Creaking while turning steering wheel in reverse

[Veteran78]

Hi Folks, 2020 GTI here with not much on the clock ~20k km. Have treated her well. Babied the car and only pushed her when she is fully warmed up.

Over the last 1-2 weeks whenever I am doing a reverse and turning the steering wheel I am hearing a creak as I turn towards the limit of the wheel. I am wondering if this is normal or not. Car has still a few months of warranty left so if there is an issued, I'd best get it looked at.

The springs are always creaky/noisy but this is something new...

cheers!

[ABCD]

I had similar front end noises to what you are experiencing with a well cared for non thrashed (wife's) 2018 GTi. In short how a particular VW dealership responds to addressing "noises" when there is no obvious operational issue can be a lottery. However given you are still in the warranty period you have nothing to lose.
I should add that I also own a 2018 Golf R which has been for the most part suspension and steering noise free.
From early on the GTi had a variety of front end "noises" some of which could be quietened down for 6 months or so by lubricating the lower control arm bushes. However after about 60-70K km there were knocking sounds when cornering and a steering "creak" when reversing on near full lock but these remained audible to everyone except VW workshop service advisors and technicians....until the warranty period had ended. With a lot of persistence and a hint of good will thrown in I did get the dealer to partially cover costs of replacing top mounts and bearings. This quietened the knocking sounds down but the steering creak remained unchanged. So more road tests with VW "experts" and now a diagnosis of a worn steering rack that could only be addressed by replacing the steering rack, tie rods and about half a million single use TTY fasteners at a cost of almost $5K and no remaining good will credit!! I had had enough at this point and decided to quit while i was behind. I did however get the car up on a hoist and pressure washed then sprayed Inox into and around every suspension bearing or mount....and after a few thousand kms the front end has been pretty much noise free.

[Veteran78]

Thanks. For a fairly new/underused car it has all sorts of noises coming out of the woodwork already. My 2010 Corolla econobox has remained noise free until I sold it in 2021.

Despite the noise. I love this car. I'll take the car in for a check. Hopefully it is nothing serious. Thanks!

[Veteran78]

To close off this topic. The noise increased over time and to a point I can now reliably replicate it. Brought it to the VW service centre and they finally acknowledge a fault. Turns out there are several 'single use' bolts on the linkage arms which according to them were not tightened to torque. They asked me if I have done any wheel calibration or done any body work around the area (which I didn't. Tires were still stock!). They replaced the bolts and tightened them to torque and no noise since.