Hey everyone,

Split bushings.

Shocked to see I need 4 x control arms at $250 a piece. Bit of insanity to spend $1700 on a job like this. Need the whole bar as well.

A tech suggested I can get aftermarket bushings and take the car to someone with the tooling to fit new bushings.

Can someone recommend a quality aftermarket bushing so that I hopefully never have to do this again?

Thanks!

 

Small or medium "splits" in the rubber are kinda normal, WELL before I consider them failed, throw off alignment, affect handling or clunking.
Visual inspection only is a little rash for a "failure" or even "failing" conclusion....but opinions may vary here.
Personally, I've gone many thousands of miles on all my present and past German cars before bushings led to any symptom of any kind. I've had more ball joint ends of the arms fail (past VW's...not present '01 A8) before bushings actually exhibited "symptoms". At 11 years old and 112K miles, I've only had to replace tie rod ends (popping, creaking) on my A8 ....All arms, bushings and ball joints, are tight and hold alignment....and ALL have had visual rubber cracks for the last 50K miles.

TRW (best) & Lemfoerder are very dependable, high quality arms or bushings.

Question: "Whole Bar" ? What bar and why?

 

^^

I just had to replace a set of front tires with 10k miles on them with scalloping.

I don't notice any handling issue or clunk of any kind. Holds alignment.

The mechanic suggested the new set of tires would do the same thing if I didnt swap these out.

Doing some searching, I dont seem to find a TRW bushing only.

This appears to be the Lemfoerder:

RockAuto Parts Catalog

Whole bar? You mean the whole part? Yes, if I understand you correctly the estimate for the work I got was for 4 complete control arm bars (Audi doesnt sell just the bushing) at $250 a piece. Seems really stupid. The metal bar wont fatigue.

 

Audi does sell just he bushing the part number is 8D0 407 515C. Im in the process of changing mines out. Local dealer wanrs $40 and genuineaudiparts want 20 plus 10 to ship. hope that helps somewhat

 

Use aftermarket arms. People think they need to use " genuine " Audi parts at like 10 times the normal mark up. Go on ebay and get some cheaper arms. You don't need to get some cheap Chinese parts, but you certainly don't need to spend 1700 dollars on these. You can get a set of four with the bushings for 200 bucks. And they are made in Germany.

 

try www.fcpeuro.com

 

The 8D0-407-515-C is popular, price is 22.82 per bushing on the uppers. There is another one listed for a different option code but still with air suspension, 4E0-407-515-D for 34.72 each, should you find your car uses these by vin instead of the less expensive bushings. They are 3 days away to order in plus about 10.00 shipping UPS ground.