[m3brad]

Earlier this year, I had a noisy rattle coming out of the front suspension at only low speeds. It just seemed to come on in short order.

My 2002 CPO Allroad has ~ 50K miles and made three different trips to the Audi stealer w/o resolving the issue. Here's the excuses I heard from the stealer ... you're gonna like these:

1) It's normal for that number of miles,
2) the rear rotors are worn, yes I said rear rotors,
3) the front tires are worn and ready for replacement,
4) the rubber CV boot on the front axle was split.

Since there were other small things I had them take care of when it was in, I had to pay $50 for each visit. I then remembered my local European car repair guy that always worked on my BMW.

He had the car for three (3) hours and called me and said the car was finished. The CV boot was $160 incl. install (the stealer wanted $500).

I asked him if he found the noise in the front suspension? He said, "Of course, it was a loose tie rod end."

Can you believe it? A frickin' loose tie rod end and the stealer with three, count 'em three opportunities ... couldn't find the problem.

Hope this helps someone with a similar problem.

Thanks for reading my RANT!