[s-cars] Suspension Problems in 94 S4

[Aaron Ryba]

Wylie,

I have had a similar problem ever since I redid my suspension three months ago with H&R (street), matching Bilstiens & Igor plates. Rattling noise over larger than small bumps and potholes in the road and a loud clunck/popping noise when going over very large speed bumps (noticed only at slow speeds). I have checked everything over twice and still haven't found the problem. Everything torqued to spec, pulled front struts & applied duct tape around circumference at bottom to eliminate chance for movement, tighted the strut collars to god-awful levels. Nothing. Rattle is still there. Everything is brand new, all bushings and hardware and everything is tight.

The only thing I can think of is that I overtorqued the pinch-bolts and stretched them and the control arm joint is moving up and down slightly in the socket (scary!). Only other thought is damaged engine mounts. I did replace them before doing the suspension job but while working on the suspension my crappy jack failed that was holding up the tranny/engine at the transmission area and the engine fell down a few inches. Not sure if this was enough to damage the mounts. I did inspect them after and they seem to be fine (not falling apart in hand like the OE ones I replaced before).

IIRC the pinch bolts used were from the Blau hardware kit for the front end. Maybe these are crappy metal and stretched to much? Not sure what where your bolts are from.

My nois happen on both side of the front suspension and while driving straight as well as around a turn.
I know I installed the strut washer properly and the strut mount is in the correct position. I was very careful about that.

Also, I did have a creaky rear susp. after the work. I found that the front bushings on the rear trap arms where it connects to the body were a bit loose and were making the creaking noise. After tightening them up a bit more the noise went away. It is almost impossible to torque those bolts to spec with the wheels on the ground because of the very limited clearence to the bolt head due to the underbody construction.

I'll report back with my findings when I replace the pinch bolts with some OE hardware.
I hope this helps.

Aaron Ryba
95 S6


-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of
theringmeister at triad.rr.com
Sent: June 23, 2008 9:13 AM
To: Mark Turczyn
Cc: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Suspension Problems in 94 S4


I've been having a nasty clunk on my driver's side as well, and my front
suspension was done over back in Nov.  I don't know if it's the control
arms, upper strut mounts or bearings, or what, but it's only on the driver's
side.  One thing I haven't looked at is the motor mounts, but they look to
be in decent shape, not collapsed or anything that I can see from the
exterior at least.

For that matter, the rears creak like crazy, and I'm not sure what it could
be but it almost sounds like the top of the shaft of the shock scratching
the inside of the bodywork....could a bad rear upper strut mount (compressed
or just collapsed from age) be enough to cause that?  Cody took the driver's
side apart (the worse of the two) after installation and couldn't find
anything readily apparent but it sure sounds like it's coming from that area
as opposed to any of the swaybar or control arm bushings or links.



--
Wylie Bean
TheRingmeister at triad.rr.com
90 cq
91 90q20v sport
92 UrS4
01 allroad

Angelo A airs41994 at hotmail.com 
Tue Jun 17 15:04:54 PDT 2008 
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________________________________
 
Hello all,
I think this topic has been written about many times on this board but I am coming back to it because this is a problem that does not want to go away.

 Over the last 5 years since lowering the S4 this has always been a problematic area in the car. Especially the passenger side. I get this really weird clunking sound coming from that side of the car. I have taken note that it happens when going over things like potholes and such. If I am going over a bump in the road there is no clunk. It also happens when turning either left or right and hitting a bump or pothole. Now, I have changed the Bilstein's twice and now removed those and put in Konis. The problem is still there. Everything else including bushings, bump stops, blah blah are close to brand new and the car has the Igor solution to the alignment issue.

Does anyone have an idea as to what may be causing this problem?


AngeloAA
94 S4
83 urq