ertdes

Hi Gareth,

Euro Car Parts and GSF have no steering knuckles, unfortunately. Motor Parts Direct said that steering knuckles should be obtained from the dealer but as initially mentioned, the dealer is out of budget. That leaves me with:

1. Helicoil the thread
2. Buying an aftermarket knuckle online from brands I am not sure about via steeringknuckle.com or Autodoc
3. Buying a knuckle from breakers (have looked into this, many are very rusted)

I prefer helicoiling just because I know there is nothing wrong with the integrity of the knuckle itself, the issue is finding someone happy to do it.

Hi all,

Thanks for your responses! I've opted for helicoiling as per your advice, however, have tried calling a few garages and all have them have refused to do it (no surprise there as per Gareth's advice). Would you know anyone good who would be happy to tackle the job? Time will be compensated of course.

Hi Gareth and Steve, thanks for the responses!

Gareth, yeah I've heard Febi is a good company. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a knuckle from an aftermarket company which I have previously used or even heard of. I can only seem to find it from the place I linked or other companies on Autodoc which, like I mentioned, is only selling parts from manufacturers I have never come across before like Ridex.

Steve, I have looked at helicoiling on the forums, can't seem to find a definitive answer on whether it is safe. For day-to-day driving, I assume it is given your recommendation? There's a cheap one on eBay for £10-£15 unbranded (link). Again, I assume branding does not matter when it comes to this? Should threadlocker be used as well? In all honesty, as a new DIYer, I'm scared to helicoil myself just in case I don't drill square into the hole and then ruin the whole thread.

Hi all,

I have an Audi A3 2010 8PA 1.6TDI. Did a brake job and mistakenly overtightened one of the threads of the brake carrier causing it to partly strip! It doesn't help that the brake carrier is integrated into the steering knuckle. Not sure where to go from here 😞 . The 2 options I can think of are:

1. Repair the thread - contacted Brake Caliper Refurbs who were happy to try but are asking for the part off the car so I won't be able to drive it for some time (not ideal and the garage I trust are not able to do it as they only have 1 lift)
2. Replace the steering knuckle - I have found an aftermarket knuckle from Select Automotive for a decent price but unsure of the quality, I have asked Audi for OE price and they are charging an arm and a leg

What are your thoughts on aftermarket steering knuckles? I'm open to repairing the thread instead but hesitant to do it myself. Any help would be much appreciated! 

Hi Clifford,

Here are the uploaded YouTube videos:

- Idling video: 

- Revving video:

- Accelerating video: 

Your help would be much appreciated.

Hi all,

I have an A3 8P 1.6 TDI 2010. I am hearing 2 sounds from the car and I do not know whether they are normal or whether something is wrong. No warning lights have come up on the dash and as far as I can tell, there is no loss of power. I have only recently gotten into cars so your thoughts and advice would be much appreciated!

Sound Under the Bonnet

There is a sound under the bonnet when the car is idling. Here is a link to a video of the car when idling:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_sKT7rQp9FdsMdGPaHqQMRCyQ82NQGuo/view?usp=drive_link

And when the car is being revved:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q_FSVZm4kz-Pgl536Pj6Ky2OH-nMoLrA/view?usp=drive_link

It's a faint sound that can be heard in the background of the loud engine noise and fluctuates in pitch, it sort of sounds like a straight metal sheet being bent back and forth (not sure how else to describe it!).

Sound When Accelerating

There is a sound on the driver's side when accelerating, especially in the 1K-2K RPM range (above 2K the engine noise drowns out the sound but it is there). Here is a video of me accelerating the car (taken from passenger side so the sound may not be particularly clear):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MvTShvO7nukB-CajJ1aTcoN1OB9cmfPW/view?usp=drive_link

The sound is similar to the one in this Youtube video but is more "airy" for lack of a better word:

Once again, your advice would be much appreciated!

For those experiencing the same problem as described above, turns out the above symptoms were caused by bad coolant temperature sensors!

To summarise, the symptoms I was experiencing were:

• Intermittent high idle of 1000RPM rather than the usual 800
• Rough idle when the coolant temp gauge on the dash was 70+ C
• Temp gauge on the dash fluctuating between 70C and 90C (normally the temp stays at 90C once at temp)

Remember to buy new OEM sensors if changing, otherwise your problem may not be fixed.

Hi,

I recently had issues with rough idle and idle RPMs intermittently switching between 800-1000 RPM, also 1.6 TDI. Turned out to be bad coolant temperature sensors. 

Are you getting any warning lights? What exactly happens when the RPMs are 1000? Could it potentially be a DPF regen? Also, what do you mean when you say the car will kangaroo down the road?

As Steve mentioned, it would be ideal to have a scan to see if there are any fault codes. My car had none but was having the above-described issue.