Jump to content

Waz's Audi A3 3.2 V6 'quattro'


Waz
 Share

Recommended Posts

I’ve been chasing a knocking noise for a few weeks, and today I think I’ve found it. If I push down on the near-side front wing and then pull it up fairly quickly, a sharp metallic click issues from the shock strut. I’ve already replaced the droplink on MOT findings and can’t move the ARB easily, so I think it’s a damaged spring.

Everything looks very OEM and I am wondering what to do with it. If I was to do the whole package of springs and coils, what on earth would I go for and quite frankly, I don’t want to fit it myself. I think I’ve still got PTSD from the cheap KONI set I put on my MX-5

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The coil will only make a noise if a helix has broken and if that was the case that side would look lower... Most times it's the top mounts that knock. If you put your hand on the top mount and someone turns the steering left/ right you could feel the bearings grind if they are worn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Tony! I will certainly try that before I let myself be consumed with madness..

If I wanted to annoy someone with this sound artificially, I'd drill an M12 hole in something and fill it with an M10 bolt with a nylock on it and do it up enough to stop the nut falling off, but not enough to snug it to the surface, if that makes sense?

The sound is noticeable a slow speeds, but not really there at high speeds. Rough surfaces make it audible, but it's not exactly 1:1 with every bump on the street. I'm surprised that big divots in tarmac are just a normal thud in the suspension, but an uneven surface is a musical experience of a metal on metal bassline.

Which is why I was obsessing over the ARB and links.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At low speed you can have more steering action..... To test the roll bar or links just disconnect one side a test drive it. If the noise goes it's the roll bar rubbers or the links. If it's still there then i would really suspect the top mounts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 07/05/2019 at 18:51, Tony said:

At low speed you can have more steering action..... To test the roll bar or links just disconnect one side a test drive it. If the noise goes it's the roll bar rubbers or the links. If it's still there then i would really suspect the top mounts.

This was outstanding advice and simple to do! (ish)

I had previously bought a pair of new drop links due to MOT advice about one of the joints having a split rubber, and I was already chasing a minor knock. 

Having fitted it and had an absolute pain of a job to remove the upper ball joint, I put off doing the other side until another day. So I used this BH half-term week to set aside time to do the other side and get into the new noise. The 2nd link was just as awkward as the first, the lower joint came off straight-forward, but the upper one again was not having it and eventually I had to abandon the allen key that was camming out of the centre of the bolt and the spanner and go for mole-grips on the ball and a proper socket and bar on the nut side. 

Once I got this little bugger off, I test drove it to check the theory - silence! So I fitted the new link and went back round the block - clonk, clonk.

Off came the wheel on the side I originally did and once I had it up on stands, I jacked the hub end up until the ARB was unloaded and started prying - the new link I fitted last time was ever so slightly mobile at the ARB end, so I tightened it up and THIS was it! so I am more than convinced I did a proper job when I did it, but I can't be 100% sure I had no strain on the joints when I tightened them and as the fixing is this stupid nut + hex socket, I can't have checked the torque, so I will run a couple of hundred miles on the new one and re-check the tightness to avoid a repeat.

 

Thanks for the Sanity-check Tony!

IMG_5897.jpeg

IMG_5898.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

So MOT time reminded me to get this task done, as I was already only doing 1200odd miles a year before the pandemic brought everything to a standstill, and that is the brake pads were 'a bit low' apparently a year ago, when I bought tyres to spare my shame  at the previous MOT. So I thought it's proabably a luxury job to do disc and pads as a matter of course. 

375846283_Screenshot2020-09-10at18_04_25.png.0e9d3063d9738e556fb1eccb0b1dc8c7.png

This caliper may have travelled as far as it can to consume the pads. Maybe it was very timely that I get the job done.

 

919238658_Screenshot2020-09-10at18_05_32.png.33fd1740b3247fd8398f7ce99934e5fd.png

 

maybe a coule of mm left...

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Nice shiny new disc. that's 345mm of stopping pleasure, weighing in at 12kg per-side, I couldn't believe it when they were delivered.

2125871103_Screenshot2020-09-10at18_09_41.png.1faad58aabbb86676241d03589da6f1e.png

With the pads showing how much piston was really extended in the first pic...

1132902212_Screenshot2020-09-10at18_10_29.png.40cb055479ce9fda8e79ede97ce3c82d.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I was only just starting to touch the wear-wires, so it would have been a matter of days before it lit up the dash with the (O) of joy. 

which being VW they decided to only put on the LHS and not on both, so as mine were wearing ever so slightly more on the RHS, it goes to show that those kind of OEM money saving efforts are actually risking a safety failure. Needs some good old fashioned squeal tabs!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...