At low speeds approaching or pulling away from a junction I can hear a creaking noise. It seems to be coming from the front left suspension. My local Audi garage tell me I need 2 new 'straight arms' at £152 each! Car (1995 model) is still under a 1-year warranty from when I bought it second-hand. Warranty company are telling me not covered by warranty because due to wear and tear. Is that believable in a car of 4-5 years of age??

nt

nt

YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary

Cameron,

I am increasingly concerned about how often you write things as absolutes which are either opinions or occurrences that really should be looked at in a case-by-case basis.

I would venture to guess that 15,000 is the minimum that anyone has replaced control arms. Note I said the minimum. I realize that you said "spirited driving", but still, the word spirited is very subjective, and a person may consider themselves a spirited driver and worry that the A4 will need repairs every 15k miles. And I just don't think that that's the case for everyone. There are too many variables to make such a blanket statement (sports package, aftermarket suspension, tires, driving style, how spirited is spirited?, etc.).

As you know, the problem is not the control arms themselves, but rather the bushings in the control arms. Audi has decided to replace control arms under warranty, rather than devise a bushing replacement strategy. That is not to say that one doesn't exist, and I believe that Cathleen knows of an aftermarket control arm that allows for replacing the bushings.

A little "In My Humble Opinion" or "In My Experience" tagged to your message goes a long way. After all, when you get down to it, you are speaking for yourself, not all A4 owners.

Dear Alan.
Like one of the previous answers implied, this seems to be a flaw on most 1995-1998(?) A4 models.
I had the same problem, although I experiences a rattling , or "loose feeling" from my front suspension every time I passed a bump at slow speed.
In Denmark the warranty covers ALL expenses regarding this problem, and I firmly believe this to be the case all across Europe.
So be persistant, and talk to the Audi Import of GB (you are British, I gather?) and check out exactly WHAT your warranty covers.
Of course there is the remote possibility that this really is a worn suspension, although the flaw-part seems more probable.
All the best. Lasse Bauer, Denmark.

Spirited driving:

Cathleen from this board is on her fourth set of control arms on a 1996 A4. She is a spirited driver. She does five or more track events per year, runs a high-spring-rate coilover suspension, and works the car to its limits on a semiconsistent basis.

I simply found it hard to believe, upon reading the post, that anyone's control arms on an A4 could last four years (!) unless it sat in the garage for those four years gaining zero miles and being pampered.

My 1997 is likely due in for a new set of control arms soon, half of the A4 owners I correspond with on the regular basis have creaking and will need new arms soon or need new arms currently. It's a huge problem, and I think it is better to have people knowledgable about the problem than to have people figuring "Gee, my car never breaks, it's an Audi," and not know about a key flaw in the A4's design.

Our 1999 A4, which was bought in Feb/March of this year has >18,000 miles on it. It is on its second set of control arms.

Honestly, this is something that AoA could do itself a favor on by providing free control arms to people for ten years after purchase.

Alternatively, it's an opportunity (hint, hint) for someone to make a fortune producing alternative control arms that are much more durable. If some tuner wants to create this product, I know a website where they can find a few thousand buyers.

Control arms lasting 4 years? I don't think so.

Cameron

nt

I did some tie rod work on my old Corrado years ago and took it for a test drive....squeak, rattle, scrape....what did i do wrong? I left my B&D Snake light wrapped around the drive shaft....shreaded the hell out of it before I figured it out.

That's what happens when you are in a hurry...

Christian Long

The problem is a worn bushing, but Audi doesn't source the bushing along, so the whole lower control arm needs to be replaced.

It's a common problem. In the US the right one seems to go first since there are more bumps on the right side of the road. I would venture to guess you drive on the left side of the road?

My right arm was replaced at 38k miles and my left one is just starting to squeak at 44k. I plan to have it replaced before the warranty ends.

How many a4 owners do you correspond with though? Drew's post was pretty reasonable. Anyhow, I've gone 26k miles, 7 track days, 5 auto-x's (most on R-compound), and I have yet to change out my control arms. No clunks here.

People tend to report problems more than they do things that just work. One of the things about the internet is that it's THE place for consumers to complain, for better or for worse.

Warren

Especially Cathleen's. She is way beyond what I would call a "spirited driver". She is very competent, focused, and also very hard on her car. I would even say she puts an above-average amount of strain on the car. She does not, in my mind, embody a typical A4 owner/driver. If she were, then we might as well list all the other things that she must do on a regular basis to maintain her car. In three years of ownership, she probably has had to deal with the following:

- how many tires?
- numerous (perhaps dozens) of brake fluid changes
- brake parts (pads/rotors)

These are all normal wear items, and bushings are in the same category. I will admit that A4 bushings wear out faster than we would all like them to, but I disagree when you say that they must be changed at 15,000 miles. I had one side only replaced at about 25,000 miles or so (don't remember). I have 36,000 miles now and that has been my experience, through about 4 or 5 autocrosses in a two year period and one time on a track. I realize that my single datapoint is practically useless by itself, but I will say that for every person you know that autocrosses their A4, I bet I can find one or more A4 owners that don't know what an autocross is. These people will most likely not need new control arms until well past 15,000 miles, and perhaps not until after the 50K warranty is over (unfortunately).

Thanks very much to everyone who replied to my original posting - it has been amazingly useful. I have learned that the problem is very common and is related to a design flaw in Audi A4's - very useful for negotiations with the warranty company.