[s-cars] front suspension noise

[Peter Schulz]

Aaron:

Make sure you replace that pinch bolt -
My wife's Avant had a mystery clunk which finally showed itself 
catastrophically when the strut pulled off the control arm/ball joint 
and left her stranded - it also pulled the outer CV joint of the halfshaft.

Luckily it happened when she pulled into a parking lot and not at speed.

Turned out that not only was the pinch bolt cross-threaded ( I had 
previously checked it's torque) but the incorrect type of bolt.
BTW, the pinch bolt remained in the strut during the failure.

-Peter


At 10:34 AM 5/1/2008 -0700, you wrote:
>No I did not wrap the bottoms in duct tape. I did read about that as 
>a solution however did not do it on my recent install. I forgot to 
>mention that in the initial post. It sounded like that was a fix for 
>only a few people who for some reason could not get the strut caps 
>to tighten the strut insert properly and that it was not needed for 
>all bilstien installs. Definitely worth trying though. Its just that 
>the sound seems like something completely different that what I 
>imaging that noise to be like.
>
>The top nuts are tight but I will double check them.
>For clarification, the noise is a 2-part clunk as I hear and feel it 
>during compression and then during depression.
>
>One other thought I had was that possible I hadn't torqued the strut 
>pinch bolt properly at the bottom where the control arm ball joint 
>connects up. The noise sounds like what I would imagine if there was 
>some play there and the ball joint was pushing up into the pinch 
>connection in the bottom of the strut them popping back out into 
>place. I noticed when reinstalling this part that if the bolt is not 
>in place the ball joint does have room to move further up into the 
>pinch socket.
>
>Aaron
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: Stott Hare <stott at gwi.net>
>To: Aaron Ryba <aaronryba at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:19:12 PM
>Subject: RE: [s-cars] front suspension noise
>
>Front Bilstein top nuts tight?  Did you wrap the bottoms in duct tape?  They
>shouldn't shift around when tightened as the bottoms are dished/domed and
>the top nut is a taper fit, but odd noises have been tracked to rattling
>front inserts before.
>
>My .02
>Stott
>95 S6A
>01 TTqRoadster
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
>[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Aaron Ryba
>Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:55 PM
>To: s-car-list
>Subject: [s-cars] front suspension noise
>
>I just replaced entire suspension system with H&R sport and Bilstein sports,
>Igor plates, all new bushings everywhere, etc. Everything dialed into spec
>properly.
>
>I am experiencing a strange knocking/bump noise when the front suspension
>travels up. It only happens when going over speed bumps or other large bumps
>faster than normal. I have been checking and rechecking that everything is
>torqued properly and still no fix.
>
>The noise doesn't seem to happen on immediate compression but once the rear
>wheels go up over the bump (and front is down). The noise definitely comes
>from the front and I can feel it too.
>
>The only thing I did non-Bentley style was to tighten the front sway bar
>bushing clamps at the subframe before the car was on it's own weight. This
>seemed impossible once the subframe was reinstalled as access to the bolt
>heads looked non-existant. Also used flour instead of talc powder on those
>new rubber bushings. I have no idea if this is the issue but it does sound
>like the sway bar is making the noise. Maybe some part of the H&R coils is
>catching?
>
>Is this the internal bump stop in the Bilstiens? or the full compression of
>the springs? It doesn't seem like I should be hitting that so soon.
>
>I was very attentive to reassemble everything as required so I am perplexed
>about the noise. Haven't had a helper to put some weight on the front end to
>try to replicate the movement, also pretty hard to do with the stiffer
>springs.
>
>Anyone have an idea of what this is?
>
>TIA
>Aaron Ryba
>95 S6 145k mi
>
>
>
>
>
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-Peter Schulz
Chelmsford Ma, USA
http://www.naaclub.org/

1995.5 S6 Avant Emerald/Ecru
1995.5 S6 Avant Silver/Platinum
1991 200 20v Q Avant Titan Grey (for sale)
1991 90 20v Q Red
1991 CQ silver  (eS2 recipient)