I own a 2010 TDI A3 and had a moderate drivers side front fender accident. I got hit one morning in May 2011, from a BMW 5 series. It wasn't a big accident, I was going about 25 - 30 mph and he was going about 35. I had it in the body shop for a month or so, and when it was completed I took it on a test drive and everything seemed to work fine. A few days later I went on a trip from SoCal to Oregon. It was on the back roads that I noticed a small noise( rattle) coming from the left front suspension area. Most notable when the windows are closed. Took it back to the body shop and they recheck everything, put it up on a couple of different rack that stress different components of the vehicle, and retorqued everything. Took it on test around the shop's neighbor hood and still heard the noise. The shop was at a loss as what to do. All the new parts were from the Audi wharehouse. So I took to our local Audi dealership for them to look at it and tell us what and where the problem was. Communication from the service advisor was on the horrendous side. We were accused at first of inferior parts, parts overtorqued, installed incorrectly and or damaged on installation. And lastly, perhaps I did something to the vehicle. The body shop guy went down to the dealership to assess the situation and the dealership wanted to put in new parts that the body shop had already done. It was finally decided to put in new sheer bolts because of what another dealership tech. had recommended. The vehicle has been at the dealership for two weeks now and this last friday the 26th dealership called to say they put everything back together with the new sheer bolts and the car still makes the noise. The insurance company will not pay to have new suspension parts put in again and no one has answers. I was thinking of going to a radio and TV auto host with my problem and I am confident he can pin point the problem as he hates when people don't don't know how to fix something, they just throw parts at it.
So that's my problem, take the car as is or pay the dealership for new parts.

 

Problem solved. By looking in AllData there are a few problem areas and one of them was a "Light cracking or rubbing noises from suspension strut when steering" Repositioning and a burr on the coil were mentioned in the bulletin, and the body shop made the repairs and everything is fine.
Towards the end the dealership finally said to change out the lower control arm and that would solve the problem but it didn't. We knew that, duh, since most of the suspension had been replaced already. But what the heck, maybe the dealership knows something- not.
The body shop was nice enough not to charge for the labour, so my next move is to try and get the dealership to reimburse me for the cost.