New to the forum and could use some advice. Have had a metal clicking noise for some time. Small bumps (even the middle of the road little reflectors) to bridges, potholes, speed bumps will make a metal clicking sound. Noise coming from both front tires. Took it to the dealer and they said the bushings needed to be replaced. Promised this would take care of it. Didn't. Now they say I need to replace the bearings. What's up with this? Help!!!

 

Reach your hand in between the tire & the front fenders , give the upper control arms a pull up & down at the ball joint end & see if there is play!
Also do you notice it when applying the brakes?

 

Thank you so much for the quick reply. Not much of a DIY guy and the car is at the Dealer awaiting my answer on the bearings. Can bearings cause this clicking moise over bumps? Is this a common issue with 2003 A4 Cabrios? From previous threads seems like a fairly common issue with these cars and most likely bushings, calipers, control arms, struts, etc...not bearings? No, nothing when braking only bumps (small bumps at low/medium speeds---the reflectors in the road make it happen).

 

This metal to metal sound , is it a clunk or thud noise or is it a rotating sound?
When wheel bearings go bad you will hear a audible growling noise that gets louder with increased vehicle speeds. If it on only on one side the noise will change as you move the steering wheel side to side while driving at highway speeds.
I have never seen a wheel bearing make a clunking noise unless they are so bad the wheel is ready to fall off but the dealer should have seen it when they did your bushings.
One more thing is to go for a ride with the service writer so they can hear the noise & verify the repairs were made correctly before returning the vehicle to you.

 

Thanks again. I would call it a clicking noise. No noise at all other than bumps...nothing. Go over a bump, metal to metal sound only once over the bump and then gone. Sound is exactly like the noise made by the inertia game with six hanging marbles and you take one up, release and then it hits the five other marbles and only one on the other side moves. Steel marble to steel marble.They replaced the bushings, told me this would fix it. Went with service guy after repair and it was still clicking, although not as bad. He told me that the bushings had to wear in a little (very stiff at instgallation). Give it a week or so, he said. Been several weeks and noise persists. They promised this would fix it and now they say bearings.

 

The bushing have to wear in! That's a BS story if i ever heard one!

 

The bushing have to wear in! That's a BS story if i ever heard one!

I agree, they're just trying to squeeze money out of you. Sounds like ball joints to me also, though I have had the threads work loose on the front strut body to that gave a noise like that also.

 

Guys, thank you so much for your input. Dealer has it and has backed off the bearings. We will see where this goes. I will keep in touch and see if they try to charge for after already promising me the Bushings were the culprit but that didn't fix it. I am very skeptical of the Audi Dealerships after already having some unethical reapairs done in the past. THANKS!!!