Creaking sound from base of steering column - what's that then?!

[calvin]

Whilst my car is off the road (thanks to Siena!) I thought i'd try and sort out some other minor issues that the car has.

One of which is that, for the past few thousand miles I have had a creak from the base of the steering column. At least that is where it seems to be coming from. The car drives great and feels tight, apart from the creak..

Rewind back 12 months and Siena (!) took the engine out with the subframe to repair an oil leak / turbo issue and I can only presume something has not been tightened properly and has worked loose - but what?

I've been under the car and retightened the subframe bolts (no real movement but i tightened them just the same) and cant feel any play anywhere, but there was definately a slight creak under braking and definately at very slow speeds, usually turning the steering wheel.

I realise that you cannot see the car, but what else can i check, what could have been missed and what can I tighten!?

Also, I seem to have a fair bit of play in the drivetrain, its always been there (car only has 82k on the clock), but how much is usual?

When I get the dash cluster sorted and can get the car mobile again I may have to take it to someone, but the local dealers here in Sussex are rubbish - anyone recommend a good, TRUSTWORTHY(!!) contact that I coud take it to if I cant fix the issue?

The only upside to not having my beloved S4 on the road for the past month is that I have nearly forgotten where the local filling stations are..

 

[phoenixv6quattro]

I have the same creak base of steering wheel where it joins the cowling. If this is the same place as yours, I wouldn't worry. I checked everything too. Found nothing related to this. I put it down to the car being 10 years+ old. Old cars creak in places. Ref your drivetrain, if your refering to the engine, transmission and diff mounting/bushes, I took all mine off last weekend and filled all of them with sikaflex 252 (polyurethane). The car actually feels like a different one now! Its tightened up the ride beautifully! All the slop gas gone when changing gear,braking and cornering. I can't reccomend doing this highly enough! The only cost as long as your doing it yourself, is the polyurethane. You need about 4 tubes for everything. Sikaflex252 is about £25-30 a pop.
Hope this helps mate.

 

[calvin]

Cheers Phoenix - my creaking is at the base of the column, ie in or even under the floor - its not a noise I can live with and I dont think its just age.

thanks re the sikaflexing - sounds like a good idea.

 

[aragorn]

Sikaflex also takes DAYS to cure, and if you drive before its cured the polyurethane will all just fall out. I'd recommend doing it either with a spare set of mounts, or at a time when you can leave the car for a week or so.

Andy110m's S4 had a creak that sounded like it was coming from the floor, turned out to be the steering angle sensor/airbag contact ring. We took it apart, cleaned the slip ring up and added some light grease and reassembled, and it went away. Dunno if it stayed away though.

 

[Broken Byzan]

Just under the floor are the lower arms IMHO.

The arms can creak like a good en when they have done a bit of mileage. I would spray one of the arm bushes with wd40 and try the car to see if it creaks. Then do them one at a time to see if you can locate the arm/bush at fault

 

[phoenixv6quattro]

Yeag Aragorn has a point. It does take a while to cure.....A spare set of mounts would be ideal! Checked all of mine this morning. I had them off friday afternoon, applied the 252, and left them untill sunday afternoon before putting them on the car. Seems to have worked nicely!