Recently had the clutch and transmission replaced in my 01 A4 1.8T after I had a throwout bearing go bad. Around the same time I had those repairs done, I started hearing this tapping sound-pretty steady and rhythmic in the front end when I'd just moving from a dead stop - as I was releasing the clutch. It sounded like something was loose or vibrating, but I couldn't find the cause. It didn't go away after the clutch and tranny work so I had 3 different garages take a look and listen and aside from tightening a engine mount, they all told me there was nothing wrong.

Cut to about a week ago I noticed that the car sounds a lot louder to me, especially when accelerating, and I can still hear that weird vibrating/tapping sound and even feel in the stick and pedals. It almost sounds a little like a diesel engine at times. On one morning when it was really cold the tapping/clunking sound happened when I hit the accelerator with the car in neutral, I didn't even have the clutch depressed. It got softer as the car warmed up, or seemed to anyway. There definitely seems like something is out of whack. The car has 60k on it and I've already had the timing belt done, regular oil changes, etc... Aside from sounding strange and the noise and vibration, I really haven't noticed any performance issues, but something seems wrong. Any thoughts at all, I'm kinda at a loss...Thanks.

 

The only problem I can think of is the installation.

Something must have gone wrong when they installed the clutch.

 

You said you got the tranny replaced where did it come from?

 

I don't know exactly where the tranny came from, the shop I had do the work got it for me. It was used, not a rebuilt deal. I should have clarified a bit, the sounds I'm referring to were present before I had the clutch and tranny changed out. They've just now started to get more noticeable.

 

Personally i would rather have a rebuilt engine then a engine that i dont know where it came from and how the person before used it. it could have been beat on and you dont know it.

 

Ideally, yes, I would have opted for a new or rebuilt transmission, but it was just too expensive. I think whatever is making noise now existed before I had clutch and transmission trouble, which leads me to believe that the vibration and clattering I'm hearing now is something else. My other thought was that it was suspension related - CV joint maybe, though it's not really the usual clicking sound that a bad cv makes. I need to do a little more investigation I guess.