[s-cars] Rear suspension epiphany (Fritz und Hans invadeengineering dept?)

[Sean Douglas]

Tony:

Glad you got it sorted out. Mine was the same, the holes are larger than
the mounting studs. Luckily for me I swapped in a low mileage 92-spec
rear cross-member (with sway bar) and the OEM bushings were still good.

I'm just looking at your signature and your car only has 97,000 km on
it! And the bushings failed at that low of mileage (kilometerage)? 

Cheers,

Sean

> -----Original Message-----
> From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com 
> [mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Tony Guttmann
> Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2006 1:18 AM
> To: s-car-list at audifans.com
> Subject: [s-cars] Rear suspension epiphany (Fritz und Hans 
> invadeengineering dept?)
> 
> 
> Some weeks ago I wrote asking about bushes for the rear 
> suspension cross-member. Dave Forgie put me in touch with 
> Addict Motorsport Design, who sell these in aluminium for $75 
> a set. The originals are not purchasable--one needs to buy 
> the entire cross member for (in Australia) US$2250. When the 
> suspension people removed the cross member, they had to burn 
> out the original rubber bushes, but 
> the steel core, through which the mounting bolts pass, was 
> found to be 16.5mm in 
> diamter. The new bushes, and the factory bolts, are 10.5 mm 
> in diameter, and so 
> the new bushes, made by AMD, fit perfectly.  
> 
> The suspension shop said that when they fitted the new 
> bushes, everything lined up perfectly, compared to the 
> slightly out of alignment bits before, and my rear suspension 
> noise has disappeared, and the old bushes on other suspension 
> components that appeared to be under strain are now perfectly aligned.
> 
> I pass this on for the possible interest of the list, no 
> affiliation with AMD, just a happy customer. But the mystery 
> remains--why did Audi supply bushes with a 16.5mm hole and 
> then pass a 10 mm bolt through them? Did they want the rear 
> subframe to wander and twist around or what? And before you 
> speculate--it's not that they started life as 10mm and wore. 
> The holes are perfectly round, and all four are the same diameter.
> 
> Tony Guttmann
> '94 S4 with 97,000km _______________________________________________
> S-CAR-List mailing list
> S-CAR-List at audifans.com 
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/s-> car-list
>