s3 Wishbone questions?

S3-Oski

S3-Oski

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Hi i have a few questions about wishbones,

On my last service they guy said my wishbone bushes were perished quite bad and would need replacing soon,

My car now has now recently developed a slight knocking noise now from the supension usually first thing when its cold,and feels the bumps in the road alot more now, So going to replace my wishbone/bushes,hopefuly will cure it,

I have done alot of reading and i understand that i need a front and back bush for each of the front wishbones so that makes a total of four,

Would i be best of with standard bushes or uprated?,or would i be better replacing the whole arm each side they were about £110 each iirc,

I have read if i just have bushes pressedi n/out i dont need a re-alignment which i had not that long ago, but if i replace the whole wishbones i will need a realignment is this true?,

Also is it worth me doing the Dog bone mount ? is this engine mount?

Also is there anything else woorth doing at the same time suspension wise,?

Sorry for the questions just trying to get my head around it all cheers Oski:salute:
 
Good call Oski, I shall be replacing my wishbone bushes in the very near future (or rather somebody will be replacing them for me).

I'm liking the sound of the DEFCON setup.
 
vetch said:
Good call Oski, I shall be replacing my wishbone bushes in the very near future (or rather somebody will be replacing them for me).

I'm liking the sound of the DEFCON setup.
Click to expand...


Hi Vetch, are the defcons the smaller bushes what are like a almuinum insert to give a stiffer feel, i think i read something like that?,i also read to avoid poly bushes as they eventually strech and tear but i think that may be the back ones, not to sure lol i get confused to easy, as you can see im no mechanic lol
 
Yeah, thats right. The DEFCON gives much sharper turn in and makes the S3/TT feel much better apparently. I think I might go for it, I cant find UK stockists though (I havent done much research though).

http://www.ttstuff.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?

I wont be using poly bushes, I'll stick to OEM stuff as the cost doesn't justify the gain in my opinion.
 
vetch said:
Yeah, thats right. The DEFCON gives much sharper turn in and makes the S3/TT feel much better apparently. I think I might go for it, I cant find UK stockists though (I havent done much research though).

http://www.ttstuff.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?

I wont be using poly bushes, I'll stick to OEM stuff as the cost doesn't justify the gain in my opinion.
Click to expand...


Ah i see, hmm its a how far do you go situation for me as i want the car 100% niggle free, but not to sure how far to go supension wise as to be honest i dont track race etc,

i have already just fitted some black diamond disks and fedro ds2500 pads, when really i could of had oem,

lol i could end up spending alot more money here but to be honest is prob not worth it for me so will prob just stay oem supension wise unless its really is a better upgrade worth doing,

like you say i was looking at some of the powerflex bushes seem alot more £ in comparison to oem and really how much difference would an average joe like me notice? Oski
 
Oski mate, I'm in exactly the same situation as you! How far do you go? Where do you stop etc?!

I'm not interested in making my car the fastest S3 out there, or turning into some sort of track weapon. Apart from an FMIC the engine will be left alone. But I do want to improve the suspension, I want the car to be far more pointy! The DEFCON kit on the front wishbones with OEM everywhere else seems like the best way to go about this without selling a testicle!
 
audi upgrades
I am having the defcon bushes and dogbone fitted to my car on Tuesday at APS. Never used them before so will report on how they are.
 
Which DEFCON kit did you go for 8pot? Are APS supplying the kit?
 
8pot said:
I am having the defcon bushes and dogbone fitted to my car on Tuesday at APS. Never used them before so will report on how they are.
Click to expand...


Hi 8Pot, have you a link to the Defcon kit please? Price etc? is it just the four new bushes or is it a the whole wishbone,? cheers Oski
 
vetch said:
Oski mate, I'm in exactly the same situation as you! How far do you go? Where do you stop etc?!

I'm not interested in making my car the fastest S3 out there, or turning into some sort of track weapon. Apart from an FMIC the engine will be left alone. But I do want to improve the suspension, I want the car to be far more pointy! The DEFCON kit on the front wishbones with OEM everywhere else seems like the best way to go about this without selling a testicle!
Click to expand...

Hi mate yep you sound the same as me, woudl the defcon kit be ok with just oem other components?, have you any link to the defcon kits price etc? cheers Oski
 
A quick question - So there are a total of 4 bushes to replace on the front suspension (front and rear). Is it the same on the rear suspension?
 
As I understand it, there are also bushes/mounts on the ARBs (2 front ARB and 2 rear ARB), plus ARB droplinks - 2 front, 2 back.

With the wishbones, Audi have told me that the rear wishbone inner bush cant be sold separately, only as part of the arm and they want £65 for each side! That must be ******** though as you can buy the powerflex bush separately.
 
I am paying £375 all in incl dogbone. I am not sure to be honest which bushes I am getting, I assumed it was just the ones that are replaceable with the defcom ones. As far as which type, I do not know! I did not think there were different types.
 
Hi all im a little confused:uhm:,

I was told on my service my wishbone bushes were wearing, well i can hear a creak/knocking noise come from passenger side sounds like something is loose, when i had my disc replaced not long ago, they said my bushes were bad,

So i gonna get them tommorow, i phoned up Gsf today they said its one each side @about £10 each,

I thought there were two each wisbone?

Is it easy enough to get a mechanic to press out old ones and put new in? Or should i buy whole new wishbones @£135 each? not to sure,

Also do i need another alignment done after this?

Sorry for essay cheers Oski
 
Went to APS last week to have the Defcons fitted. Must say, service was excellent and the guys were very helpful and friendly. Anyway, they took my wishbones off and they discovered that they were the early type ones, therefore would not need the defcon aluminium inserts. They merely fitted the rubber inserts into my original ones. It seems that on early S3's, mine is a 2000 W reg, that they have the original MK1 TT arms. This saved me best part of £200. I also had the dogbone fitted. They checked all the other bushes and said they were all OK. Car does feel a bit sharper as the original bushes were worn and engine seems to feel a bit more solidly mounted in the car. I did not hink it "transformed" my car, this I think was to do with the fact that it is low mileage (45000) and the first 30000 were driven by my mother!! Also, the original type wishbones will have made it feel tighter anyway.

All in all, I was very impressed with APS and would have no hesitation recommending them
 
Thats very interesting. My car is also an early 2000 model, so I'm assuming I have the same wishbones as you 8pot. I'll stick to OEM bushes then.

Does that mean that early S3s have slightly sharper steering than later models??
 
Hi
The later ones have the larger bushes in
The larger the bushes the more flex that you can get
So what they do with Defcon`s is put an insert in to make the bush size smaller to give less flex
This then will make the feel of the handling more precise
Sarah
 
Hi, just a question, does anyone know when they changed over? i have a 2001 s3 and need them doing.
 
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