Terrible grinding noise as soon as I put it in gear.
 

Terrible grinding noise as soon as I put it in gear, even if I'm not moving yet. I get out of the car. The left front wheel is no longer centered. I was last trying to back out of a parking space and the wheel is pushed against the front part of the wheel well. I couldn't see behind the wheel to see what is disconected. I'll have it towed this afternoon. Any ideas what could cause this?

1997 A4 1.8t, quattro Automatic

RE: Terrible grinding noise as soon as I put it in gear.
 

Sounds like part of the suspension broke, causing the wheel/axle to be at a whack angle, causing interference with the gears inside the tranny/inner cv. Just a guess.... Maybe a broken control arm. I cant think of anything else.

RE: Terrible grinding noise as soon as I put it in gear.
 

OK, it looks like I completly lost a front left ball joint. That allowed the shaft to completely disengage. It also pulled a brake line out.

I've never actually lost a ball joint. I guess on these cars, we have to replace the whole lower control arm. We'll do both sides at once. There isn't a recall on these is there?

RE: Terrible grinding noise as soon as I put it in gear.
 

Naw, you just need to replace both tie rod ends, get the heavy duty version, not the oem.

You dont need to replace any control arms, unless they somehow were damaged, but not likely.

RE: Terrible grinding noise as soon as I put it in gear.
 

There is a ball joint in the lower control arm, i think thats what hes talking about?

RE: Terrible grinding noise as soon as I put it in gear.
 

Oops my bad, for some reason I mis-interpreted this as the tie-rod joint, my bad,

Probably do have to replace the control arm.