jschick

I have also used the Fcp control arms with good results, for the price I recommend them, you can find their S series upper kit for only $60 on Ebay, which includes all 4 front upper arms, that is hard to beat! I think the lower kit is also only $60 so for that price it's hard to beat, even if you only get 30k out of them!

rocketman4321

I'm puzzled by the strong OE recommendations in this thread. Is it that OE arms are the least bad, and the others are awful? I mean, c'mon, 60k (which is about what I got). Is the suspension geometry just fundamentally putting overload into the bushings? Why can't someone design a lasting one? There's a big market between all the Audis and Passats. But these "premium" cars should have bushings that last as long as cheap ones.

radhaz

Meyle claims to have made improved control arms:
http://www.meyleusa.com/VW-Audi-Booklet.pdf
My car is making the horrible front end death noises. Looks like it's pretty easy to do the repair if you have tools and facilities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrYAAtlsjnY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-0cvMxherU

dorsal900

I have a post on the A4 forum from years ago when I bought some "imported" (Chinese?) tie rod ends from an ebay supplier. They looked great, larger ball and socket than OEM, etc. While great initially, they died in about 15,000 miles. I replaced them with Meyle parts (the ONLY part that I will buy from Meyle), which have been fine for years.

If the balljoint parts are not hardened properly, or if the grease is sub-par, or the rubber boot leaks, then the new part will fail rapidly.

rocketman4321

Since this thread got resurrected, here's an update. Car failed inspection this a.m. with 22k miles on the FCP upper control arms. I haven't had a chance to look, but I was in denial about a clunk when backing, turning, and pulling away.
As noted above, the originals lasted 56k. So paying extra for genuine Audi isn't much help.