Ok guys, I have an update. After my car was in the shop for a total of 47 days, they finally found and corrected the issue. I had my struts replaced, but did not correct the issue. Then they replaced my steering rack and subsequently my clock spring, but also did not correct the issue. At that point, the dealership wanted to walk away from the situation. They even wanted to blame it on my upper strut brace and trans. mount insert. Now I was pretty frustrated, as I brought my car to the dealership in March and they said to just hold off until I get my 10k service done and they would take care of everything all at once. I wish I wouldn't have listened to them. I didn't even have those parts, when the noise started. Since I waited and brought my car in with the new parts installed, and they were unable to locate the noise, they tried to blame it on my 034 parts. As a last ditch effort, I asked if I could show the techs the noise myself, and see why they are unable to find the problem. When the techs come out, and I bounce on the car to show them the knock, they were "shocked"! They had no idea they could do a static bounce test, and replicate the noise. This is 35+ days in their possession, and they had no clue they could push on the front end and replicate the noise. That blows my mind! So, they ask to give it one more shot, even though the service manager told them to no longer work on my car. They FINALLY located the culprit and resolved my noise. It was the small rubber bump stop (8K0-412-131-F) , at the top of the struts. The rubber had glazed over, or hardened slightly, and started to rattle and knock. Once I got my car back, I was so pumped to have it back to normal..... But, that wasn't (and still isn't) the case. My steering wheel is off by a few degrees, and I kept getting steering, suspension, adaptive cruise, lane keep assist, adaptive headlights, and differential faults. When I spoke with the service manager, he said he isn't to concerned with the faults, as they would come on and then go away within minutes. So I STILL have issues with my car. Luckily, I was able to talk to the service advisor, and suggested that I check the the sensors mounted to the lower control arms. Turns out, the sensor bracket on the drivers side was extremely loose. This was my biggest concern, that they had my car for so long and had been taken apart so many times, that it didn't go back together 100% correctly. My main doubt started, with them calling me three different times, to tell me my car was done, and that they found the problem, but when I got to the dealership, the car was still making the noise. I still need to get the steering wheel straightened out, but at least the faults aren't continuously going on and off. So, long story longer, the small rubber bump stop at the top of the front suspension, has caused me to loose the confidence in my new S4. I am worried that if they didn't even reattach the sensor correctly, and properly realign my steering wheel, what else isn't correctly reinstalled? I bought this car, in hopes of keeping it for many years, but now I may be regretting that choice. It isn't an issue of the car being bad, but of a bad dealership experience. Throughout this process, I was calm, polite and understanding, as I was hoping to build a relationship with the service department. I would like to mod my car more, and wanted them to be cool with me. Now, I have to be worried that if anything happens, the first thing they are going to do, is blame any parts that I had added. I figured at the end of this, they would be like "Hey, thank's for being so patient, we are going to take care of you from now on". The reality is, they are treating me like I am being a bother to them. It's not my fault they couldn't find the issue, don't blame me and the quality parts that I installed. Especially when I originally brought the car to them without the parts installed. I even sent them a video of the noise, and you can clearly see the brace was not installed. And, I showed them receipts of the purchase, to prove the date of the video was WAY before the date that I bought the parts.
Too Long, Don't Care... If you are having a faint knock/rattle coming from the front end, check the rubber bump stop first. It may save you a lot of time chasing a ghost. (Part number: 8K0-412-131-F)
. Shouldn't they be able to use a tool like chassis ears, to narrow down the location? My car is 12 months old, with 9,500 miles on it. But, the noise started six months and 4,000 miles ago. Anybody run across anything like this? It would be a huge help, to get that information to my dealership. I'm not a huge fan of throwing parts at something, and hoping that solves the issue.
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