[Biturbos4] Rear Suspension Rattle (was: Dealer excuses...)

[David Kavanagh]

I can't freakin believe they missed this, or that the person who
installed the pads missed this! Those springs don't just pop out like
that. They can't! You have to make sure they are tucked in the caliper
when it goes on over the pads. In fact, they provide resistance to the
caliper as you move it into position. With this popped out, the
resistance would be less, but any tech should have spotted that doing
a quick visual check after things were put back together (which I
always do), or this idiot at the dealer who just inspected the car..
but did he take the wheel off?
Anyway, I would just fix it myself and not let the dealer touch the car again.

David

On 8/8/05, Quincy Chiang <b5quattro at shaw.ca> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Last week I had my dealer looked at the rattle from the rear of my car while the car was in there for other repairs and inspection.  They claimed it was the rear lower spring perches of my Stasis Tracksport that're loose, such that the springs can move up and down when the wheels are completely unloaded.  I didn't make any sense to me and I knew it was BS.  Quite a few fellow AWer here suggested checking the rear brake pads, as the anti-rattle springs might have come off or not seated properly casing noises.  I asked my dealer to look in to it, they said they would have to anyways while doing the pre-sell inspection, and found nothing wrong.
> 
> Well I performed my own inspection yesterady, with the wheels off the car, suspension fully unloaded, here's what I found:
> - all rear suspension linkages are nice and tight
> - the spring perches are NOT loose, however they can be turned fairly easily with the coilover adjustment wrench, which is a good thing I suppose, meaning the finish on the threads had not been oxidized.
> - the rear springs do not have any up/down play (unloaded), but you can turn/rotate them around the damper body fairly easily.  Since both do the same, I assume this is normal.
> - However if you use flat head screwdriver and pry between the bottom of the springs and the spring perches, the spring will move up slightly and you'd get a gap there. But this is what springs do, compress when a load is applied!
> 
> Brakes were next.  On the passenger (right) side, the caliper looked normal, nothing loose. But as soon as I looked at the left side, first thing I saw was a loose anti-rattle spring clip on the inner pad.  I could grab it and move it around, making the exact noise that's been plaguing my car for months.  And all along I was worried that there might be something wrong with my Stasis or the install.  So here a big thanks to those who pointed me to the right direction!!  I took pictures and a video clip, my dealer have absoutely excuse this time not to fix this!!!
> 
> Which brings me to my next point... How could the tech overlook something as obvious as this??!! For...
> 1) they were supposed to inspect the brakes as part of the pre-sell inspection which I/potential buyer paid for, and
> 2) I told them the rattle could be from the rear pads spring clips being loose, and they still missed it.
> 
> I know there're some good dealer techs out there, but the one who worked on my car surely wasn't one of them. If they can overlook something like this, I really question what exactly did they do for my "inspection".  Or Perhaps as soon as the dealer saw my aftermarket suspension, they automatically assumed all abnormal noises/issues must be caused by the non-factory parts.  As I said before I'm getting more and more frustrated by Audi's incompetent service, maybe I really should sell my car, which btw, the Mini Cooper S I order has arrived, it's just a matter of finalize my deal with my buyer and I can get the Mini by end of week, mmmmmm...........
> 
> Below is the same post on Audiworld, it's got a picture of the offending brake pad spring clip...
> 
> http://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/2076604.phtml
> 
> Quincy
> '01.5 S4 - with crappy warranty/dealer service
> '90 CoupeQ - what warranty?
> 
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