[Conquistador]

Well I'm going to throw a proverbial spanner into the works...

My S8 has had the annoying creaking sound from the front for quite some time now, worse when it's cold as we all know. Had an MOT test this week and it failed on deteriorated bushes on one of the upper arms. They invited me to have a look at them myself and one side was indeed trashed. Nothing left of the rubber bush at all so got the work done to have it changed. Made sense to do the paid of them at the same time as that arm's bush would soon be on its way out too. After soaking overnight with penetrating fluid, the steel bolt was extracted from the aluminium hub, the arms were changed then the car was retested and passed as expected.

I was chatting with the service advisor about the creaking sound I get and he said don't be surprised if changing the upper arms cures the sound. I wasn't convinced and told him I'm pretty sure it's the sway bar. Lo and behold, changing those top arms (they are big!) has cured the creaking sound.