Clunking over bumps

[brninitdwn]

Are there common failure points or bushings that cause a clunk going over bumps in the S6? I’m at 114k miles in my 2008 and have done upper control arms already. No noises under heavy acceleration or cruising, but slower speeds (35 ish) I can hear a fairly loud clunk from the right front when hitting uneven spots on the road. Cv axles make no abnormal noises when fully turned, it sounds further up front than to be the driveshaft bushing.

There is also one front left during braking.

All ideas are appreciated!

[RRussell]

I would defiantly check over your suspension hardware. Could be many things, failing ballpoint, if you didn’t torque your uppers with the car under load that could also do it. Also check the upper mount plate, seen some with a stripped bolt flap a little and make bangs.

[RRussell]

Also always use blue loctite on suspension components.

[brninitdwn]

Appreciate the tips, I did the control arms after the noises started since they were oe and it was all torqued right (used a jack to raise everything to ride height). The upper plate was good too, all 3 bolts tightened down right on both sides.

Guess I’ll check ball joints tomorrow, appreciate it! Any other ideas to check while it’s up?

[brninitdwn]

Well that was easy

thanks @RRussell

[YzRacer]

So it was the sway bar link bushings?

[brninitdwn]

Hopefully so. That’s the only one that has any issue, no play in ball joints or lower control arm bushings. Parts will be here Friday

[Sprawwl]

Mine was the same thing and that sway bar end link shot its self off on the highway on me. Only the bushing remained lmao

[justincredible]

ykes…

@brninitdwn — loose bolt?

[Sprawwl]

For me it wasn’t even loose like the whole thing exploded. It kept clunking crazy. Only the bolts and bushing remained and the sway bar smashed down and destroyed the bottom covers by smashing it into the ground.

[brninitdwn]

@justincredible Everything is tight but the top half of the bushing disintegrated on the passenger side. I have it parked until the parts get here, doing both sides as a precaution. I think much longer and it would go like the one in @Sprawwl s post. The original part number has been superceded so hopefully that means a design change.

[brninitdwn]

Completely forgot about this, that did take care of it! I had to ride up to the dealership to get the lower bolt, it didn’t come with the part. It had 2 nuts and bolts like the top link, the bottom was a 60 mm M10 iirc.

[justincredible]

All looks good. Now do you have a picture of what your busing looked like?

[brninitdwn]

No good ones, I threw it out a couple weeks ago. It fell out when I pushed it with my thumb after it was off.

[audis6]

Brand new, couple weeks old and fail, what its brand?
What about when those all bushings are installed, tide up everything by hand and then pick up whell hub by jack to get everything in position as its when car is on wheels, thenctide up all bushings.
Because when everything is hanging there is no tension on rubbers, and then car is lowered at it make tension, and due driving it’s geting more twisted/tensioned and crack?
One frend installed gewinde on bmw e92, everything set nicely, after some time we was going to do wheel alignment, once we lose bolts on rear control arms - bushings, complete car drop for almost 1cm

[brninitdwn]

The new ones are fine, this was from the video I took removing the old busted one with the bad bushing. I still have the passenger side oem link but the bushings were still fair on it, pics are below.

I put it at ride height for final tightening. After fighting with the old jack on this side getting everything lined up and tightened, I put the car on ramps and was able to do the entire swap on the passenger side and final torquing much easier.