Front strut issues

[1099ezg]

Hey everyone, I’ve noticed a few things with my front struts with my car at 120k miles. I only bought this car 10k miles ago and it has been like this the whole time.

Every small pothole or bump in the road or storm drain holes feel like my car is getting in an accident. Like my whole front of my car vibrates and it feels like I’m driving an ancient straight axle car with no shocks. It is almost painful every bump I hit, I sit there with my teeth clenched tight while I wait for it to stop thinking I hurt my car.

I don’t know if this is just the tightness or not. I have S Line trim but the window sticker didn’t show anything about any upgraded suspension. The struts are black and I don’t have any adaptive buttons inside the car or anything.

Also when it gets in the 30’s or lower temperature wise, I drive over speed bumps in my work parking lot and noticed they squeak when it’s cold out.

Do I need to replace them? Or is that just really how stiff the car is? It feels so rough to the point where sruff inside my car shakes and I’m worried I’m going to wear out more parts of my suspension. The last owner took great care of the car, perfect paint and parts all are not rusted or crappy.

[arjun90]

What's the condition of the rubber components securing the spring, strut hat, and bushings on both control arms and strut as well as overall condition of shock mount?

Hey everyone, I’ve noticed a few things with my front struts with my car at 120k miles. I only bought this car 10k miles ago and it has been like this the whole time.

Every small pothole or bump in the road or storm drain holes feel like my car is getting in an accident. Like my whole front of my car vibrates and it feels like I’m driving an ancient straight axle car with no shocks. It is almost painful every bump I hit, I sit there with my teeth clenched tight while I wait for it to stop thinking I hurt my car.

I don’t know if this is just the tightness or not. I have S Line trim but the window sticker didn’t show anything about any upgraded suspension. The struts are black and I don’t have any adaptive buttons inside the car or anything.

Also when it gets in the 30’s or lower temperature wise, I drive over speed bumps in my work parking lot and noticed they squeak when it’s cold out.

Do I need to replace them? Or is that just really how stiff the car is? It feels so rough to the point where sruff inside my car shakes and I’m worried I’m going to wear out more parts of my suspension. The last owner took great care of the car, perfect paint and parts all are not rusted or crappy.

[1099ezg]

I will check tomorrow and get back to you!

[mtroxel]

Are you sure this is a strut issue? These quadra-link German suspensions are well known to start making noise when you get close to 100,000 miles. When the bushings and ball joints on all those control arms goes bad, you get the sort of popping and squeaking you're describing. And the colder the temps, the worse the squeaking and popping is.

[Theiceman]

you are not the original owner. is it possible Po " upgraded " the suspension to poly. ?
what wheels tires and pressures are you running ?

Sent from my SM-G973W using Audizine Forum mobile app

[1099ezg]

Yes I am at 115k miles but every time ive taken it to the shop they do a inspection and say everything looks good down there. Im running michilean tires in the front and firestone in the back. Michellin were the previous tires and the front had more tread so I just bought 2 for the time being. I am running the correct pressure for my car, I do not remember on the top of my head but it is around 33 i believe in front and possibly 36 in the back. It seems like the back is more cushioned on bumps than the front.

Just every time I hit anything it sounds so loud, everything shakes in my car and sounds almost like a loud bang for a second when it hits. I just am unsure why it would be so harsh like this. I think this is the original strut so I was suprised they wouldnt be bad yet.

[Theiceman]

i run 17s in the summer and 18s in the winter so lots of sidewall on the tires and my car had 133k on it and was perfectly fine, not harsh at all. sounds like the valving isn't working at all but that is very very odd.. maybe thats the perfect excuse to replace spring and shocks all around.

[cuda2000]

That’s exactly how mine was at 85k miles. Replace the upper control arms and front struts at minimum. Inspect the rest of the control arm bushings as well. Here is a video to get you started. https://youtu.be/acMMABiJ41E

[1099ezg]

My car is in the shop for fuel to rich issue and i had them check the struts, they said they are fine but all of my upper control arm bushings are getting shot and are torn. Can this be causing a super harsh ride over bumps? I thought control arms only caused drifting issues and unstable steering, I didnt think it had anything to do with the dampening as well. They wanted 1500 for all 4... How hard is it to do yourself? Ive changed struts and tie rods before but not control arms, and never on an Audi. Is it pretty difficult? I found on ECS I can get 4 control arms for around $200. I would rather just replace the bushings, but I don't know if its worth it to just replace the whole arm or not.

[hamfisted]

The difficulty of replacing the upper control arms depends entirely on whether you can get the pinch bolt out.

[audrobotic]

Youtube is your fren:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NzRt8SxUbWk

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yc-y3o_kR4

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GVCgFwT6SEk

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h32E7On0D6g

There’s dozens of videos on the B8 suspension….