ricochet

Hi all. I've been a longtime lurker here but have never actually posted. I took my '04 TT Quattro to the VW dealer for an alignment a week or two ago and they told me that one of the rear trailing arms was bent, and they were unable to fix the toe on that side. They wanted to replace the trailing arm, hub, and wheel bearing. I passed on the repair and found a used trailing arm on ebay from a 2001 TT.



I took my trailing arm off and was getting ready to put the replacement part on, when I found that the control arm bushings are different between the two. I've included pictures below:

Original:


Ebay part:



I also was not able to find any bending in the trailing arm or the piece that mounts to the chassis. The control arms are not aligned vertically though, which makes me think maybe one or both are bent. I've included a pic below.



What do you guys think? Anyone know if Audi changed the bushings at some point? The bushings on the replacement part are nowhere close to "straight" when compared to the bushings on the original part.

J. Patterson

The hub carrier bushings did change in about 2003 .
Your replacement is the older spherical metal one called a rose joint.
It's like a ball joint and should swivel freely in all directions. They did freeze in salt conditions and caused control arm breakage. That is why they changed to the rubber bushing style.
It is doubtful that you had a bent control arm unless your car had been crashed. Was your problem camber or toe? There is very little adjustment in the stock arrangemnt for toe and none for camber. A set of adjustable control arms would likely fix your problem much more effectively and and for less total expense.
Here is an example.
http://gruvenparts.com/website/cart/...category_id=60

ricochet

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I already ordered the bushings by the time I received it. To answer your questions, the car was in an accident which i think knocked the toe out of alignment. However, the tires are showing wear on the inside so I think the rear camber has been off for a while.

The camber is off on both sides. It's at about -3 degrees, IIRC. The mechanic at the dealer just told me that he could not adjust the toe enough on the right side, so I had him just do the front and figured I would bring it back for the rear after I replaced the parts he said needed replacing.

Now I'm wondering if I should return all of the parts I have and just get the adjustable control arms. Or maybe replace the trailing arm and get one set of adjustable control arms? Is that the only way to fix the rear camber problem? It seems like a terrible design if so. The car only has 55k miles on it. It has stock suspension, stock wheels with OE Continental tires that are starting to show wear on the inside after only 5k miles.

J. Patterson

It IS a deficient design. There is not a way to change the camber and if the car is lowered or the springs sag or a heavy load is carried in the rear, the camber goes more negative. Good for handling but bad for tire wear in highway driving. Nothing you do short of adjustable control arms will fix the camber. -1.6 degrees is a good static setting. Is it toed in or out? If you pull the bottom of the tires inward with adjustable control arms, that will reduce toe in too. Most likely to the point that it can be set within spec with the slots at the front mounts of the trailing arms. If you get 4 adjustable control arms, then you can do whatever you need to without worrying with the slots. Good Luck.

ricochet

Thanks a lot for the help. It sounds like the control arms are probably the way to go. Do you have any idea if the dealer will be able/willing to adjust the adjustable control arms? I originally took the car to the VW dealer for the alignment because it was $50 less than the Audi dealer. There are a handful of Audi shops in the area, but none of them do alignments.

AudiMick

Not sure where you live, but around there are about 100 places that can align that car.

Anyone with a Hunter Rack can do it, Firestone tire has them. I think I paid $75 last time.

Just point out to the shop it has adjustable arms, it will make it much easier for them than tweaking the subframe.

FYI adjustable arms are the best solution, but if your budget is tight you can also use eccentric bushings like kmacs to get about 10mm of adjustment on the arms. Several companies sell something like it.

You do have to press out the old bushing.You can buy a kit of two or four depending on how many arms you need to mod.

http://www.ecstuning.com/Audi-TT_MKI...n/Camber_Kits/

lkfoster

I think that Audi got a bit sloppy when it came to the rear suspension. Numerous shops have been unable to set the rear toe-in to spec on our bought new '04 3.2 Quattro Cpe. The car had next to no miles on it when we bought it so I doubt that it's collision related. Net result is that it eats rear tires at a rate twice that of the front, exactly the opposite of what it should be doing on an essentially FWD car.

I don't remember the camber settings, but the tires wear evenly from inside to outside to that's not the problem.

ricochet

Thanks again for the replies. In regards to the alignment, I first took the car to a shop(Goodyear?) that told me they could align it. They said they aligned the front, but were unable to do the rear, and said I would need to take it to the dealer. That's when I called the independent Audi shops first, and then the dealers. When I did take it to the VW dealer, they told me the front was still way out of alignment. That makes me a little hesitant to take it back to any shop I don't have first hand experience with.

I decided that since I already had the trailing arm, and the bushings were on the way, I would go ahead and replace it to see if that would fix my toe issue. I received my parts from ECS Tuning today. It turns out they sent me the wrong bushings. They sent me the old style ones, even though the part # is for the new part. I'll have to call them tomorrow.

I bit the bullet and bought a set of adjustable control arms. I go them from BW Performance. I haven't read a lot about them on here but they look nice, and seem to get favorable reviews from the VW guys. I'll let you all know how it goes. Hopefully I can have everything by the end of the week and get it aligned on Saturday or Monday.

ricochet

I thought I would post an update for those interested. As it turned out, ECS Tuning sent me the wrong bushings twice. So I ended up just returning them, and buying them from the local Audi dealer. Anyway, once I got the new trailing arm and control arms installed, I took it back in for an alignment and they were able to get it perfectly aligned this time.

Unfortunately, I don't know if replacing the trailing arm was really necessary. If I were to do it over again, I would probably just start with the control arms.

Regardless, the car drives great and I'm confident I don't have to worry about abnormal tire wear in the rear anymore.

J. Patterson

Good news. Glad it worked out. Remember that if you need some of the old guys advice , we spend more time over at the Quattroworld forum. I still chec in here but not daily like I used to before the change.