Hello guys. Today I was driving down the highway to work going about 65 mph when my steering wheel made a sharp turn to the left. It was pulsating (for lack of a better word) and I had to put in some muscle to keep it straight. It kept pulsing and turning left. I was able to pull off the side of the highway so I stopped for a minute. I slowly accelerated and got back in the flow and it was fine for about a minute then it did it again. After those 2 times it drove fine, but now when I turn right there is a clunking noise. Something similar happened last night, but it just pulled to the left one time and then was fine, so I thought maybe there had been a groove in the road. I got the car recently, and it had been in an accident before....it was smashed on the driver side front...which is what would have happened again today if i hadnt pull it back from hitting that truck. help...

 

Oh, its a 97 A4 2.8L manual trans. FWD

 

i dont know what is causing that... but i would suggest next time u drive it... drive it to a mechanic if ur not handy with a wrench so u dont endanger others... or just get it towed... i hope u get it fixed soon man

 

Sounds to me like you've got a failing or failed control arm, ball joint, or tie rod end. Throw the front end up on a jack and take off the driver side wheel, since that is the most likely side causing the problem. With the wheel off, you'll be able to get a good look at the control arm setup and see if something looks worn or broken. There are four arms to look at, the tie rod end is hard to miss so just a quick visual inspection should reveal if one of the control arm links is snapped out of place (failed ball joint), the tie rod end is loose, or any of the bushings on the control arms look like they're about to turn to dust. Where are you located? Perhaps someone on here lives within a close range of you and can help you investigate if you don't have the tools. Good luck and welcome to the forums

 

Yea my plan was to take it to a shop tomorrow morning anyway. Just want to see if anyone has any ideas. I used to work on my previous cars, but now I just dont have the tools/space to work on the Audi.

 

Also, running an eye over the CV joints wouldn't be a bad idea either; after rereading your original post and seeing the mention of clunking when turning, CV joints came to mind so look into that as well.

 

Oh I live in Baltimore MD. At first control arm popped in my head because when I bought the car I read through endless posts on here saying that A4 control arms are notorious for breaking. I still have my jack and jackstands so I'll jack it up tomorrow and snoop around. I also need to replace my coolant temp sensor (already bought a new one) but this is waaaaaay more important right now.

 

might also be a tre.... or any "joint" that is popping...... maybe they fixed the problem and didn't align it so the original issue is showing it's ugly head....

 

Agree with all the above... if you jack it up, before you take the tire off, try to wiggle it side to side and top to bottom to see if there is any movement. That will tell you if the CAs are going bad.

The clunking noise you described could be a bad wheel bearing as well, but I'm not sure if that would cause the intermittent lack of steering control you described.

Just a couple thoughts to try and help...

 

if it is the control arms i have a set of brand new uppers that are new still in the bubble wrap if you want to buy them to save yourself some money