First we'll deal with the suspension -

Drivers Rear spring has a crack so there's this low tone noise (squeak like but much lower) and its annoying but I know to fix that. (I have koni/bilstein kit on its way from purems now). I also have this really high pitched squeaking noise from the rear whenever the suspension travels up or down. The smallest bump in the road will make it squeak a few times as if whatever it is gets bounced a few times from one bump. Any idea what this could be? Its tough to locate and I can't tell if its coming from one side or the other.


Now the coolant leak - i had my car serviced and was told that the coolant was leaking at the temp sensor. So i replaced it. I can't see any leaks there anymore but my coolant is still leaking slightly (checked at the reservoir). When I turned on my AC today i stepped out of my car and saw a thin light gray smoke coming from under the hood. It disappeared by the time I ran over to the drivers door to pop the hood so I couldn't find where that was coming from but it was leaving the passenger side of the hood. Could these problems be related? I also have a bad gasket/exhaust leak where the manifold meets the cat. not sure if this is where the smoke was coming from.

 

I'd say your squeaking,when driving over bumps,is caused by your bushings going bad. or control arms,sway bar,inner or outer tie rods. take your pick

 

Coolant could be leaking from the coolant sensor flange where it attaches to the engine.

Can you replicate the squeek in the rear by pushing down on the trunk, or banging around underneath with your fists?

 

i'll test this out when i get back from the red sox game tomorrow night. or in the morning while my car is still cold. Squeaks don't happen when i push on the trunk i know that already. its a really weird squeak. like... one little bump will cause a chain of them until it fades.

As for the coolant flange i felt all around and couldn't feel any wetness today. I noticed a little area of the dirt where i park my car was a bit darker then the rest, it was puddle shaped, drivers side somewhere between the reservoir and the intake. Not sure if thats always been there so i parked in a different spot tonight

 

for the suspension, check out the fender liner where the outer A arm joins with the hub. my springs broke and somehow my outer A arms were both rubbing the fender liner. otherwise it's probably the outer bushing. as for coolant, check the coolant level sensor under the reservoir.

 

Had the same issue as you, always would feel at the flange because everyone told me that was the problem. No moisture...


Until one day it completely lost it's seal It drains down the back of the really hot head and vaporizes away, haha.

I can assure you if you pull that flange off, look at the head-surface mounting point on the flange, you'll see all the plastic around the o-ring has broken off.

 

If the leak is on the drivers side, it could be coming from a few different places. Hiwords could be right, coolant tanks like to leak, as do oil cooler lines.

 

i'll keep trying to track that down - when pushing my trunk down i can hear a loud "woosh" noise when the suspension travels back up. bad strut?

 

Everyone has the right idea...I ordered a whole suspension kit, I think it was from Blauparts...wasn't too bad costwise, quality is good, but it came with EVERYTHING I needed, new shocks, control arms,sway bar,inner,outer tie rods, new bushings etc... I think they have a kit, was a few years ago, but all has been good since then, I have over 268k on my 98 a4 quattro....Springs are expensive too, thank god for forums, but you already bought some from Billstein, but I found someone who had a set of four used ones off of a 60k car and put those on, because 3 of mine were broken!!!! GET a GOOD Coil/Spring compressor tool, a SAFE one, not the cheapy $10-$50 ones, you'll lose an eye....or break a window.....or worse, SAFETY FIRST!!!!!