Mike141

Just recently did all 4 front upper control arms and sway bar links in my 05 A8 but now I'm getting a popping noise coming from front end of car whenever I hit a bump with the wheels turned and it almost feels like something is loose up front. These are low speed, small bumps in road. If I hit a bump with wheels straight, I hear no noise at all and feel no movement. I've noticed that the noise happens more when car is in dynamic mode. Jacked up the car on each side and I can't move the tire at all, everything seems tight. I know it's almost impossible to diagnose without seeing the car, but anyone have any ideas? Sway bar maybe, but that seemed tight too...

Jan_PL_S6

If you're talking about the same popping that I had in my car then you're just maxing out your steering. Don't turn the wheel to the maximum limits when turning and you shouldn't have the problem any more, you don't get any better turning radius from it. I've had the same thing happen in every Audi I've driven/owned.

Mike141

Thanks for the reply, but it's not at maximum steering. It will do it when wheels are slightly turned and happens more in dynamic mode or I just hear it more in that setting.

MP4.2+6.0

How about tie rod ends? How many miles on car?

On my 2000 A6 4.2 with pretty much the same suspension except for the air units, I did all upper and lower arms and the sway links but neglected the tie rod ends. On alignment thereafter (about 130K miles by then IIRC), they found the inners were quite shot. I couldn't see inside the boots when I replaced the rest of the parts before the alignment. The outers were going too. On the lift it was clear, especially once the boots were unclamped.

FWIW, I have found these a little easier to tell if I have only one side jacked up and manhandle the tire to try to move stuff. Still hard to see much on the outers unless really gone, and you can't see inner movement at the joint without the boot off (or torn); only indirectly can you maybe see the rubber boot just moving a bit or get a bit of sense of deflection on the wheel. Really took the alignment shop to get it identified better.

vmk

I just replaced all upper control arms and all tie rods. The popping noise on mine is from the inner wheel well cover rubbing against the boot that's on the inner tie rod (driver side for me)

Oh well, all the rods were shot anyway so I needed to do that.

Just found out though that the alignment is also adjusted from the inner tie rod (unladen toe?) I counted the threads for the outer tie rod but didn't pay attention to the inner tie rod, I just tightened it as hard as possible.

Will find out once I get it to the Stealership for alignment.