It does happen as commonly now but when a belt separates or breaks on a radial tire, it can make some strange noises. The sound will change as the tire heats up in use. If you haven't already, rotate the tires and see if the noise follows the tire.

Since it continues when braking, it doesn't sound like a pad that has too much play in the caliper assembly.

If your 2.0T premium trim is RWD, then it has magnetic fluid active damping. Any sides of leakage around the front "shock"? I had to replace a rear magnetic ride shock on my 2014 premium trim last year because it became extremely stiff causing a horrible ride.

If your car is AWD, then the CV joint on that side is suspect.

Rodger

 

It does happen as commonly now but when a belt separates or breaks on a radial tire, it can make some strange noises. The sound will change as the tire heats up in use. If you haven't already, rotate the tires and see if the noise follows the tire.

Since it continues when braking, it doesn't sound like a pad that has too much play in the caliper assembly.

If your 2.0T premium trim is RWD, then it has magnetic fluid active damping. Any sides of leakage around the front "shock"? I had to replace a rear magnetic ride shock on my 2014 premium trim last year because it became extremely stiff causing a horrible ride.

If your car is AWD, then the CV joint on that side is suspect.

Rodger

Thanks Rodger. I will give this a shot. My car is indeed a RWD and no leaks at the shocks. That’s why I was thinking strut mounts

 

When you depress the car at that corner, does it respond the same way as the other front corner? When my rear shock developed its issue, you could barely make the car move downward at that corner.

The mount could be the issue but since you don't hear it immediately, it makes me think of the tire heating up and causing the noise.

Rodger

 

Well this gets better and better. The noise is intermittent now and is more like a constant low level clunk (once it gets started) on the passenger that gets louder as you turn the wheel to the left. I tested the shocks Roger and the passenger side has slightly more give than the drivers side (issue is passenger side). I’m beginning to think tie rod. Also when I turn the wheel completely to the right, the sound goes away

 

When you had it on the lift, was it mostly a visual inspection and poking/prodding checking for play?

Double check the torque on the nuts of your tie rod ends and ball joints. If one of the nuts is a smidge loose I wonder if the shaft has a bit of play that only becomes evident under load.

 

One more thing - to the question at hand, how to tell when to replace the strut mounts. Failure modes I’ve seen in the past are typically a clunk over bumps, or sometimes a chirping (when the bearing in the mount fails). Usually it’s just a case of “replace the mounts when replacing the struts”

 

Thanks Luxuryrules and rsingl for the useful info. Yes the car was off the ground and had no load on the wheels whilst the tech and I checked the suspension parts. I’ll see if I can find a place to check bolt tightness tomorrow. Again, many thanks

 

I finally managed to get all the parts and replace all front control arms and the struts. The issue turned out to be a bad strut. Thanks again for all the help!