I've suffered for the last 4 years on and off with this wretched creaking noise from the front of my Toledo. It's done it since it had 16k miles on it. It's really bad on speed bumps, but crops up on most bumps - pot holes, etc. It's weather / temperature dependent - I can go through the whole summer with no noise at all, but as soon as the temperature drops below 15°, the creaking starts. Weirdly, if the temperature gets close to zero, the creaking stops again. It also stops in rain.
There are several posts in various forums about this issue, and it seems to affect various VAG cars. Lots of suggestions as to the fix - ARB bushes, engine mounts, drop links etc. but nothing concrete. I replaced the drop links as it was a cheap fix, but this made no difference. I replaced the ARB bushes with genuine ones; no change. I took the ARB bushes out and coated them liberally in red rubber grease - again no joy. Still convinced it had to be arb-related, last week I disconnected the drop links and drove the car over my local speed bump and the noise was gone.
I've bought some Powerflex bushes and I've just fitted them. Deep joy - the noise is no more!
Hopefully this will be of use to anyone else with the same problem. I'll post this over on Briskoda too as I think there are more Rapid users.
Cheers,
Martyn
There are several posts in various forums about this issue, and it seems to affect various VAG cars. Lots of suggestions as to the fix - ARB bushes, engine mounts, drop links etc. but nothing concrete. I replaced the drop links as it was a cheap fix, but this made no difference. I replaced the ARB bushes with genuine ones; no change. I took the ARB bushes out and coated them liberally in red rubber grease - again no joy. Still convinced it had to be arb-related, last week I disconnected the drop links and drove the car over my local speed bump and the noise was gone.
I've bought some Powerflex bushes and I've just fitted them. Deep joy - the noise is no more!
Hopefully this will be of use to anyone else with the same problem. I'll post this over on Briskoda too as I think there are more Rapid users.
Cheers,
Martyn