I'm getting a weird rubbing/clicking noise that usually appears when I'm driving really slow or just before I come to a stop and when I accelerate slowly again. It also sometimes appears when I turn the wheel when stopped or driving slowly but it's also there when I don't turn the wheel at all and just start or stop.

The problem only happens about 65% of the time and it seems to come more when I'm starting and stopping lots and seems to dissappear if I drive for a while without stopping. For example yesterday it was doing it really bad while I was driving through the city and then I had to drive about fifteen minutes on the highway and it had stopped after that. Also, if it's doing it and I get out of the car and push up and down on the hood to compress the front driver side shocks I can hear the noise. The noise is coming from the front driver side and I can almost feel it in the steering wheel but I might be imagining that.

I'm taking my car in to the dealer to get some other stuff done under warrenty and I want them to look into this but I have no idea what to tell them. It might be hard to replicate because it usually doesn't start doing it until I drive around a bit and not every time. I read about the control arms making noise but nothing that helped me narrow it down to that. Any advice? It's a 2001 A6 4.2.

 

They'll probably know right off the bat what it is based on your description alone. Sounds like a wheel bearing to me, though it could also be a torn CV boot and you've got a dry CV joint.

Have you noticed a lot of grease or heavy dirt on the driver's side front wheel in the recent past?

 

I haven't really noticed grease or dirty. I'll tell the service guys what I said here and see what they can find. Thanks for the help.

 

The other parts I was waiting for finally came in so I booked my car in for monday to get that plus the rubbing noise looked at. I'll post what they find.

 

Well, they said they couldn't reproduce the noise so they couldn't fix anything. I don't think they even looked in the front driver tire area to see if everything looked ok because the mechanic was asking me when I picked the car up if the noise was in the front or back of the car. I even gave them a very detailed write up of the noise and where it is and how it starts etc.

I'm going to have to drop by the dealer when the car is making the noise so they can hear it. So far it's been quiet.