austinado16

Quick review as this has been ongoing since buying the car in June and I finally decided to just let it get so bad that it was easily duplicated.

Started with clunk/thud type noise in the floor that could be felt in your feet when you just started to accelerate or just before coming to a stop.

Recentering the front snubber mount helped, replacing front motor mounts improved it, replacing the rear transmission mounts cured it...

Then we started getting a popping sound during take off, and then right before stopping....*pop-pop-pop* Sort of a binding type of sound. Replacing the new front KYB GR-2's with Boge Turbo Gas didn't help and the top strut bushings were also new.

Noticed the noise wasn't present at all when the car was cold, but after driving for 10-15min would commence and get worse the longer you drove until it was popping while turning, or going in and out of driveways etc.

Okay....so fast foreward to today. After a number of errands and it's about 75*F out, the noise was just crazy. So bad infact, that I could finally just sit in the driveway and turn lock to lock and it would pop like crazy.

Got my wife to start turning it lock to lock while I listened, watched, and grabbed every part of the steering, suspension and subframe to feel where the popping was occuring.

Weirdest thing I've ever seen. The noise was transmitting through every piece to the point that it almost seemed like steering rack.

Ultimately, I pulled the belly pan and watched the front right swaybar mount popping and moving due to loose bolts.

Just tightened up the foreward most bolt with a 1/2" air impact gun and the noise is now gone...at least in the driveway. The rear bolt is really loose and spinning with the gun, so I've got to come up with a way to grab the top of the bolt.

So, with the stiff power steering fixed and now this, I'm a happy Avant owner again....

.....just back from a test drive and it's all quiet.

quattro2turbo

How did you replicate it? Did you put the front on stands?

Brdman*

The S-Cars have proper clearence, me thinks, but not the V6s. That's what Bentley says anyway.

austinado16

But yes, otherwise I would have had to remove the right motor mount to get any sort of tool down into the holes in the top of the front subframe.

austinado16

Not to be a jerk, but give my post another read.

islingtonaudi

I want air tools for Xmas....they make life so much easier!

austinado16

Get an old school 2 cylinder compressor for <$100 and you'll be dialed in

quattro2turbo

lol.. woops.. dont mind me, had a rough week..

austinado16

No worries, I figured you'd just blown past that part

DaveInSaltLake

It's about time! Any idea why it was temperature dependent?