I recently purchased an '01 A8L with 47K miles. I noticed that once the car is warmed up and driven for about 30+ minutes the steering wheel makes a creaking noise when I turn it about 1/8th of a turn or less. It also seems to go away above 5 mph or so.
I can't isolate the noise to the steering wheel, linkage or something else. It doesn't sound far enough to be coming from the suspension (control arms/bushings?). It sounds like it's coming from inside the car.
Has anyone run into this and found a solution? It's minor but it's bugging the hell out of me.

 

Could be alot of things. Steering wheel rubbing on plastic trim. Clockspring. Column bearings. U joint for steering rack.