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My symphony of suspension noises

mrmatto

Autocross Champion
Location
Jacksonville, FL
Car(s)
2024 GTI DSG
2015 non-DCC w/ 67,000 miles. I have several noises coming from the suspension that have been getting worse over the last month or so. Maybe it's the cold weather, multiple autocross events, or both. But AFAIK, there shouldn't be noises.

When the car is cold or has been siting a while:
  • Knocking noise coming from the front end, likely front right. It's a low-frequency thump that happens over slightly uneven road. Sounds like something is loose but it goes away after a couple minutes of driving.
  • Any bumps or suspension compression while turning right (no so much when turning left) I hear a squeak or creak. Goes away after a few minutes of driving. This one just cropped up in the last 2 weeks.
Can happen any time:
  • Going over a sharp speed bump, even slowly, gives me a slight "knock-knock" in the rear. Doesn't happen every time.
  • Pulling into a steep driveway at an angle is the noisiest. I hear creaking/squeaking from the front, maybe some popping, and a creak from the rear as the car straightens out.
Fixed:
  • Knocking in the rear. Loosening and re-tightening sway bar endlinks fixed it.

I have visually inspected all of the bushings and nothing looks obviously fried, but I'm no expert. Wheel bearings are OK as far as I can tell. No noises when I grab any of the corners and shake up-down or left-right. I put a wrench on every single suspension nut or bolt I could access and nothing was loose. Spraying all of the bushings with silicone lube seemed to temporarily stop some of the creaking but only for a couple days. And confirmed everything in the hatch is tight and/or damped with something soft.

So, here's my plan: I'm going to have my dampers, strut mounts, strut bearings, and front endlinks replaced -- I wanted to do this project independent of the noises anyways. Then I guess I'm just going to tell the shop what noises I have and tell them to inspect everything else and replace what looks worn. My budget for this suspension refresh project is about to go 🚀

Any other troubleshooting steps I should do in the meantime to maybe narrow down the causes?
 
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tigeo

Autocross Champion
Likely sources are f. sway bar end links and the strut bearings based on the description.
 

avenali312

Autocross Champion
Location
Mableton, GA
Car(s)
2015 GTI
My 2015 is of a similar mileage. I don't have any clunking or popping, but I do have a creaking when low speed turning. This seems to be somewhat temperature dependent as it's gone away as the temperature has dropped in the past couple of weeks. I figure it's the strut bearings/mounts since I silicone-ed the LCA and end link bushings without much of a change. The fun thing is that the strut bearings and mounts were new about 5k miles ago when I went back to stock height. I feel like any time you pull the suspension and put it back, it's kind of a crap shoot.
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
That would be ideal since I plan to replace those. Thanks, fingers crossed.
Typically things that make noise while turning are strut mount/bearing related. The noise over bumps is likely sway bar related. But of course that is an online generalization on my part...
 
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tigeo

Autocross Champion

mrmatto

Autocross Champion
Location
Jacksonville, FL
Car(s)
2024 GTI DSG
Swapped out the front endlinks this morning. Not too bad of a job, and inexpensive. I definitely recommend raising the suspension to about ride height for removing and putting in. And use new nuts.

Unsure if it fixed any noises yet but definitely no new noises. Will report back. Old links I took out don’t look or feel bad, but what do I know.

Edit: Quieter but not quiet. It’s warmer today so that could be a factor, but I noticed fewer noises. Still have some clicking/grinding going into the driveway, which I think is strut bearings. And some groans from the back too, which I would guess is bushings.
 
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mrmatto

Autocross Champion
Location
Jacksonville, FL
Car(s)
2024 GTI DSG
Had a colder day yesterday and all the noises are definitely still there. I hadn't heard the front end knock for a while so thought it was fixed with the new end links, but it was making the sound yesterday.

I'm not mad I replaced the links, because it's cheap and good to do at this mileage. But at this point, I'm not sure I can make any more progress on fixing or identifying these noises until I get the dampers, strut mounts, and strut bearings are swapped out and have a shop take a look 🤷‍♂️
 

Chogokin

Autocross Champion
Location
So Cal
Car(s)
GTI Sport | Audi A3
My front suspension makes noise when its cold. My driveway is pretty steep and I have to angle the car at a pretty extreme angle when I back out. I can hear it make creaking noises as the front suspension compresses. As the night time temps are dropping into the 40's...the creaking is making a comeback.
 

mrmatto

Autocross Champion
Location
Jacksonville, FL
Car(s)
2024 GTI DSG
I think some creaking when cold is typical for this platform, and possibly not an issue, per se. But when it's combined with knocking and grinding, surely something is wrong.
 

mrmatto

Autocross Champion
Location
Jacksonville, FL
Car(s)
2024 GTI DSG
So I still have these noises:
Knocking noise coming from the front end, likely front right. It's a low-frequency thump that happens over slightly uneven road. Sounds like something is loose but it goes away after a couple minutes of driving.
Usually happens after the car has been sitting for a while. Only goes away after I’ve gone over some decent bumps.

Pulling into a steep driveway at an angle is the noisiest. I hear creaking/squeaking from the front, and a creak from the rear as the car straightens out.
This is always present. Any time I’m approaching a bump or incline at an angle.

I replaced my front end links, front struts, front strut mounts, and front strut bearings. And I replaced the rear shocks and rear shock mounts. Rear sway and rear end links are pretty fresh and greased.

Could the first noise be the front control arm? And the second is maybe subframe bushings creaking? Pretty stumped.
 
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tigeo

Autocross Champion
LCAs bushing can cause noises like that.
 
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