JohnHS

My front left tire is worn pretty badly on the inside edge, I'm not sure if this is from when my car was pretty badly out of alignment or if more is going on. I've got 120k on the car and have had the tie rod ends replaced but nothing else. The car does seem to wander a bit when going over high spots in the road when changing lanes but the roads here are so bad I'm not sure if that's a problem with the car or not. How do you tell when the control arms need to be replaced? How much does it usually cost? What milage do shocks normally need to be replaced at and stay with OEM or go 3rd party? I have the sport suspension and don't really want to go with anything firmer.

I've had the dealer look everything over but they've found nothing.

freakness

When is the last time you had a wheel alignment? You're supposed to have one done ONCE A YEAR although few people do this. Usually you need an alignment when the tie-rod ends are replaced because that's where some of adjustments are made and putting in new units changes everything (to a certain degree). I wouldn't be surprised if you needed all new upper control arms, possibly inner tie-rod ends (I'm assuming you've only had the outers replaced) and a wheel alignment. You can very easily have other normal wear issues going on. It sounds as though your dealer SUCKS...although that's perfectly normal. Find a reputable independent shop that specializes in German cars.

Good luck...

MikekiM@PureMS

Inspect the inner bushings for cracking or severe lateral play. Any squeaking or noises also is a good symptom that they're bad.

For the outer joints, check the boots. If the boots are torn or ripped, the arms need replacing.

We carry a great control arm kit which includes everything you need to replace all 8 arms together.

For the shocks, they typically can wear anywhere from 60-90k miles. Yours are more than likely long past their useful life and worth replacing. They'll help reduce wandering, floatiness, and just overall poor ride comfort.

Bilstein and KONI both offer very good aftermarket shocks. Bilsteins are a bit more on the performance side, while the KONI's offer a good ride with some great performance benefits.
For people looking to maintain maximum comfort, the KONI's would definitely be our recommendation.

mattarios2

75k really? I'm at 110K on stock with no problems.

freakness

Have you actually had the shocks tested ? Corner push down test ? It's possible you've gotten used to the ride with dead/dying shocks. On the non-sport quattro, my dead shocks actually didn't seem to affect anything until I tried to drive "sporty".

mattarios2

I drive "sporty" maybe not sporty enough