Do 2000 onwards S3's have different front wishbones?

[Bad Sir Culation]

Looking at Powerflex front bushes for the front wishbones and found a set where the seller was stating they were for 2000 onwards only.

What's different about my 99 car? Should I be updating parts?

 

[kwistof]

Early S3s will have the smaller bushes, later S3s will have the larger ones.

Drivers choice would be to have the smaller bushes as it give you a slightly better steering feel and will reduce the understeer mildly.

This was one of the items the TT was recalled for to get replaced- but the early S3s were never recalled and the part was superseeded by the wishbone with the larger bush from around mid 2000 onwards.

Best bet would be measure the size...pretty sure it will either be 30mm or 45mm but not 100% sure they are the correct bush sizes - but I'm sure if you are on the powerflex site you will be able to see.

Some more info here about the differences and reason on having the smaller bushed wishbones-

Modshack | Stage 3 Boost Machine

 

[Bad Sir Culation]

Fantastic, so presumably I actually have something desirable on this car!

 

[kwistof]

Fantastic, so presumably I actually have something desirable on this car!

Along with cheaper tax banding and not having ESP

 

[Bad Sir Culation]

Woohoo!

 

[Prawn]

Early 30mm wishbones are very rare, and worth a fortune also

 

[kwistof]

Early 30mm wishbones are very rare, and worth a fortune also

There was a set for sale in the ASN classified section not to long ago for anyone that is interested (not mine btw)

 

[vala]

VW golf mk4 bushes are 30mm in case you don't find any that specifically say Audi. These are what I had to fit (Superpro variants) to my pre recall wishbones.

 

[Bad Sir Culation]

Hope mine haven't been changed then. Any way to tell from just looking?

 

[vala]

If you can see the part numbers I'm pretty sure pre recall ones end 165/166 (left/right).

 

[Bad Sir Culation]

Cheers, I'll take a look under it when my OH brings it home.

 

[jojo]

I changed mine to the larger items, as my bushes were fubar'd. Of course, this info wasn't known at the time, and I gave the old arms away to a guy with an A3 many year ago, still don't know if he ever got round to using them on his car?

 

[JimS3]

There was a set for sale in the ASN classified section not to long ago for anyone that is interested (not mine btw)

They would be mine, still in the classifieds, open to offers if anyone wants them, there a bit too good to keep their current roll as doorstops!

The smaller bushes were still used on the pressed wishbones on golfs, Leon's etc after audi revised the forged versions

 

[Bad Sir Culation]

Part numbers on mine appear to be 8N0 407 157 and 158.

 

[Prawn]

it's pretty obvious which you have when you look under the car.

Small bushes are just that, a small round bush.

The larger 45mm wishbones have an alloy asymetrical lump inside the bush, allowing more deflection one way than the other.

 

[vala]

Part numbers on mine appear to be 8N0 407 157 and 158.

Apologies. You have the correct part number for the pre recall variants.
I don't know where/why I thought they were 165/166...