mechanic checked for that white washer to prevent the noise. You should be able to check it yourself. My guess is that you're missing the washer..... Oh, and just to be clear, the white washer comes with the Koni set and is part of proper installation of their shocks.

saifxnyc

He said I had the washer in there I bought koni shocks from ecs tuning. The car went from stock to being 1.6 in lowered. On Monday Audi is aligning it and I'm getting the strut mount and I have 96K miles on this 07 A6 I drive cross country a lot. I will have Audi check the car diagnose the issue before I go the route of buying any parts. I'll triple check the washer on all sides if the car again just be sure may be he missed something and is avoiding to take it all apart it was one hell of a job. My ride quality hasn't suffered much at all except its stiff and make that noise like balloon rubbing or rubber rubbing against each other only on bumps even if its the slightest. I sunk 6K on the car in control arm kit struts and shocks. I'm pretty much getting to the point where I want to burn it lol but I can't do that. I'll keep you posted see what happens on Monday thanks for the information greatly appreciated sir
If you don't mind telling me or got a picture of a modified bump stop. Because my mechanic wants me to print out the instructions ill be printing your post.

saifxnyc

Ok so i had my car left overnight with audi and the technician who aligned it said there is play in my left tie rod and it wasn't there when the car was aligned on Jun 20 last month. He thinks that is the reason why the car is doing that in the front end driver side. And the rear he suggested to grease the sway bar bearings. They didn't say anything else about the matter. I will have my mechanic grease these bushings and get these tie rods first thing and let you know what happens after i align the vehicle for one last time before going nuts

NR04

If there is a play in tie rod then you should feel rattle/vibration through your steering wheel when going over rough surfaces.

The sway bar bushings can definitely squeak/creak, but I was under the impression this problem didn't start until you changed your springs/shocks. Installing new springs/shocks doesn't require any change to the sway bars, except removing the end links.

Let us know how this turns out. I'm very curious now... Good luck!

saifxnyc

I ordered the lemforder outer tie rod from ecstuning. The problem didn't start until new springs were out in along with control arm and struts but Audi didn't see any problem with it. What do you mean by removing the links on sway bar I'm curious I have new sway bar links in the front also lemforder. I will take it back to Audi Monday for an alignment. After I do all the things they said I will grease everything that there is to grease under that car!

rudyo78427

I had the same creaking noises coming from the drivers side mostly after I had lowered my A6. I went from the base springs to eibach lowering springs with stock shocks. 1.2" drop. Since it wasn't a big drop, I kept the stock shocks on. Shortly after about 50miles or so, I noticed the creaking noises when going over speed bumps or drive way inclines. After some trouble shooting and my mechanic suggested replacing the upper control arms due to worn bushings, the problem was still present. What ended up fixing the noise come to find out is that the lower control arm bolts needed to be loose when the car is lowered resting on the full body weight then re-tightened after new springs are installed. I did two alignments prior with no fix until an experienced VW/Audi tech mentioned the fix to my mechanic. Since the lower control arm bolts were torqued to the higher stock spring positions/travel, when lowering, it added more stress to the bushings/bolts.Been great ever since. Hope this helps...

newa6er

That actually makes sense for all the control arms, upper/lower/front/back. While some may not creak, the rubber bushings in the control arms will be stressed causing them to wear out quicker.

One of those reason why tuned cars are worth less than stock cars.

am_ver

I had the creaking noise - and it only came from the rear wheels. And the noise would only surface after it rained a bit.

solution:

These is a black bushing (something like the Michelin man) around the strut. The mechanic slightly raised the car and was able to cut off some of this rubber thingie using a utility knife. Lowering the car makes this part too long. No issues since.