ezveedub

You were misinformed slightly. The arms are the front lower rear arms. Trust me. Ask any tech and they will tell you the same. The arms were replaced with versions that had a larger diameter and are hydraulic, unlike the original versions with smaller rubber bushings. I have had the parts in my hands and have seen the repairs done many times. The upper links have nothing to do with any vibrations or steering wheel shimmy.

redwagonhood

Abidi20 - took mine with 45k to the dealer with the same vibration issue this past fall. OEM wheels with Yokohama tires. They balanced the tires (my cost) and then replaced the control arms without me having to ask for them. All fixed now - so nice to have that vibration gone.

I hope your experience matches mine.

snagitseven

Thanks for the correction. I was aware that there are four arms per front wheel, an upper pair and a lower pair. I was not aware that bushings went to hydraulics and that the new arms are thicker. My AOA guy led me to believe that the revised arms used larger bushings and never mentioned they were hydraulic. So, are you saying the newer arms use a piston/chamber of some sort rather than bushings?

ezveedub

There are 4 control arms per wheel in the front. The steering shimmy is always related to the front lower rear control arms. What they did was revise the front lower rear arms completely with a larger hydro-dampened bushing that absorbs front end oscillations more. The original arms had smaller solid rubber bushings which gave more road feel, but at the same time, transferred more road feel and vibration. With the original control arms, since it had a smaller size than the new bushing would allow, Audi had the lower arms redesigned to accept the larger bushing for the steering shimmy issues, that's what took them some time to correct the issue with the supplier. Also, it was not really an issue in Europe, since they did not have steering assist as much as the US. The EU cars have a heavier steering which did not have the same issue as the US cars with more steering assist. That's why most dealers had to make sure the wheels were correctly balanced before the newer control arms were installed.