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

[Joe Pizzimenti]

Bushing wear is not directly proportionate to mileage, but rather a
combination of age and oxidation due to winter use.

How does she drive with the Al bushings?  I know that switching from all
rubber mounts to all polyurethane mounts really made a night and day
connection with the road.  Less squirm and more turn...but a touch more NVH.

Joe

On 7/30/06, Sean Douglas <quattro20v at telus.net> wrote:
>
> 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 _______________________________________________
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> > http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/s-> car-list
> >
>
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