hello all,

1998 A4 Avant quattro, 2.8 30v, tip, 142k miles: When driving (usually between about 15 and 35 mph) I get a clunk coming from (what seems / feels like) underneath the car.. I really feel it through the arm rest. It's most common when going over bumps, but at certain speeds i can hit and release the gas pedal to make it happen. I took a recent trip in which i bottomed out a few times. One result of this was a broken exhaust clamp. I thought this may have been responsible for the clunk, but i fixed that and the clunk persists. This issue seems to have no effect on the shifting of the car. (it's a tip btw) Anyone have any idea what this may be? Could it be a tranny or engine mount? center diff? tranny itself?

I just bought a 12 piece control arm kit, and was going to tackle that. I have been under the car and see nothing obvious. Will I have better access to diagnose this problem when i get in there to do the control arms? Thanks in advance for any and all input!

 

If it's not clunking inbetween shifts then i would say its not the trans. I would inspect the sway bars and trans mounts when you change the control arms. Look at your bushing and use a ratchet to see if anything is loose or striped.