Hi. I’ve recently taken delivery of a used 2018 A3 2.0l diesel (40k miles). On the test drive I didn’t notice any rattles but driving home, when going over bumps, potholes, etc I’ve noticed a clunk or rattle which sounds like it’s coming from under the front passenger seat. I’ve checked the anti-roll bars and they seem fine. I’ve removed the underbody shields and cannot see anything amiss there. I’ve felt the springs and they seem fine. Does anyone have any likely suggestions as to the culprit?

Cheers

Richard

Hello Richard,

Sorry to hear of your issue.
I’m sure you will understand that it can be an almost impossible task to correctly ‘guess’ what the actual problem is without examining the car. 
The car is obviously trying to tell you something, so my recommendation would be to return it to the seller for investigation and repair. If you are unable to do that for any reason, then you would need to depend on your trusted local garage to identify the cause. 
Apologies, that this may not be that helpful, but I fear any responses on here can only be via. guesswork, and in effect, a car that makes any noise over bumps would warrant inspecting for your own safety. 
Kind regards,

Gareth.

On 8/12/2021 at 8:02 PM, Magnet said:

Hello Richard,

Sorry to hear of your issue.
I’m sure you will understand that it can be an almost impossible task to correctly ‘guess’ what the actual problem is without examining the car. 
The car is obviously trying to tell you something, so my recommendation would be to return it to the seller for investigation and repair. If you are unable to do that for any reason, then you would need to depend on your trusted local garage to identify the cause. 
Apologies, that this may not be that helpful, but I fear any responses on here can only be via. guesswork, and in effect, a car that makes any noise over bumps would warrant inspecting for your own safety. 
Kind regards,

Gareth.

Thanks, Gareth. The car was bought from a garage two hours away so I was trying to avoid that. I am a mechanic (old school!) and I’ve replaced the ARBs however that’s not resolved the problem, I just wondered if it might be something that was a common issue. Never mind, I’ll carry on searching. Thanks for responding.

 

Cheers, Richard 

Thanks for coming back on this Richard, and sorry you have already replaced parts to no avail. 
If it were mine, and I didn’t have ramp facilities, I would be entrusting an inspection to a local garage, since you could go on replacing parts in the hope that you will find the cause - not an economic way to do it. 
Not that is is going to help you at all, but you’ve just found the pitfall of buying off internet, where the purchase is made at some distance away from home - you can generally kiss goodbye to any warranty.

Invest a relatively small amount of money and get it thoroughly inspected.