Took a scenic route the other day and managed to bottom the Octy out on a crap bit of road. Looks like the subframe took the brunt of it as there's quite a big scuff near where the left control arm mounts up (think it's the TT bush bit, not the other smaller bush that it's hit). Now I seem to have developed a knocking sound that I've so far been unable to locate. It sounds like it's coming from the centre of the car, quite close to the firewall and I seem to be feeling it a bit through the steering column. Actual steering input whilst stationary or moving doesn't generate it, but it manifests when travelling at low speed over uneven road services or sometimes when on the brakes approaching a junction. Just a creaky tapping/knocking sound. The brakes are slightly warped so you do get a fairly mild pulse under braking which suggests to me it may be something loose somewhere and it's just swinging and tapping on something else. Had the car up on a set of front wheel ramps and there doesn't seem to be anything too obvious. It only really starts to happen once the cars warmed through too so I wondered if it could be something exhaust based as it has a milltek system fitted and I know they're supposed to expand a bit once warmed through but had it on the ramps whilst warm and couldn't see anything. Don't know if the angle shifted something away though. What do people think?

Even with a Milltec, if you suspect the zorst, check the front and centre brackets, and look for scuff marks on the body above the system.

I've had the car up in the air again and I'm 99% certain it's not the exhaust. The noise only seems to occur at speeds under 40mph. I noticed the other day that the radiator was loose and made quite a loud banging noise when it hit the limit of it's travel on the mounts. I've done a quick search and this seems to be a fairly common problem. I've had a quick go at stopping the movement with some pipe lagging but I still get the noise but it doesn't seem as loud. Does this seem possible? I know it's nowhere near the firewall but sound carry's weirdly through cars and sounds like its coming from somewhere completely different sometimes. I was thinking that the speed related thing could be the air moving through the radiator at speeds of over 40mph pushes it and holds it to its travel limit and so it doesn't knock. Annoyed because I'd pretty much convinced myself it was broken antiroll bar collars and had ordered new bushes and clips along with new droplinks only to discover mines not got them and has the newer style roll bar fitted. Oh well, won't do any harm to change them anyway as the cars got over 100k on the clock. Does anyone know if the radiator mounts are dealer only jobs? I don't seem to be able to find them on GSF, ECP's or VW Spares.

My other thought was has the subframe come a bit loose? It took a pretty heavy knock when it bottomed out and there seem to be some fairly hefty sized bolts further back towards the rear of the car that seem to fix the subframe to the car body. Are there any bushes here that might be knackered?

Edited 28 March, 201016 yr by Schern

Dunno about sourcing, but yes duff rad mounts are endemic on the vRS; other models (even other 1.8T versions!?) not so much.

As for the subframe mounts, the front suspension picks up on the subframe, so you should notice if the bushes there are acting up.