Jack88

Well, after completing all my work, it seems I have a clunk in the front suspension, driver's side most likely. Also, a weird squeak developed last night, which may or may not be the same component. My suspicion is that a ball joint was damaged during the course of the work but I'm at a bit of a loss as to tell which one it may be. I already rechecked the torque of every component's bolts and nuts to make sure I didn't leave anything loose. My problem is there are 4 ball joints and I don't know how to tell which one it might be. Complicating it further is that one upper control arm ball joint boot was torn and another punctured during my work, either by me or by as I suspect the shop that pressed in the bushings. I used silicone to reseal them since I could not find a replacement boot and that seems to have held, but I can't be sure if there was any other damage beyond what was done to the boot. These control arms are around $300 each, I can't just start guessing. Google hasn't helped, it only shows me how to diagnose on setups with one ball joint upper and one lower, which I knew already.

MP4.2+6.0

Not enough info is sort of my reaction. The ball joints also seem robust from my own experience w/ them. As long as the tear was sealed promptly and fully, then that shouldn't compromise it. On the other hand if it was open to the weather and road crap, then problematic.

I wouldn't necessarily assume just there either. Why not the sway bar bushings as maybe the lowest hanging fruit? (Squeaking fits these too BTW) Why not the shock mount points?--either upper plate to the body, or strut to plate? Why not the internal shock, particularly if it has ever been rebuilt? Why not tie rod ends? Why not rack tightness? Low probability two: Why not rack bolt up points? Why not the whole cross brace that is in the plenum area but kind of buried? Each of these items has come up over the years on D3's.

If you are kind of at ground zero here, a hunch might be to go for sway bar bushings. Unbolt the big half moon clamps from the subframe and look them over. Or, quck and dirty first test: spay a lot of silicone in there and then drive to see if any noise change. Same test for upper control arm bushings and sway bar end links if not new BTW. By your car's age+miles, a good possibility the sway bar main bushings are shot if never dealt with before. I put the sway bar as third most likely wear point, after upper control arm bushings and the sway bar end links. Have you actually replaced the other two? After that, I would check steering for any play in rack or tie rod ends. My own experience at higher miles on C5 4.2 was it was actually the inner tie rod that went on one side, and you don't see that one at all since it is inside the big rubber expandable boot. You would find play though. Simplest check is when engine off but wheel unlocked, try cutting wheel back and forth and listen for any noise. Sometimes helps to have both wheels in air, especially looking for small amounts of looseness in rack. Tie rod ends would likely have some wheel shake at speed or maybe under braking, and you haven't mentioned that. Some vibration under braking and clunking would also be pointers to upper control arm bushings, and inner front tire wear would be kind of the trifecta of confirmation on those.

Jack88

The noise didn't exist before I did the work, it manifested immediately afterword, so I think it was something done during the course of it, either something not in quite right or something damaged. I replaced all the upper control arm bushings with OEM, the bushing on the lower control arms where the strut attaches, and the rear driver's lower control arm bushing where it attaches to the car. During the course of everything, both struts were removed, along with the upper and lower control arms, knuckle, and sway bar. Also replaced were the sway bar links with Lemforder units. I did use silicone on the damaged boots immediately, they were damaged during the course of repair, either by myself or the shop that pressed in the bushings, and were never exposed to road grime. I will have to reinspect everything again, I suppose, but I didn't see anything that indicated an installation error and everything is tightened appropriately. The sway bar bushings look good with no signs of cracking or deterioration. I appreciate the tips, the only symptom that existed before the work was a slight vibration at freeway speed, and I do know the car now needs an alignment, the wheel isn't quite centered to keep it straight anymore. Not a big surprise, given how much was played with.

MP4.2+6.0

Also look at engine mounts. IIRC you did the torque mount. But re check the main mounts. Look for the oozing out oil and/or big cracks just like the torque mount. The torque mount work could have exposed a main mount issue. When my torque mount failed, folks mentioned the main mounts then get stressed more and they may go after awhile too. Mine were ok.

Jack88

Good thought, I did check them. No sign of any fluid seepage, sides of those motor mounts are bone dry. The torque mount was replaced preemptively, it was heavily cracked but had not actually failed yet. It just looked like it would happen soon.

milellie111

Unfortunately I was in the same situation. The driver side clunk started right after I replaced my struts with rebuilt units. Replaced those with more rebuilt units from a different vendor and same thing. Went through three sets of struts. Clunk would return within a few days. Shop went through exhaustive hours, weeks and months unbolting pretty much whole suspension, replacing control arms, sway links, sway bar, tightening everything with load on the car. Clunk clunk clunk. Taken to Audi dealer who pulled it apart, looked at subframe bolts etc. no solution. Back to the shop looking at steering rack bolts, air suspension compressor mount bolts etc. no success. Guys on the forum gave me advice on check this, check that. Nope.

It is either:

1. Steering Rack. Shop told me they are pretty sure its the steering rack. They saw another with the D3 same issue. (I doubt that, why would a rack fail and start knocking on a strut change?). I was not about to lose another $2,000 changing out the rack. (

2. Struts. Numerous issues of rebuilt struts clunking after install. But who wants to spend $1500 per strut brand new from Audi on a car valued at $4,000-$6,000?

I ended up selling the car.

Jack88

I understand. It could be the rebuilt strut, but it just seems odd that it was fine before I handled the rest of the suspension, those were replaced months before and I had a few hundred miles on them. Other than not quite being perfectly centered after the work, the steering feels fine, but there is now and was before a light vibration at 70mph fairly often. I don't think an alignment will solve the clunk, so I am holding off on that until after I find the source of it. And the other night, the accompanying squeak sounded like a cat was stuck under the hood and didn't like it, and was caused by whoops in the road at speed. That noise is new, making me think something is progressing. The clunk seems to be from the driver's side, and was present from the very first drive after the work.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

It seemed many people have clunking sound after the R/R of the strut, I think it's operator errors. On top there are 3 rubber bushings or washers where the studs of the assembly go up to the fender, these must be missing or broken somehow or tightened unevenly. My wife help me to screw in the nuts and didn't know about the bushings.
Cheers,
Louis