Peter272

Wanted to share my issue and fix with the Forum On my Sportline 272 4x4 Estate at around 60,000 miles it developed a knock from the driver’s side rear when driving slowly over uneven surfaces, block paved car park was a good test. I do have extended warranty but thought wearing components were not covered I had changed the rear dampers to KONI at about 50,000 miles. The sounded was like an ARB link so I changed both side (Lemforder units), still there. Baffled I went to the dealer and demonstrated the knock. Under warranty (surprised!) they changed the driver side ARB link (why?) Still there. Then they loosened and re-tightened it which appeared to fix it??? None of this made any sense to me. So, I took the car back and of course the knock came back. Booked it in again, but this time they wanted to swap the rear dampers over at a cost to me of £430. I instructed them to disconnect the ARB of the driver side and test drive. The knock was still there. At this point I took the car back and decided to fit new dampers bump stops and top mounts, all Bilstein, at a cost £170. This fixed the knock, but I was still puzzled why so I stripped down my old dampers and by chance spotted the issue. The mounting plate that is held into the top mount by the elastomer was off centre by about 1mm. As the damper rod passed through the mount clearance hole there was only a 1mm clearance on one side and closer inspection showed a witness mark on the damper rod. I can only assume the top mount elastomer allows movement over time. The top mount could easily have a larger clearance hole. PS I had two front struts change at 3 years (30,000miles) under warranty when it failed its 1st MOT. Originally, I had been told it was assembly grease, and they cleaned it off (LOL), and now one of those is leaking which I hope gets done under warranty. VAG do have quality issue with dampers so worth checking. Hope this helps someone.