[s-cars] s6 suspension bushings

[lee at wheelman.com]

On Mon Nov 15 11:06:20 PST 2004, Michael Mulholland 
<meyeke at netinc.ca> wrote:

> hello, in our case the car tended to wander and had visible 
> cracking and dryness of the bushings another symptom was thumping 
> and banging of the suspension on bad roads. on the rear 
> suspension its usually the outer tie rod bushings that go. with 
> the wheel off use a pry bar and an axle stand as a pivot point to 
> lift and lower the suspension a few inches. the movement at the 
> failed bushes should be visible and audible. in my cases rust 
> dust at that point was another clue.


I had a real problem with an intermittent noise from the front end 
of my '02 A6. Various mechanics put a total of 4 or 5 control arms 
into the car. I also generously agreed to install a set of 
Bilsteins just to rule out bad shocks :)

Clair Audi finally traced the problem by putting the car on an 
alignment rack and exercising the steering. When the car was up on 
lifts prior, the unweighted tie rod end was quiet. With the 
suspension weighted (and the steering able to turn relatively 
freely) the noise popped up.

So consider the alignment rack (and good listening tools) another 
way to track down a noise...

Lee
'02 A6 quattro avant
'96 A6 quattro avant

Lee