"Clanking" noise when driving slow over bumps

[MacBain]

When I drive slow over small bumps I hear a slight "clanking" noise somewhere in the front, but I can't locate what's causing it.

As far as I can tell all the front suspension parts are thight, and nothing is lose that could cause this sound.
Engine covers etc are all fine, nothing loose.

I know that the clutch is a bit worn, could this result in a "clanking" noise?

The sound only comes when I drive very slow over small bumps (below 10 mph).


Any ideas on what this could be?

Ps. The car is a 96 A4

[Mackenzie_Mark]

Sounds like one, or more, of the front suspension arms is worn. The only way to tell is put the car up on ramps to see if there is any play. I've just had a similar issue with my car and required some suspension parts replacing, the parts are relativley cheap (£50'ish each) but the labour mounts up and you will need to make sure you have a full alignment done once the worn parts are replaced.

[auroan]

I agree with the above on this one.

[TimmyTim]

Are you sure it's comming from the front of the car? It could be handbrake cable slap(cable hitting the underside of the car) as you tend to hear that at slow speeds going over speed bumps etc...

[MacBain]

Thanks for the replies.
I got my local audi dealer to take a look, and as far as they could see there was nothing loose etc.
They thought it might come from the gearbox.

I haven't noticed any problems with it, so what could possibly be loose inside the gearbox ?

[mluton]

Could be worn ARB bushes, had it myself.

[pauloliver]

I replaced my front suspension linkage system as my lower arms were heavily worn (and the others weren't looking all that awesome either) and i found a full kit from Germany for £120posted (£450 odd from the dealers and £300ish from most motorfactors). Fitted it yesterday and it wasn't that bad a job, took 3 hours in total, thats replacing 5 arms per side, i'm yet to fit the track end rods-thats a job when i get new tyres and have the tracking done.

The handling has been transformed and i lost the knocking noise from low speed bumps like you have. I also had a rattly knock noise from my front when my springs snapped...might be worth looking at too!

[MacBain]

I got underneath the car today to check a little bit myself.
I tracked the sound to the "gear linkage", see picture.

When I jiggled it, it gave the same sound as when I drive slowly over bumps.

It's not the rubber bushing on the linkage that the problem, but it's caused by the "part" that's connected to the gearbox.

Any ideas on what I could do to fix this?

http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/5597/minicimg3001fd7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)