HELP - Ran over curbs, now suspension knocking!!

U

Uknowiama

Registered User
Joined
Jan 21, 2008
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
NULL
Well I havent had my Audi 80 long and dont really know much about them.

Was driving into work on Friday night. A combination of the rain, a smeared windscreen and lights from on coming traffic meant that I did not realise how far towards the middle of the road I was driving and didn't see a traffic island to the last minute. I tried to avoid it, but ran over the curbs at 30 to 35 mph.

The result:
Blown rear tie (big cut in the sidewall) replaced with full size spare.
Front tyre has a gouge in the sidewall
Knackered suspension (knocking from the rear and the front)
Possibly knackered hub / driveshaft.
Knocked headlight out of alignment and its level can no longer be adjusted.

Can you help? I don't know much about the car.
What type of suspension is it?
What should I look for?
What could be causing the knocking noise? Well its more of a bang really

The morning after I took it to a tyre centre. They concentrated at the front of the car and think some thing might be broken inside the hub (bearing or driveshaft)

Thanks in advance for any help

Cheers

Pete
 
Pete.

This car has straight forward mcpherson strut front suspension. There is a wishbone/control arm that attaches to the lower end of the strut via a ball joint and top is bolted into the top of the wing.
To replace this wishbone and ball joint is quite easy, doesn't require the hub removal, and cheap, try GSF for prices. If the knocking is from inside the hub your CV joint maybe damaged and again this is quite easy to fix without the need to remove the hub and not that expensive, it may also be your wheel bearing which may require the hub to be taken out to press out the old one and put in the new one.
It may also be that your shock or spring are is bust. This is easy to check by seeing if the shock is leaking oil and again is a relatively straight forward repair, if the spring is bust you will easily see it.
If the front damage is beyond this ie subframe damaged, chassis damage then bigger bills i'm afraid.
On the rear suspension again it could again be the spring, shock or bearing. if the rear trailing arm ( what the wheel is mounted to) is damged then agian a bigger bill.
 
Thanks for the reply Enda1 :icon_thumright:

Will find a garage tomorrow and get it booked in to get it check over. If its a big load of damage then its time to make friends with lots of breakers.
 
Right update.

Finished my shifts so had a chance to get the car sorted. Took it a garage. New to Hereford and still finding my feet. They found that the rear caliper bolts had sheared off causing the rear calipers to move with the disc. So new bolts and locktite and its sorted.

Still got growning noise from the front and tracking needs doing. So go that done today. They put on my new (to me) Speedline Alloys and sorted it out the tracking, the report was that the tracking was waaayy out. But they've managed to get it within tolerance. The side I hit is slightly out but a lot better than it was.

Got the car home, let it cool down and made sure the tyres had the right pressures. According to the owners manaual pressure should be 2 bar, but was getting up to 2.4 (using a digital reader) so brought them down a bit.

Will have to see how I go. Wont be surprised if something esle needs doing but is now road worthy. Going to test it out tonight with a run to the airport to pick the girlfriend up.
 
Not sure its fully sorted yet. Gonna take it pieces on my next day off. Just hope I can put it all back together again after.

CHeers

Pete
 
Haynes do a manual for the previous Audi 80 upto 1991 but most of the suspension chassis is similiar and is a good guide
 
Had the car up and had a look around, cant see anything bent or worn.
The car is going to be picked up from work on Tuesday and looked at by some Audi Specialists. So will see how it goes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

V
Audi 100 Aut. knocking sound
Replies
0
Views
1K
vw&saab
V
I shall now attempt...
Replies
5
Views
1K
audi5e
S
suspension settings
Replies
0
Views
994
stevef
S
T
Audi Sport Quattro S1 flips over
Replies
2
Views
3K
icenutter
VW to take over Porsche
Replies
1
Views
1K
Staz
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…