[s-cars] Re: Shimmy nearly gone

[Tim Sexton]

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
>>>>
>>
>>>  
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> Bob
> Http://Chips-Ur-S.com <http://chips-ur-s.com/>
>