eggyacid

so... we had our car for about 7 months now and we totally love the car except for some quality control issues. This is the type of stuff I can see in my Chrysler 300 or Honda... definitely not in an Audi.

- Rattling. Annoying rattling from the driver side A Pillar (I think) it tends to appear when temperature is lower or after driving the car for awhile. again, dealer can't seen to locate the problem and i guess i'm SOL.

- Squeak. Now, this is design flaw. The center arm rest squeaks when lean on it. again, it's suppose to be an armrest but why does it squeak? not enough padding? poor design? I have never had a car that squeak at the armrest, this is a first.

- Confusion. Why can't I set my air to NOT circulate. every time when i start my car, it's default back to circulate air. I don't want this but I have to hit that button every morning.... plain stupid.

okay... i'm done bitching about our Q7. Overall, it's a great car but not sure If we will buy another Audi again

kglee79

The squeaking center arm rest appears to happen to all Q7's. All of the used ones I test drove had it. When I first got mine it didn't squeak, but after about 500 miles it did. They should fix it as it gives the impression of cheap build quality for the rest of the car. I have not had any rattling as of 4500 miles, but suspect that after hitting the 10-20k mark it will begin to have rattles as the loaners I was given at that mileage seemed to all rattle.

bozack

I just noticed my center arm rest has some play from side to side (up or down). Not sure if it was like that from day one or just now noticed.

Anyone else have that?? That part of the squeaking?

pchansen

Here's my advice- from experience. The rattle you describe coming from your A pillar is an easy fix. I realize your car is new and it should be taken care of by Audi but sometimes it's just easier to do yourself. Go to a fabric store and get a scrap piece of thick felt that closely matches your A-pillar color. Cut it into a strip about 6 inches long by about an inch wide. Using a plastic knife or something similar and slide the felt into the gap between the A-pillar cover and the dash board. Use the tool to stuff the felt in the the gap to the point where it just sits flush with the dash. Problem solved.
As far as the recirc function. On my '07, I can select or de-select "auto-recurculation" in the MMI under "Car" < "Setup". Just select it to "Off"
Thankfully, my center armrest doesn't rattle or squeak. BTW, as long as you have some felt, you might want to wrap a strip, using some adhesive spray, around the pin that holds the center pass through (middle seat) to the left rear seat. If it seat hasn't started to rattle yet, it will.

2ndThought

I just wanted to say this is great advice. I had the periodic annoying ticking sound (squeak) from the passenger side where the dash meets the a-pillar. I cut a piece of black felt strip approx 1" x 9", and using a thin plastic trim tool and my Costco membership card, I stuffed the strip between the gap from the windshield to the side corner all the way around the a-pillar. You can't see the felt at all, and the ticking/squeaking is gone - at least thus far. I'm just glad I don't have to explain this annoyance to Audi service as they most likely wouldn't be able to replicate or fix it. Great point about taking care of things yourself - so very true with just about anything anymore.

The center arm rest looks nice, but is a poor design. The squeaking there comes from the lid itself, as it appears to be a few layers of plastic screwed or snapped into place. If there was a safe way to open that lid apart, and stuffed it with thick foam, and perhaps glued the seams, that cheap crackling sound would disappear.

2ndThought

My last post peaked my interest to solve the arm rest squeak. I think I have an easy solution to remove at least 85% of the squeaking/crackling. Under the arm rest is a black panel that is snapped into place (it feels of cheap grade plastic too). Using a plastic trim tool and my Costco membership card, I was able to separate the black piece by inserting the tool and card at the top edge, and working my way down. The plastic tabs are fragile (I broke one in the process but is unnoticeable when panel was put back.

Once the black panel is removed, you can then close the lid and see how much of the squeaking is due to this black panel. Upon inspection, you can see where the many points of contact are plastic on plastic. Also, at some point, on mine, it looks as if felt tape was used on some of the tabs, but not all of the tabs were covered (which seemed a little strange). The trick is to place cloth between any points of plastic on plastic - this would be hard to do with black felt and glue and may be too thick for the snapping points... so I thought I'd try using some of my son's black hockey tape. I've used hockey tape like this on other projects, and the adhesive is durable and very pliable for small parts. Try to cover any place where plastic meets plastic. I've attached some pictures that help explain what I've done. Also, on the underside, the factory places a small amount of white foam tape to the underside where the panel meets the honeycomb shaped arm rest top. I placed hockey tape down over the foam and upper parts of the black panel., then a wide strip of felt for added thickness, then taped on top of it again. (I didn't want the felt against plastic to cause any squeaking which it can in some cases). This gives a 'dynamat' type of effect to the cheap plastic piece, which now has a more solid feel to it as well.

After this, at the bottom of the black panel, there are two pivot/slide in points.. I added a little bit of SS2000 lube where it meets the plastic housing on the arm rest. I also added some to the plastic hinge (seen in the first photo) using a thin brush to get in between the hinge points, then wiping excess off so it is not visible.

The black panel snaps back with no issues and the squeaks are mostly gone. You may notice other squeaks that are in other places in the base of the console, but at this point you slowly become obsessive compulsive, so walk away. I thought I'd give it a week to see if this still held up before posting, and it's working fine. The arm rest has a solid feel to it even when applying a lot of weight on it. I'm sure there's more you can do to get rid of all the squeaks but this is a great fix that takes care of most of them.