1998 A6 2.8 Quattro, 145k

If I turn my steering wheel back and forth I get a pop sound. My buddy thinks it is the Tie rod/Tie Rod ends. I jacked up the car and there is a little play in the passenger side front tire. I had the Tie rods replaced about 2 years ago and my buddy said they should have not gone bad that quickly. My question is there anything that needs to be tightened before I go replacing parts? Also can you just replace the knuckle? Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks

 

You should have an expert look at it. It needs to be on turn plates to do it right.

 

You do not say which way the tire moves due to the play. Look the rubber boot around the tie rod end and the one around the ball joint at the bottom of the hub carrier. If one is ripped you have your culprit. My guess is that if you hear a pop it is from the ball joint which can be very dangerous if it fails.

 

The tire has a little play side to side. I did not see anything ripped when I took off the tire. I had a shop look at the car about 6 months ago and they said to get rid of the pop, I only heard occasionally then, was to tighten the steering by removing the battery and tightening something. The shop didn't really go into detail as to what it was. I want to see if I have a real issue here. I don't want to be driving a car that is not safe.

 

I had to tighten the steering rack to the car. The noise went away and the steering was better. There are 2 bolts that have to be tightened which require the battery to be removed.