Golf 1J: Rear Clicking Noise - Diagnosis & Repair (Solution)

In the affected vehicles, cracking noises may occur in the area of the rear wheel arches.

Cause:
The issue arises when the rear shock absorbers are not sufficiently decoupled from each other due to the upper damper bearings.

Solution:
In case of a complaint, swap the upper damper bearings with each other. Once the knocking noise shifts to the opposite side of the vehicle, a new, acoustically improved damper bearing (part number 1J0 513 353 D) must be installed.

This damper bearing is standard equipment on certain vehicle configurations.
Vehicles with the PR numbers 1JC, 1JH, 1JG, UB3, and UA9 are equipped as standard with the improved damper bearing (index D) since December 1999 (for Golf and Bora models) or June 2000 (for Beetle models).