[s-cars] Re: Shimmy nearly gone

Wed Jun 1 14:40:45 EDT 2005

I never had to lower the subframe completely when replacing the large
front bushings.  To get them out, I just smashed them to bits and
pushed them on through.

New ones were pushed into place with a hydraulic jack from underneath,
and old mother gravity from above holding the car down....

Tim

On 5/27/05, Tim Sexton <vader at qwest.net> wrote:
> There are two front subframe "bushings" and two rear subframe "mounts"
> All of the bushings and mounts I replaced were the original to the car
> and had 120k miles on them.  For the replacement front bushings I used
> OEM and for the two rear subframe mounts I used aftermarket... I think
> they were Fibi IIRC.
>     Basically, as far as procedure goes:
> 1.  Jack the front of the car as high as safely allowable, and remove
> front wheels.
> 2.  Jack up rear of tranny to remove all the weight from the tranny
> mounts and remove said mounts.
> 3.  Loosen and remove balljoints from both front uprights... much easier
> said then done BTW :)
> 4.  Remove all four subframe bolts, and lower subframe from car...oh,
> and make sure to get the big alternator wire loose from the front of the
> subframe first.
> 5.  The rear subframe mounts just unbolt from the frame, but to get the
> fronts out of the removed subframe, you'll need an air chisel/hammer and
> or a press of some kind.  Freeze the new front      bushings at lease
> over night, and press them into the subframe using soap or some other
> water soluble liquid.  If they're good and frozen, they'll go in no
> problem... I used a LARGE C-clamp.
> 
>     Otherwise, to paraphrase ol' Bentley.... "Reassembly is reverse of
> disassembly".  Of course, this will really screw with your front end
> alignment, so plan on correcting that when you're done.
> The new tranny and subframe mounts/bushings made a HUGE improvement in
> the overall "tightness", for lack of a better word,  in the ride quality
> and especially the front end of the car.  Also, this was on my S4, which
> had the tightest feeling front end of any of the myriad of Audi's I've
> owned over the years.
> All in all, it wasn't particularly costly or difficult, but it was by
> far worth the time and effort involved.
> HTH,
> Tim Sexton
> 
> Robert Myers wrote:
> 
> >
> > What bushings did you use?  OEM?  Or something different?  Procedure?
> >
> > At 07:05 PM 5/27/2005, you wrote:
> >
> >> *This message was transferred with a trial version of CommuniGate(tm)
> >> Pro*
> >> Hi Bob,
> >>    99% chance you've got bad subframe bushings as well...BTDT last
> >> month.   I had the exact same shimmy problem on my 94 S4, and
> >> discovered in addition to a prematurely failed inner RF control arm
> >> bushing, I had 3 out of four subframe bushings/mounts bad.   I
> >> replaced all of the above, and bingo no more shimmy.   The bushings
> >> on the subframe aren't nearly as hard to replace as one would
> >> think.   If you've got a decent air hammer and an impact wrench, you
> >> can do the entire front end in a short day. Oh, and do the tranny
> >> mounts while you're in there if you can... make it a piece of cake
> >> since they have to come out anyway.
> >>    On a related note,  anyone noticed a problem with premature inner
> >> control arm bushing failure on the C5 chassis?  My last RF control
> >> arm lasted about 10k miles, and it looks like the new "improved"
> >> design from Blau is already splitting after about one month.
> >> HTH,
> >> Tim Sexton
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> From: "Robert Myers" <Bob at chips-ur-s.com>
> >>> To: "s-car list" <s-car-list at audifans.com>
> >>> Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 5:52 AM
> >>> Subject: [s-cars] Shimmy nearly gone
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Hi Y'all,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Well, it appears that my SEVERE shimmy during 85 mph left hand
> >>>>> sweepers is MUCH IMPROVED but is not gone.  Wednesday we replaced
> >>>>> the lower control arms.  The bushings, after 220K+ miles, were
> >>>>> toast - not terribly surprising.  Driving the car showed that the
> >>>>> violent shimmy is gone but there was still some vibration which I
> >>>>> attributed to driving on square wheels.  The tires on the car were
> >>>>> down to the wear bars and I figured they were no longer fairly
> >>>>> well balanced.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> That evening my local tire shop balanced and installed the brand
> >>>>> new tires (Bridgestone Potenza RE750 245/45R16 if it matters).  At
> >>>>> highway(+) speeds there is a vibration which feels like an
> >>>>> unbalanced wheel.  It becomes more pronounced during left hand
> >>>>> sweepers at speed.  Either the balancing job was poorly done or
> >>>>> I'm still having bushing problems.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Today I plan on checking the balancing.  What other bushings could
> >>>>> cause this shimmy only in the RF corner?
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Bob
> >>>>
> >>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> -- incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
> >> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
> >> Version: 7.0.322 / Virus Database: 267 - Release Date: 5/27/2005
> >
> >
> > Bob
> > Http://Chips-Ur-S.com <http://chips-ur-s.com/>
> >
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