Tiny rattle question?

[woodranch]

I will post pictures of my new R8 as soon as I can stop driving it...however I have a question.My car has no rattles so far(knock on wood) but it does have a small annoying leather creaking or window seal creaking noise that seems to be coming from the corner of the rear driver side window or the right corner next to it.It comes and goes and I cannot find where it is coming from.I push around back there and I cannot duplicate the noise.It is worse in city driving.Again it is not a rattle but a small light creaking type of noise.Any thoughts or ideas or does anyone else have this type of noise.Thanks for your help...you guys are great!

[woodranch]

Morning, just checking again.No ideas or thoughts on this subject.Thanks

[sundowner]

Do you have a coupe or spyder?

[woodranch]

Coupe......

[harrison]

Tap on the plastic piece on outside rear of small side glass. Next try moving the third brake light. Good luck.

[woodranch]

Thanks Harrison, the 3rd brake light?...from the inside or outside

[harrison]

It can more easily be touched from the outside.There should be an orange gasket between the light and body.

[BlkwdwR8]

What year is your car? There is a known issue with Audi that popped its head up pretty clearly when the Spyder was released. (I know, my car was the guinea pig car to figure out where it was coming from). It turns out that the fuel filter casing and fuel filter has a minor vibration that wasn't obvious on Coupe models because the cabin glass and the way the rear deck is built shielded the sound. On the Spyder however, it's obvious because when the top is up it creates essentially an echo chamber. The source of the problem is caused by the RPM of the car while in gear, and as you slowly raise your rpms up from idle to about 4k if you have the fuel filter issue it will sound like a harmonic vibration rattle just behind the driver seat. It's actually coming from the engine bay, and is echo'ing down a hollow aluminum chamber that the fuel filter casing is mounted against. There is a minor work around that felt/foam can be installed between the casing and engine bay to reduce it, but it's not a permanent fix, it's a band aid as it does come back in time when the felt/foam thins out due to the heat and day to day driving.

Audi is working on a fix for it, by redesigning the fuel filter housing/filters, but that's not rolled out into production yet last I checked. I'm not saying this is your specific problem, but it was definitely mine and it drove me nuts until my local dealer put in the band aid fix until the permanent fix can be applied. Not all cars have it too, but if you do have it, increasing and holding your RPMs 100 rpms at a time (while in gear, this is important, it does not show up unless in gear) .. it should be obvious. You can't miss it, it sounds like it's in the cabin but it's actually not. My dealer said that there have been a few reports in the system of V10 Coupes having the issue too, but there were very few compared to Spyders due to the engine bay design variance between the two models.

Good luck and I hope that you fix it It can be frustrating to have a rattle on any car.

[woodranch]

Thanks guys but this is more like leather creak or window seal creak then a real rattle.I checked that plastic piece outside the back side window and one side seems tighter then the other but could you really hear that inside the car?I thought it might be the seatbelt but that is not the case.I really do not want to take it to the dealer with only 250 miles on it.Probably smart to wait for my first oil change at 3000 miles...any other thoughts I would love to hear them.Thanks

[BlkwdwR8]

Take it sooner rather than later so it shows as being present on delivery, and not something that could be classified as "normal wear and tear". Drive it and do the rpm test.. just to be sure. Its a simple test and takes 5 minutes.