SPLiiX Posted August 24, 2004 Report Share Posted August 24, 2004 When parking or reversing out/in my drive and the steering is at 3/4 full lock there is a grinding sound. It only happens when the clutch is out and when I put the clutch in (i.e when there is no drive to the wheels) there is no sound/grinding. The noise is comming from the front. Any reason? Is this normal? Why is this happening? Hope someone can let me know! Cheers Folks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPLiiX Posted August 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2004 31 people have viewed this and nobody has an idea? Or is this a dumb question??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drillslinger Posted August 25, 2004 Report Share Posted August 25, 2004 Not a dumb question dude Just give it some time, I don't really know what it could be, but SOMEONE should have an idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mutley Posted August 25, 2004 Report Share Posted August 25, 2004 Hi SPLiiX, Does the grinding noise sound mechanical or more like your tyres scraping over the ground? A couple of ideas... If tyres: Your car has a Torsen centre diff which will start to lock when the torque to the front and rear increases. If you are steering at full lock then the car's tracking becomes imperfect due to the width of the tyres (no matter how well adjusted it is). This will mean a large amount of torque, albeit at low speed, will be sent to each end resulting in the lock up. This lock up means the average speed of the front and rear wheels must be the same - which is undesirable at full lock. Something has to give so your tyres may be forced to give up grip - resulting in the noise. When you depress the clutch, the cage of the Torsen diff is no longer being driven and the resultant torque difference between the cage and the halfshafts diminishes. This may explain why the noise disappears... Is it just as noisy in the rain? If mechanical: Try turning off the ESP? If the diff isn't locking and the ESP doesn't like the large difference in speeds (front to rear and left to right), then the brake pads will be modulated at high speed. Dunno if there is a minimum speed for this to happen though. Let me know what the noise sounds like so we can try to narrow this down a bit more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPLiiX Posted August 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2004 Mutley! Thank you! I would be pretty sure it is the Tyres making the noise. In the rain it is still the same and I have not tried it with the ESP off but I shall do! I just thought that if it was something to do with torsen then it would come from the mechanical part that copes with that. I catch your drift about the wheel alignment that just can not cope with the drive and turn together. Surely I am not the only one with 18" wheels and Quattro and therefore I was assuming there would be more people like me on her with the same question. I have taken the semi "off road" on a dirt track really and I can not get the car to wheel spin at all!!! The Quattro really is an amazing system that works far better than I thought. In the rain at slow speed pulling out of a junction fast for instance it just goes where you point it. A normal front wheel drive car you would get that awful shudder when the front wheels are fighting for grip and your are wrestling with the wheel. I bet the noise I am talking about would not be there in the snow as the wheels would not have the same friction to make the noise. So when it is making this noise it must be putting a lot of strain/wear on the front tyres! Will need to go more gently me thinks! Thanks Mutley! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mutley Posted August 26, 2004 Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 No worries mate. My car also does the 'tyre grind' if I 'go for it' at full lock but is ok if I'm gentle on the loud pedal. The Torsen diff 4WD really is superb huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamb Posted August 26, 2004 Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 My Quattro is rubbish on packed ice. Luckily ABS still worked, but I had no traction out of junctions last winter. Still, mine is pre-electronic trickery, so maybe its worth leaving it on if you've got it. In the wet its phenomenal, but its still too easy to get in to trouble if you carry too much speed in to bends/roundabouts = understeer city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser647 Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 The crappy bit in the packed snow, might be down to having big tyres. My A8 Sport Q has 245/45/18's and is not as good inthe snow as my old Audi V8 Quattro with 225/60/15's The old V8 (heavy beast) used to sink into the snow and go. Last heavy snow in January, I went to Bury St Edmunds. in the snow. On the A/M14, outside lane 60+ mph heavy snow, everyone else doing 40 or 50. No trouble at all. As if it were a dry road. Picked up the A8 (same day), and it sits on the snow!, so a bit more care is needed. If I had the skinny tyres, then it would be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterb Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 Yeah - the little Fiat 500 (and the later 126) used to be good in the snow - really skinny tyres and the engine slung at the back over the driven wheels. I remember driving the 500 down the outside lane of a rather snowy M3 (not quite at its top speed of 59mph), when all the other cars were crawling along in the two lefthand lanes. It also used to make good progress up snow-bound hills - driving around all the other cars which had got stuck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now