BobD
21st October 2015, 02:54 PM
My D4 is getting new air struts fitted and they came across a bit of a problem. I've replaced the rears previously but my fronts have done 200,000km and I haven't really had a problem with lack of damping or anything. However, when they put the car on the hoist the left front wheel hung down several inches below the correct location, giving me huge articulation. Probably due to a failure of the full extension limiting system in the shocks. The right front was normal.
Unfortunately this causes problems. The inner CV was at full rotation and binding at this angle, however, it seems to be OK still. The main problem is that the bushes in the upper control arm have been damaged, the sway bar bushes are damaged and the sway bar link to the suspension is bent. Since my car gets to full articulation quite often, it also affects the diff mountings as the diff gets pushed up and across at this drive shaft angle. They also found that my EGR pipe was chafing against the suspension tower and had worn through.
I haven't noticed any problem with any of this while driving and I don't know when it started. I just noticed a bit of wandering when on NSW outback roads, which must be some of the worst bitumen roads in Australia due to the ruts in them. Also some tram lining on some surfaces, I guess due to the play in the control arms as well as my wider tyres. I had the lower control arms replaced probably about 40,000km ago and they are still good.
Perhaps I should have replaced all the struts at around 120,000km. They were actually probably all stuffed but only the rears were noticeable to me at that stage.
Unfortunately this causes problems. The inner CV was at full rotation and binding at this angle, however, it seems to be OK still. The main problem is that the bushes in the upper control arm have been damaged, the sway bar bushes are damaged and the sway bar link to the suspension is bent. Since my car gets to full articulation quite often, it also affects the diff mountings as the diff gets pushed up and across at this drive shaft angle. They also found that my EGR pipe was chafing against the suspension tower and had worn through.
I haven't noticed any problem with any of this while driving and I don't know when it started. I just noticed a bit of wandering when on NSW outback roads, which must be some of the worst bitumen roads in Australia due to the ruts in them. Also some tram lining on some surfaces, I guess due to the play in the control arms as well as my wider tyres. I had the lower control arms replaced probably about 40,000km ago and they are still good.
Perhaps I should have replaced all the struts at around 120,000km. They were actually probably all stuffed but only the rears were noticeable to me at that stage.