Loud Clonk on right hand corners

[Giles H]

I have a 2006 A4 2.0 Tdi S-line and have for some time now been experiencing a heavy "clonk" when I turn into a right hand corner immediately following a gentle left (i.e. pulling onto and going around a roundabout). I bought the car from new and first noticed it after about 9 months. Apart from that, it has been great!

Audi have told me that it was the "gearbox retaining arm", whatever that is, they replaced it, but it is still there and getting worse.

When this happens i can feel it through the steering and pedals and when it is particularly bad, the whole car feel like it shifts to the left. It's VERY un-nerving. I have to get the car tracked in about every 3000 miles as well. Unfortunatley it doesn;t always do it....especially when there is someone sitting in the passenger seat, so it's difficult to get it to happen with an engineer in the car.

Has anyone got any ideas that I can take back to Audi and ask them to look at? It's still under warranty and I have a maintanence agreement with them, so I'm wondering if they are trying to ignore the problem incase it will be expensive to fix.

I've considered loose props, but there's no vibration, the steering seems to be generally ok, if a little sensitive at motorway speeds, although it does follow ruts in the road terribly, so I don;t think it's the rack.

Could it have a cracked sub-frame?

Any thoughts, ideas or has anyone else come accross this problem?

Cheers!

[Giles H]

Oh dear! Essex Audi have no idea what the problem is! They have apparently taken the whole front end off and re-built it and it is STILL making the noise!

So...the bad news....Looks like i'm stick with a courtesy car for christmas!

The GOOD news.....it's a 2008 (58) A3 2.0Tfsi S-Line with full leather, 19" multispokes, flappy-paddle gearbox and 200 little horse running around under the bonnet! Shame.

More updates will follow.....

[Giles H]

Ah...the saga continues!

They still don't know what the clonk is....they have now replaced the rear gearbox stabilising arm, a ball joint....taken the whole front end off (apparently) including the sub-frame (apparently)....but still no joy.

Went to take the A3 back yesterday and asked if they'd checked the sub-frame bushes and engine mounts?

errrr...........no?

maybe they had better do that then, eh?

So...I now have a 2008 A4 Avant 2.0tdi s-line manual (thank god) to "play with over Christmas.

At least there's room for all the pressies!! lol