Annoying (still undiagnosed) rattle from front suspension

Hi All,

I bought my Audi A2 1.4 TDI car just over a year ago. I had pretty much most of the front suspension replaced by Tony at A2 cars and all was good. 6 months in there started this little rattle which sounded like it was coming from the front off side suspension. Tony looked at it and couldn't find anything.
Though there were other various issues found which took precedent so the damed rattle could not be located or identified.

Needless to say the car has gone back to Tony for many other issues so I decided to try and ignore the rattle.

The car went back to A2 cars last week too have two new front 15" Dunlop Sport 300 tyres for £200 put on and now the rattle is still there and worse than ever.
Plus there is quite pull to the left.
OMG, it is time to sort this out once and for all.

After some google searching I found someone talking about the same issue but he called it a conn link. Is that the console bush or a track rod end?

I've got some free time next week and intend to sort out all of the niggling issues including this rattle.
Any ideas guys?

I suspect 'conn link' is just another term for roll bar drop links.

I had one which had so little free play on one end that it could not be diagnosed as faulty while still on the car.

If it's not already been done, remove the suspect drop link and check each ball joint for play. A 'good' joint will be quite stiff to move.

Cheers Spike

When failed these can really make some worrying/awful rattling noises. Just had my off-side one replaced, as the bottom joint had failed. As per spike's post needs to be quite stiff to move.

Cheers Guys. I'm all over this this weekend.
Worse case scenario, if one broke or became detached what would happen?

Hi. Found the answer. Handling issues and potential secondary damage if they break. Better get on this ASAP.

I had the same issue once turned out to be the plastic sleeve off the old style anti roll bar may be worth a check?

I recently had both my droplinks and both arb bushes replaced. No more rattling noise. Big thank you to Marcus and Rob at WOM automotive for sorting this out.

It is really surprising just how much better the car feels and how much more pleasurable the drive is once you have sorted out rattles.

I actually lowered a Bowie track the other day just to listen to the silent running (and background pleasant engine hum).

Steve B

Update. I finally got round to checking the car. I was all in for a days discovery. I'd jacked up the car, put it in on stands, was in the process of removing the engine cover from underneath and thought I'd now take a look at the drop links (Conn links) as suggested and bingo one was rattling. I had checked them before but no rattle and think that as the car was now one stands the wheels were not supporting anything so it left everything loose for me to find.
I popped over to TPS in MK on my Motorbike and picked up two new Conn links and rode home. I'd just got to my driveway as was about to turn around and noticed that someone had churned up the tarmac drive and some of it had turned into gravel. Typically distracted by this I braked directly over the gravel and lo and behold skidded directly on it, lost balance and the weight of the bike took me over. All at 0 miles per hour. The bike's rear view mirror pinged off up the driveway and I was left lying on the floor.
A quick google search and a £23 ebay purchase later for two new wings mirrors I was back on track with the car.

I then set about putting on the new drop links, which I must say, look cheap, tacky and very light weight versions of the sturdy originals that have probably been on the car for 260,000 miles.

It took over 4 hours to put them on. Actually it only took 15 minutes per link but I had to stop in-between to go to my daughters sports day.

The new Conn Links have a nut and on the central bolt a hole for an allan key with multi points (Spline?) key.
A little bit more fiddly to put back on but done and hey presto no rattles. Phew.

Thank god as A2 cars had suggested that it could be my engine mount and that was not going to be a cheap fix. Double Phew.

Now I have to fix the doors as they've gone again, collect the top side missing engine cover from Tony, respray the brand new replacement wheel cap and a few other annoying issues and the car should be back up and running. Yey.

Thanks to all who offered advice.

Glad you got it sorted David. Rattles will be the nightmare of many a professional mechanic as I'm sure it'll be trial and error on many occasions unless experience is directing you to a likely cause. We all know there are lots of potential areas where an A2 can develop a rattling noise. I can't recall how long I pondered over the rattling noise I thought was behind the dashboard but turned out to be the bonnet catch. Thanks to knowledge gained on these pages it's sorted.

Unfortunately if a business gets the diagnosis wrong you've still got billable hours and parts paid for but an unsatisfied customer. Nightmare! !

Hi

I have a similar issue which I am finding hard to diagnose. I have the car a few weeks and have taken it back to the garage I bought it from. He had it up on the ramp and had a good poke around. Drop links and various bushings all checked using leverage and rocking wheels etc. everything looks fine. Bonnet was checked too.
Unfortunately the knocking is still there. It's quite loud at speed and seems to be coming from front offside. If I hit anything like manhole cover, speed ramp etc at any speed its there. If I drive at 30/40 mph down a bad road and hit any hollow or bump it is there. If it's a hollow that spans the entire road it only seems to affect the left hand side. The garage is trying to convince me its the 17" alloys with low profiles that's causing it but I dont buy it - the right hand side is ok under the same conditions
Is there anything else I should be looking at - this post mentions engine mounts, does this sound symptomatic of that?

Any suggestions appreciated before I take it back to garage on Tuesday to get timing belt fitted.

Regards
Low

Hi,

Firstly, ignore the 17" wheel as a cause of the knocking.

Audi built the A2 as a sport version with 17" alloys, so it is not that.

Try the following.

on the outside of the car thump the bonnet with the side of a clenched fist (not too violently). Do it exactly at the corner of the bonnet (the part that is nearest to the windscreen on the side you are getting the noise from.

You may find that this replicates the noise you are having.

If it does, the parts are really cheap from Audi and you can use a bit of foam packing under the bonnet at that corner.##Try thmping it gently and let us know what happens.

Steve B

I went through the same thing when I bought my car; took the mechanic for a quick drive to find some split speed-bumps to demonstrate that it only happened driver's side front (they were also keen to blame low profile tyres stating that it was normal). They correctly diagnosed it as the strut mount.
Obviously running 17s on a car designed for 15s puts a lot of stress through the suspension and this now appears to be a fairly common problem, VAG do a heavier duty part should it be the culprit: 6Q0 412 331B.

If you hit a pothole it doesn't really matter a lot what size wheels you have you (and the suspension) will feel it !! (I do agree though that the 17" wheels are more prone to damage on significant pot holes, but that is due to the alloy used and the design of the wheel. 17" wheels sometimes buckle far too easily.

Sorry for sounding like a broken record but the difference between the 15" and 17" is ONE inch of sidewall.

Yes there is a difference, but it is a tiny difference. You will have more of a difference by running 15" wheels with tyres that are slightly over-inflated, or with cheaper tyres that are less flexible.

The A2 was designed to have 15" to 17" wheels fitted, Audi fitted them and sold them with these options on it.

With the roads we have here, you are absolutely right to suggest heavier duty parts!!

Steve B

Birchall said:

Sorry for sounding like a broken record but the difference between the 15" and 17" is ONE inch of sidewall... The A2 was designed to have 15" to 17" wheels fitted, Audi fitted them and sold them with these options on it.

Click to expand...

I know that the 17s were a factory option but given that mine sits on lower profile tyres than my colleagues Porsche... I can't help but think that they were squeezed in! I have no idea what suspension the 3l sits on but you could say 14" to 17" OE wheels.
N.B, I much prefer the feel that the 17s give over my winter 16s. Some compliance / refinement at low speed wouldn't go a miss though -- but not at the expense of body roll .

just fitted the 331Bs, they are significantly heavier duty than the originals.

You will have to remove the complete strut to change it, though... but normally steering while standing still is likely to cause a set of noises on that side, because the bearing has to work. Frequently it's the bearing that fails and not the mount.

- Bret

tagscuderia said:

I know that the 17s were a factory option but given that mine sits on lower profile tyres than my colleagues Porsche... I can't help but think that they were squeezed in! I have no idea what suspension the 3l sits on but you could say 14" to 17" OE wheels.
N.B, I much prefer the feel that the 17s give over my winter 16s. Some compliance / refinement at low speed wouldn't go a miss though -- but not at the expense of body roll .

Click to expand...

Yes
the low profile tyres do help reduce the body roll a little and also the steering response is slightly improved.

I love the 18" tyres on the project. They give a comfortable ride and feel great on corners.

Steve B

Hi

Ok, so I brought A2 back to place I bought it (2.5 hour drive!) as he had to do timing belt - car is low mileage but is 11 years old and timing belt was never changed. I did ask him to check suspension again as the knocking is still there. When I came back he said something about about nut loose on subframe on left hand side and that was probably causing it. I took him at his word and it seemed fine for most of the drive back except for the last 20 miles or so where there are some serious dips in the road and the road camber puts a lot of pressure on left hand side and low and behold the knocking was still very pronounced.
I think I am going to have to check the strut mount now as everything else suspension wise seems ok. The timing kit took him longer than expected and to be honest I don't think he had the time/energy to take the strut completely off to examine it

Where is the best place online to order audi parts i.e. front left strut mount for starters

regards
Low

Hi

I still have an issue with a knocking noise on the left hand side of the car. To date I have replace strut mounts and drop links on both sides and the bushings on the wishbone on the left wheel - all with genuine audi parts. I am now running out of ideas as is the mechanic dealing with the issue - also, there are not too many A2s over here in Ireland and he has no one he can touch base with to get some pointers on the issue.

As for the bonnet mounts being the issue - I have driven through a section of road which I know will cause the problem, with and without the bonnet on: the noise is there in both cases. My son has recently bought an A2 and his car does not make the noise on this section of road. This leads me to conclude that there is definitely still an issue here and it really sounds like its from the front left wheel. Any ideas would be really welcome?

regards
Liam

Have you checked the anti roll bar bushes, they are a known issue, they can move away from the bracket.

Steve B