Anyone good with quattros?

barrymac

Just wondering if anyone knows or has had good experience from a mechanic who is good with quattros. My a4 has been eating tyres in a bad way and gives some strange squeeks and crunches occasionally in full steering lock on uneven surfaces.

I'm trying to avoid paying full dealership prices but it is a more complicated suspension that most. It sounds like it could be frighteningly expensive in any case though.

astraboy

When you say eating tyres, do you mean uneven wear on the tyres, or that it generally goes through tyres quicker then normal? The squeaks could be anything from top mounts to bushings. The uneven wear may be due to your tracking and camber settings.

Biro

Sounds like differential problems to me.

Neilw

Biro wrote: »

Sounds like differential problems to me.

Has the haldex oil ever been changed?

barrymac

When I say eating tyres I mean both edges were worn down really badly, in fact the inner edges were shocking when I got them changed, a few miles away from a blowout! Only the front tyres we are talking about here. I read in some places that due to this tdi having a lot of torque kicking in heavily at around 2000rpm and with it being a heavy v6 then this kind of wear could be normal and I've simply been driving it too hard out of corners.

A differential problem sounds likely enough though as when you maneuver into parking spaces or pull away from a cross then it often shudders slightly. Some mechanics have told me that quattros are always like that but I got the impression they only said that because they didn't know what else to say.

I've never changed the Haldex Oil and the car has nearly 65k on the clock, so perhaps this oculd be the thing that's needed. Didn't realise that the front-back differential was a fluid based system.

Thanks for these points!

Timmaay

The torque from the tdi engine should only effect the non quattro cars which have wheelspin in 1st and 2nd nearly every time you hit the accelerator:rolleyes:. If its uneven wear, I'd say it's more lightly to be suspension, audis are know for wrecking front rod ends and bushings. Jack up the front, see if there is any unusual movement in the wheel, then take off the wheel and have a good look at all the rod ends and bushings. There's a good few components that can go wrong here.

I'm not saying that this is definitely the problem, only that it's a common problem with a4s. In fact, its so common that kits can be with all the front suspension arms for quite cheap on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUSPENSION-ARM-KIT-AUDI-A4-A6-A8-VW-PASSAT-OEM-QUALITY_W0QQitemZ120231883212QQihZ002QQcategoryZ10372QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I'd be scared to price all these components at an audi main dealer here, I'd expect that you be parting with well over a grand for the parts alone.

barrymac

Nice one for the link to the struts! :-) It's not the first time I'll have had to buy them! I had an old 1.9tdi before, but you could really tell it was gone just looking at that ball joint.

I swung out of the wheels when it was on a lift at a tyre centre and couldn't find any play in anything. I'm not a heavy guy though. The wear was on both edges of both front tyres, particularly on the inside but pretty symettrical, very little difference between either side, not sure if that would rule out a problem on a particular side like. It's a frigging crazy number of linkages though, there's so many that could go! It makes you wonder if they just did it for the parts revenue!

By the way, according to wikipedia, which is the only reference I've found so far to cover this, the Haldex system is only used on VW 4motions and A3s and TTs whereas other audi quattros use torsen limited slip differentials all round.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quattro_%28all_wheel_drive_system%29#Haldex

No Haynes manuals or bentley manuals for this model!

barrymac

Those parts on ebay are a fraction of the price I paid before!