Front Suspension knock 2012 A3 Tdi Quattro

[chimp400]

Just purchased this car from a work colleague, fairly well looked after, new bottom arms and drop links about a year ago.
Has a suspension knock over bumps etc and just wondered what the common failures are.
Had a quick look yesterday and can see no real play in Arb bushes, droplinks, console bushes etc, cant see any cracks in spring.
Maybe top mounts worth looking at?
I chased a problem like this on a 2008 Mk 5 Golf Gti and it turned out to be the steering rack which was a nightmare to diagnose really, not sure if these suffer from the same problems.
Loathed to drop the subframe to do Arb bushes as i dont think its them.
May drop the track rod ends out today and see if any play is noticeable in the rack.

[Crasher]

Steering gears (racks) for this platform are a major problem, they have been on back order from VAG for months so we have been buying them from Bosch.

[chimp400]

Thanks, just my luck if it is the rack, i fitted a recon unit to the Golf but am not sure i want to spend £300 on it yet so will leave it for now.

[Crasher]

£300… a Bosch exchange is about £1200!

[chimp400]

Thanks.
A question you may be able to answer for me.
I find the S Line suspension on it very harsh, we used to have a 2010 A3 Sportback 140 and that was nothing like this.
I dont really want to get into changing springs and dampers tbh at the moment but are they harsh as standard?
I may do the top mounts in the future but when you go in so to speak you think about what else you could replace at the same time.

[audia4a3]

Hi

I am not a mechanic, when I had a similar problems of not being able to find the problem of knocking/noise on my car after multiple mechanics looked at it, I was told go and get the car put up on a ramp and do the "shaker plate" test - think this is what the MOT guys do - could be wrong.

Anyway did the "shaker plate" test and they then road-tested the car and found the problem thanks to the shaker plate test - sorry if you knew this already - would try this before spending big money on a steering rack.

[chimp400]

Forgot to report back but decided to put a pair of febi topmounts on the front and it was cured, quite an easy job as the springs didnt need compressing on this particular model.