Lemforder any good?

SDHA4SLine

SDHA4SLine

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Hi,

Would appreciate any opinions on lemforder parts? I'm in a crappy position of needing to replace wheel bearings/hubs and drive shaft cv joints. Was thinking of just going all out and maybe throwing in new control arms also.

I read good things about lemforder on the net but would like to hear from anyone that may have fitted these. I doubt I'm going to be paying the premium for OE parts unless it's absolutely necessary?

I was originally going to go for meyle after seeing a few others on here fit them but just though I'd see what you all think 1st?

Any other suggestion for manufacturers of the parts I need to replace apreciated, though I'm not really wanting to save by fitting budget stuff, I just want to know whatever I buy is top quality.

Regards
Steve
 
Lemforder are very good I have used their products but not on the audi
 
Recently refreshed my suspension with all Lemforder parts. Excellent quality and most came with the vw logo rubbed off which I guess is the only difference between them and originals.
 
I have meyle arms and recently fitted a lemforder wheel bearing, all good so far and quality of parts seems to be good.

Has to press the wheel bearing out of the main hub arm thing in the end, wouldn't budge in situ. Just bear that in mind when estimating a time frame!
 
Oh, turns out Lemforder don't do the front bearing kits for a4 b7's which comes as a surprise.

I've been quoted for SKF kits, they are good for bearings aren't they?
 
Thinking about it, mine might have been lucas! It was the cheapest one from car parts 4 less. Seems fine and looked to be of good quality. I'm sure it will be fine, if it fails again at least I know it will pretty much fall back out! Haha.
 
SKF are a quality parts used in the motorsport industry so they are ok.
Lucas are not that good so I would give them a miss.
GKN have always been top quality so I wouldn't hesitate using them either.
Lemforder I haven't heard of but if they are used by VW they must be ok.
 
Did my own research on lemforder today, turns out they're owned by ZF who now also own trw. Doh, so all I had to do was ask at work about them, I'm hoping we get staff discount but I certainly won't be holding my breath :tongueclosed:
 
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Slightly perplexed now apparently I can get everything apart from the lower front control arms as lemforder aren't licenced to sell that as aftermarket part yet. Anyone ever managed to buy the complete lemforder control arm set yet?

Looks like I'm going down the meyle hd root now
 
From what I read before I bought my Meyles, Lemforder are great but not worth the extra ££s over the Meyles. A lot of the guys on the RS forums rate them so that was good enough for me. I paid £250 for my new but 2nd ones but you can pick the complete kit up for just over £300 now.
 
ajax1976 said:
From what I read before I bought my Meyles, Lemforder are great but not worth the extra ££s over the Meyles. A lot of the guys on the RS forums rate them so that was good enough for me. I paid £250 for my new but 2nd ones but you can pick the complete kit up for just over £300 now.
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£300! That's cheap where where where?
 
May also be worth looking at the Febi Bilstien complete kit, that is around the £300 mark.

Very good quality kit.
 
Lower front control arm is TRW i believe as the Audi part number ending in "E" is manufactured by TRW.

If you eBay a few used lower front control arms and look at the pictures they have the Audi part number along with TRW marking too.
 
Not sure I would want to mix two different manufacturers TBH, I would have looked into TRW if I could have got discount, but no such luck.
 
Yeah I've seen some bargains from ebay.de but I'm worried about import taxes. Lots of sellers say no duty but if you search importing from EU on ebay I see lots of people saying they were told no import duty by seller but were still stung by customs
 
We don't pay duties, tax etc as we're all EU so nothing to worry about there.
Just check tho that the German equivalent of VAT (19%) is included in the price, it nearly always is but worth checking.
 
If you do consider Meyle HD brand then also bare in mind the ride will be a little bit more on the firm side, but not a considerable amount.
 
SL11CKK said:
If you do consider Meyle HD brand then also bare in mind the ride will be a little bit more on the firm side, but not a considerable amount.
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Why does the Meyle HD brand control arm set effect the ride quality ? Are the bushes much less compliment or something ? TIA
 
Its more stiffer so its more firm and tightens it more. It doesn't make it rock hard just more stiffer.

I drove somebody elses avant sitting on original arms and I kinda preferred it more.

Don't get me wrong its still good.
 
audi upgrades
SL11CKK said:
If you do consider Meyle HD brand then also bare in mind the ride will be a little bit more on the firm side, but not a considerable amount.
Click to expand...

Interesting, Did you find them firmer or just tighter?

Going from worn bushes to HDs I think they're fantastic. I find them compliant and have transformed the way my car feels for the better, much sharper and tighter but not firm. If I was going to have another A4 they'd be one of my first purchases. All the bushes except the lower strut mounts are at pivot points so not sure how you can feel the firmness of those unless you have rock hard suspension.
When you read the blab with them the HD stands for high durability(4yr warranty) not heavy duty as I thought, supposed to be designed and engineered to a higher spec than OEM ones, suppose we'll find out in 4yrs if it's true!!
SL11CKK said:
Its more stiffer so its more firm and tightens it more. It doesn't make it rock hard just more stiffer.

I drove somebody elses avant sitting on original arms and I kinda preferred it more.

Don't get me wrong its still good.
Click to expand...

Suppose you'd have to drive a car with identical suspension and brand new OEM or any other brand arms back to back with a new set of Meyles to really compare the firmness.
In honesty tho I think if you're planning to keep the car for any decent length of time any of the known branded kits will be decent. The big thing is to avoid the Ebay cheap unbranded kits, really don't see them lasting long.
 
just on a side note , how do the original bushes etc stand up to wear and tear from an age standpoint versus milage. What sort of life expectancy would one be looking at on a low milage 2007 avant compared to a higher milage situation on a same year avant, bushes all fail at some point but how much does the age effect the components discussed in this thread.
 
Think there's far too variables to take into account of which all will have an impact on their life.
I had an uber low mileage golf mk4 a while ago but the bushes were all shot due to age(cracked) but personally I think it's the type of miles that will be the biggest factor, 100k motorway miles could be equivalent to say 25k of town(speed humps) driving.
You just have to take every car on an individual basis and check for play or movement in the ball joints and bushes and go from there. I always laugh at people who say they've looked at their bushes and they're all ok, just because there's no visible sign of damage doesn't mean they're ok.
 
yep, that's is my concern at the moment. Mines on 38k but from looking into the cars past usage etc 29k of that has been just as you suggest, low speed local usage with speed bumps thrown in too, and even with the rs4 arb it has started to feel a bit loose around the the country lanes etc, maybe time to get them all checked out, any suggestions on which ones fail first.
 
Going from my original ones and the spares I bought to use the uprights from, both sets of top arms looked very poor. The ball joints on them all had play in them and were quite loose, my originals were particularly poor and were the root of my little knock when hitting pot holes. The bushes looked poor but still had a tight spring feel to them once I'd disconnected the ball joints. The lower rears were all fine, no play and bushes were intact, front lowers seemed ok but the shock mount on my originals looked terrible but I think that was due to amount of times I've disconnected the shock and not from actual wear.
Due to the expense of changing them I would probably leave them alone until they get noisy unless you can change them yourself, easy to check them yourself tho. If you're doing the arms and plan on keeping the car you're as well to do the top mounts, bearings, arb bushes so it all adds up, better waiting until something really needs done then save on the labour costs and get it all done.
 
ajax1976 said:
Going from my original ones and the spares I bought to use the uprights from, both sets of top arms looked very poor. The ball joints on them all had play in them and were quite loose, my originals were particularly poor and were the root of my little knock when hitting pot holes. The bushes looked poor but still had a tight spring feel to them once I'd disconnected the ball joints. The lower rears were all fine, no play and bushes were intact, front lowers seemed ok but the shock mount on my originals looked terrible but I think that was due to amount of times I've disconnected the shock and not from actual wear.
Due to the expense of changing them I would probably leave them alone until they get noisy unless you can change them yourself, easy to check them yourself tho. If you're doing the arms and plan on keeping the car you're as well to do the top mounts, bearings, arb bushes so it all adds up, better waiting until something really needs done then save on the labour costs and get it all done.
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Been to garage about this today to ask about labour cost for fitting full control arm kit in addition to cv joints and wheel bearings. I was planning on getting springs and shocks done at latter date due to cost of parts. If I go ahead as planned (not fitting springs and shocks yet) should I also get top mounts done or are they removed as part of spring/shock absorber replacement ?
 
Depending how they do arms they may or may not remove the top mount but they'll definitely need to remove it to do your shock/springs so it could be left till later. Unlike traditional top mounts there's no bearings in them as they don't actually have to turn like normal ones so don't think they wear much at all.
 
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ajax1976 said:
Depending how they do arms they may or may not remove the top mount but they'll definitely need to remove it to do your shock/springs so it could be left till later. Unlike traditional top mounts there's no bearings in them as they don't actually have to turn like normal ones so don't think they wear much at all.
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Thanks I will leave it until new shocks are fitted then
 
That is unless anyone can persuade me that paying near enough double for bilstien b12 pro rather than AP springs and shocks is worth the extra layout?
 
A4Rob said:
yep, that's is my concern at the moment. Mines on 38k but from looking into the cars past usage etc 29k of that has been just as you suggest, low speed local usage with speed bumps thrown in too, and even with the rs4 arb it has started to feel a bit loose around the the country lanes etc, maybe time to get them all checked out, any suggestions on which ones fail first.
Click to expand...
I get the feeling from this thread and many others if one or two have failed it seems best to replace them all rather than just a select few
 
These are some of the nasties I replaced

Lower strut mount, insert way off centre



Front ARB bushes,



And just about every ball joint had severe excess play in it.
 
SDHA4SLine said:
I get the feeling from this thread and many others if one or two have failed it seems best to replace them all rather than just a select few
Click to expand...

If you're going to the time and trouble of swopping out suspect arms, I would say it really makes sense to do the lot. If the parts set is around / just over £300 then either the labour costs or your own efforts would be worth investing in. Any ideas what the labour costs would be on this to do the front arms complete? Certainly would make sense to do the springs dampers at the same too....?

Edit - swopping not shopping !!!!
 
Last edited:
I've got my old bus booked in for its first MOT ( under my ownership that is) on Monday so I may ask if I can be present when they check the suspension and bushes etc to see what the situation is.
 
gary_tfsi_quattro said:
If you're going to the time and trouble of swopping out suspect arms, I would say it really makes sense to do the lot. If the parts set is around / just over £300 then either the labour costs or your own efforts would be worth investing in. Any ideas what the labour costs would be on this to do the front arms complete? Certainly would make sense to do the springs dampers at the same too....?

Edit - swopping not shopping !!!!
Click to expand...
Got to wait until next Monday for the answer to the additional labour cost of fitting control arms. I really would like to do shocks and springs too but parts alone are so expensive (decided on bilstien b12 pro set up).
 
so.....

cv joints, wheel bearings, full meyle hd control arm kit (incl drop links) plus i presume 2 x ARB bushes should (with the exception of shocks/springs and top mounts) be a complete renewal of front end ?


Please tell me this is everything !!!
 
Yup, that's everything.
At least if you do decide to do it over 2 stages when the time comes to fit the new springs you won't get any nasty surprise extra labour charges as the new stuff will dismantle a whole lot quicker and easier than the old stuff.
 
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