name that noise - turn on incline / hard stop

[RudyH]

I took it to my mechanic and you could feel the pop noise in the floor boards. He is thinking bushing, not sure where but advised the car is about 6 years old now so as the rubber hardens over time this stuff happens...he just said wait till it gets worse so he can find it because he was looking for it yesterday and couldn't find anything. More or less it sounds like a loading / unloading problem.

Happens when turning up an incline - driveway is a good example. Also when coming to a hard stop it occasionally happens. Any thoughts?
Other ideas from non-expert Google searching was ball joint?

[Dudemans4]

Shock tower strut could be loose

[S4Phantom]

I had maybe a similar noise. Only noticed it coming out of my driveway or on tight slow turns. Kind of a "popping" from underneath. Turned out to be sub frame bolts that needed re-torquing.

[torinalth]

sway bars? my endlink nuts keep loosening.

[RudyH]

Great ideas, sorry should mention too in the fall / winter (forget when) I got my shocks done. Possibly with winter and warming up and freezing again something came loose. Sounds less like a bushing and more like something coming lose is what I was thinking too.

I started noticing it mostly when it was a cold day and I had the car in for an oil change. It's a shop I have been going to since ~2005 with my B5 S4, I don't think there was anything fishy if thinking that.

Might be worth waiting a tad longer and getting my jack stands out and crawling under the car and start poking around I suppose

[jsh139]

Swaybar endlinks or control arms, maybe.

[RudyH]

Swaybar endlinks or control arms, maybe.

So we used a stethoscope and were able to duplicate the issue. Seems to be coming from yes the swaybar / control arm area. Just working through it right now. See if some Eurocode bushings solve it or if next step grab control arms under warranty

[omegis83]

I had a similar issue and Audi couldn't figure it out.

A few weeks ago I finally took my wheels off to change my brake pads and noticed this:


You can see the shiny part where it was rubbing on my wheel well trim. Real simple fix was to trim just a little bit of the wheel well trim with a dremel. Solved the noise issue I was having when turning on inclines.

[RudyH]

ah good call, I ll likely toss it back up on the hoist again tomorrow to take a look - curious if the end links are set properly as I did to shocks in September, wondering if the problem caught up to me.

However what you mentioned there, I didn't look specifically for it, but now has me curious

[AudBoost]

My car started doing this exact same thing on Monday. I had sway bars, endlinks, and an AK installed just over a month ago and I immediately thought any of those could have been the issue but all the bolts were secure. After reading this thread I had my mechanic re-torque all the subframe bolts as S4Phantom suggested and the popping noise is gone.

[RudyH]

My car started doing this exact same thing on Monday. I had sway bars, endlinks, and an AK installed just over a month ago and I immediately thought any of those could have been the issue but all the bolts were secure. After reading this thread I had my mechanic re-torque all the subframe bolts as S4Phantom suggested and the popping noise is gone.

Actually, this is interesting - the noises feel like it's coming through the floor so we were thinking it was vibrating through the sway bar = through the whole subframe...at first I thought it was coming from driver side, but after driving along with the tech I could feel it on the passenger side too.

We checked the control arms for damage, and nothing. My regular go to guys gave up because they don't want to throw parts at the problem hoping they fix it = control arms will be $2k so ya....waiting to go to the dealership to look at it. I ll ask them to check the sub frame bolts, I forgot to ask yesterday when I had the car in for the last go round of finding the problem

[AudBoost]

Not sure if you stumbled across this thread: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...=popping+noise

Some good info on things that need to be checked. But two things that really caught my attention was there are two TSB's motioned. One TSB said to adjust motor mounts to reduce tension (TSB 2027295/1) and the second TSB (TSB 2035854/3) for Front lower guide links making noise when bushings get hot from being driven for a while.

I would definitely start by re-torqueing the subframe bolts and then look into the TSB's mentioned.

[RudyH]

Just wanted to update this thread. FINALLY had time to go to the dealership for this noise. They just were moving to a new building so ran behind from what it sounds like, along with summer tire switch over season

Re-torqueing the sub frame bolts fixed it! The car feels tight and no noise anymore.

Little concerning, not sure if the 034 sub frame bolts would fix this

[lowjonathan]

Just wanted to update this thread. FINALLY had time to go to the dealership for this noise. They just were moving to a new building so ran behind from what it sounds like, along with summer tire switch over season

Re-torqueing the sub frame bolts fixed it! The car feels tight and no noise anymore.

Little concerning, not sure if the 034 sub frame bolts would fix this

the main sub frame bolts? coz mine do have this pop sound as well

[RudyH]

the main sub frame bolts? coz mine do have this pop sound as well

ya might as well check all of them. It was a $60 service at the dealership and took them 15 minutes to do -> gotta love a headache that lasted a few months and 2 hrs on a hoist trying to find the actual problem when Audizine had the answer all along haha