Hey folks, and thanks in advance for taking a moment to read about my problem:

I'm trying to sell my 1996 960. 98,750 miles. This has arisen as a problem from the potential buyer's mechanic's inspection.

Since I've owned the car, there has been a noise coming from the front end when I turn the steering right or left. The noise only occurs in weather warmer than about 60 F. I can feel the noise in the steering wheel as a bit of a catch. Nothing strong enough to effect normal driving, but just enough to notice.

I had my usual mechanic look at it when I first noted the noise, and he said that it was caused by the spring rubbing the shock mount when I turned. Apparently, there is supposed to be a rubber shim between the mount and spring to quiet the noise, but he said there was no harm in just letting it rub, so I never bothered to get it fixed.

Fast forward to a few months ago, I had all four suspenders replaced, and the noise was still there in the front. I had thought that the mechanic would know that there needed to be a rubber shim and would replace that as part of the normal install. Turns out I was wrong. Arguing with the mechanic about whether or not the shim even existed got me no where, and I eventually just gave up and accepted the noise as a characteristic of the car.

NOW, the car is all but sold, and I'm letting it out of my hands for $3200. The buyer's mechanic says he can't diagnose the problem without disassembling the entire front end, and wants $500, so the buyer wants me to knock $500 off my price (ain't gonna happen!) or try to argue again with those retards at Sears about correcting a botched job (yes, it was dumb to use Sears, but I didn't think that even those chuckleheads could screw up such a simple job).

HELP!! Is the noise really likely to be coming from the rubbing of spring and shock, or is the $500 justified??