Hi. I'm totally new to this so here it goes:

Basic history: Previous owner lowered the car.
My son-in-law replaced one of the stabilizing arms to front passenger wheel. We replaced the battery (we used the accessory tool w/ 9 volt battery to keep power supplied to the computer since some sites said not doing this could cause problems). Then he put in new plugs and checked gapping. He also recently put new rear wheel bearings in. Plan on doing the front this week.

Car ran great. At first I noticed a clunk after shifting from 4th to 5th gear, but it seemed to be mostly when going up hill and especially through curves. (He replaced the stabilizing arm.)

Clunking still happened and more frequently - even in lower gears when winding (accelerating) through the gears. (He put in new spark plugs, researched - I guess audi's can be picky about spark plugs? and gapped them.)

It did great for a spell. Then the clunking has started again. Same instances - like when the engine is under more of a load - either winding through the gears - high rpms - (no I am not a speed demon) or climbing through the hills.

The rear wheel bearings got rid of the 'road whine' sound in the back. We figure if they were bad, front are due too and will get those this week.

Sorry to be so long but I see a lot about motor mounts, if the car has been lowered, etc on posts and other blogs and wondered if you might have some focus for us since his work schedule limits his time in the garage.

Thanks for your time. I'll be sure to follow up with anything we discover.

 

Where is the clunk coming from?

And for the record, front wheel bearing failure is quite rare. Don't bother unless you have the telltale signs. In almost 10 years, I have yet to come across one that needed the front bearings done.

 

It sounds like it is somewhere between the back of the engine and the floorboards (as you said). Although I don't notice vibrations. I have not heard the sound for a couple of days. Guess, I'll try to push her a little harder tomorrow.

The front passenger side had a bad stabilizing arm. He replaced it - the play got better but there was still a rattle in the front - usually only hear it at slow speed - in town, parking lots, etc that are rough - so he put the front wb in. It sounds much quieter now. Steering is so much better in this car than our other vehicles - Chevy Silverado and Escorts. Haha

He said the bushings for the back passenger stabilizing arms need replaced.

It also needs brakes and rotors - he said it looks like the brakes were worn down to the metal and then new ones put on but the rotors weren't turned - a no no in our book.

I've had the car for less than half a year. The previous owner seemed more concerned with lowering it and plastidip. It has over 220K on it. Seems to run great and be in really decent shape other wise. I'll try to post some pics. Nothing fancy but I love driving it. I tease my hubby and say it's 4 years from car shows ;P (We tend to be long term owners 350K plus kind of vehicles. Lol)

 

I posted a few pics. Pales in comparison to some, but she's solid and I love it.

 

I'm such a newb at this turbo stuff. I spent an hour + texting my son-in-law ;P Please forgive my lack of terminology - Evidently my car has a chip (tune) as well? My gas mileage today was 28.79 mpg. I drive 41 miles one way to work 5 days a week, mostly curvey hilly highway. I don't feel like that is too shabby. I'm not un-teachable - My dad is a mechanic and I was an honor graduate as a generator mechanic in the army. My dad would say they teach too much part swapping :P Taking the Audi for her first long road trip with us this weekend. We'll see how she does. Then beginning of next week back to looking at some things on it.

 

Regarding the front wheel bearings - he said they weren't near as bad as the back but weren't great and dry. Baby steps.

 

The car did great on the trip. It seems that once we fix one thing, we notice something else needs some TLC. I really can't wait to get the springs replaced where the previous owner lowered it. Anyway, the clunk is still present but not worse. It doesn't always happen in the expected situation - under a load (running up through the gears or going up a hill where the RPMs are increasing).
My son-in-law has been working a lot of OT so we haven't incestigated much more at this point. The car is still getting good mpg.

 

That clunk could be a glazed spark plug. Since it went away when you replaced the plugs and returned after a time, this leads me to believe that one of the new plugs is glazed. Read my post about (link below) and see if this what you are experiencing. It sounds very familiar to me. I think one of the O2 sensors was going out and causing the issue in my case.

https://www.audiforums.com/forum/gen...k-plug-218806/

 

dave944 - thanks for the feedback. I'll have him check again.
I have not noticed a 'clunk' for a while. But I drive the same hilly curvy road, 41 miles one way, over and over, since 2001, so it's pretty methodical with changing gears etc.

I fueled up the other day and did the math and got 30 mpg. My dad has always taught me that the first thing suffers due to bad plugs, wires, or filters is your gas mileage, and mine is better than ever.

 

Now, I have a new thing happening: while 'coasting' (not touching the accelerator) and in gear, going down a hill, and then a few miles down the road, coming up on a stop sign, again 'coasting' (not touching the accelerator) and in gear, my car died on me. Completely stalled out.
I turned the ignition off, took it out of gear, and started it and it ran fine. No sputtering before it happen. No clunking.
No specific lights flashed that I noticed during this event. Unfortunately, I am a victim of a 'the bad display panel'. It did ding while going down the hill.

Then, a couple days later, when going up another hill, (where I would be letting up on the accelerator for a curve), my car acted like it was trying to stall but then the engine just 'kept running'. Almost like you had something plugged in and you bumped the plug and you push it back in before it can completely die.

This happened two days apart on the same hill in the same spot. The first time the check engine light came on and went back off - well, yeah, it was trying to die. The 2nd time, the EPC light flashed.
It was raining both days. The first day, I continued to drive it and it did fine. The second time, I turned around and took it back home for my son-in-law to pick up.
It makes me worry about something electrical - either loose and / or damp and dries out as the vehicle runs?
I did fill up with gas prior to these events happening, so fuel filter maybe? But I don't know.
I love this car and now worry it is going to be a pain to figure out what is going on with it. It runs great, and then it has a little 'fit'. Then it runs great.

Bad parts are easy to figure out. Electrical can be a nightmare. It took us over 6 months to figure out that a bad ground in the fog lights on our Escort was causing our transmission to 'act up' occasionally. Basically, if the lights were on, it wouldn't shift into overdrive. We 'accidentally' figured that one out. My dad ran a new ground and it was fine after that.