Hi guys,

Well I just swapped out my old non-sport for s4 struts and springs. Lower and handles much better.

My problem is that there's a clunk type noise when going over any bumps. On my street for example, where there's built up snow and ice, it clunks the whole way till I get to major roads. It's definitely a clunk, not a creak. It sounds like something is loose, but I'm not sure what as I went over it twice and everything is tight.

I have searched and I know people will say replace all control arms. I actually already plan on doing this next week as I discovered I have about 1/2" play in my driver's side wheel... which explains the squirrelly turning at highway speed. But it did not clunk before I replaced the struts and springs.

Full disclosure: I did tighten the anti-sway bar links when the car was raised without load. I was tired, but realized later what I had done so I did loosen them and re-tighten with the car on the ground. Do you think I messed my anti-sway bar links? Any thing else it could be? Obviously it's not a big deal if the links are messed as I should have new ones soon, but it still bothers me that there is such a drastic sound difference.

I'm hoping it's something obvious I missed and hope you guys will chime in. Thanks.

 

Did you happen to replace the upper strut mounts? If not, your tighter suspension might cause clunking of the bearings in the strut mount. I may have this issue too.

I don't think your sway bar endlinks would cause this noise just from the situation you described - unless you drove a decent number of miles with them tightened the wrong way.

 

^^^what he said.

 

double check your upper strut mount bolts. also i think metalman is talking about the upper strut mount bushing, the huge rubber part, not the large metal mount itself.

 

Ah yes you're right, I meant bushing not bearing. This guy:

http://www.ecstuning.com/Audi-B5_A4-...trut/ES376120/
Obviously you can get the part much cheaper when not "Genuine Audi":
http://www.ecstuning.com/Audi-B5_A4-.../Strut/ES1903/

 

Dang, gotta go back in there I guess! lol. Thanks guys, I'll check out the pair of nuts holding the strut. The bushing was in good condition and fully seated before installing the whole assembly, but I'll check it again.

I'll report later with results.

Edit: forgot to mention I used the S4 rubber bushing. Should I have used the A4 one instead?

 

that upper strut nut needs to be at 44lbs, i had the same problem

 

As promised, I have an update:

Hiwords and BlueBoost, you guys were 100% correct. The nut at the top of both struts wasn't tight enough. I impacted them off, and figured I could impact them on. It was spinning a bit, but I figured I did enough. Some carefull tightening with a torque wrench and I got quite a few extra turns. No sound at all.

Why did it take so long to update? While doing the last side, I had significant play shaking the wheel. So I just finished changing all front control arms, inner and outer tie rods and sway bar links. Feels great so far!

Now need to install the short shifter and reduce the power steering power.

Thanks again guys.

 

Its not a good habit to tighten anything with the impact. It can cause major problems and headaches for you. It's just too easy to strip threads, over tighten and break expensive parts. I don't use the impact to put my lugs back on.

 

Yeah, no worries I never impact anything on, least of all lug nuts. For the strut I had the bolt down as far as I could go, then tried getting a little extra out of it with the impact gun. I was carefull about how far I would compress the springs and I didn't want to damage them, so I only compressed them as much as absolutely necessary. Thanks though.