RE: control arms

[3.0_TDI_C6]

Hello everyone

I have been the fortunate owner of an A6 C6 3.0 tdi quattro currently sitting at 138,000 miles for the last year and 3 months with (surprisingly and thankfully) no issues.

The time has come to change the control arms (both front and rear)

After some research I am still yet to arrive to a decision so I thought I would ask the Audi community for some advice to best help me

I understand lemforder is an OEM supplier to Audi but the pricing of febi bilstein products are tempting, especially given the fact to change all the control arms including labor would cost as much as I bought the car for.



Has anyone used febi bilstein parts, specifically for controls arms and what is your experience with them?

Which site would you all recommend I purchase the parts from (autodoc vs GSF vs eurocarparts vs etc)?

Any other suspension components worth changing while it is all apart or should I just purchase a full kit?

How much should I budget for labor?

And last any specialists or even general independent garages garages you would recommend in the Worcestershire area (or even slightly further afield if highly rated)?

Apologies for the onslaught of messages and any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[rum4mo]

One thing to check up on first of all, once you have selected a few possible workshops to do your work, make sure that they will accept using your provided materials - I've found that nowadays, many workshops are not allowed to work that way - and that will be due to restraints put on them by their insurance company - which does make sense. Other good reasons for not allowing customers to provide their own materials is that if a supplied part is wrong then a workshop slot is blocked or the car needs rebuilding so that it can be moved - and no workshop wants that crap, also if fitted parts fail, then the customer will tend to blame the workshop - and that only adds to their pain for something that they had no input to - public forums can be evil weapons!

Edit:- companies like Lemforder manufacturer all over the world, the intention is probably for these parts to be used locally but traders like Autodoc will source parts from the cheapest source, and yes, that can mean ending up with "made in China" Lemforder arms - especially lower arms it seems!

TRW is probably the branding on factory fitted upper arms - they are another ZF company.