virtualrc

I've been reading many old threads about suspension noises, bushings, swaybars, etc. so it's clear there are some known issues. My car can sometimes make a creaking/clunking sound when going over bumps so It made me think back to one of the items my independent Audi shop mentioned upon inspection which was torn upper link bushings. Can someone offer guidance on where to buy upper control arm bushings? I've looked at multiple OEM parts sites and no one seems to have just the bushings themselves. Is this a conspiracy to get everyone to buy all the upper arms? Is it even advised to just replace bushings?

MP4.2+6.0

Definite trivia search. Not on the ETKA official Audi parts slides either. But, I think I found it in the ZF parts catalog. Lemforder in turn is owned by ZF, and they have been OE supplier for these for my prior C5, my D3 and probably now my D4.

See picture below. The 4H0407515B part. 4H0... is the typical dealer parts nomenclature for something that fits D4 too. What we call D4 in Audi manufacturer speak is a 4H.

When you search on that part #, the common fitment seems to be a C7 A6/A7/S6/S7--the recent generation. Makes sense to me in terms of how they have been trying to merge parts sharing and related drivetrains. If you go that way, BE CAREFUL. I would ONLY buy from dealer, a dealer part from some place like ECS if listed that way (though discount online Audi parts dealer is typically cheaper for those than ECS), or via Lemforder branded part. In particular, anything connected to suspensions on the A6 is where some of the worst aftermarket junk crap comes into play. Reason is the A6 was the big seller in China for years, and in turn there are lots of aftermarket Chinese junk parts around, sometimes further disguised with vaguely European or German sounding brand names or logos. Many, many a bad experience on C5s, C6's, D3's etc. with these junk parts. Junk parts for suspensions also come from Eastern Europe, so China doesn't have the only crap monopoly here.

virtualrc

Thanks for the great info MP4.2+6.0

What's weird is that if I plug this part number into any parts site they're out there to be had, but with one catch, 2015 A8 is not listed as compatible. 2011-2014, fine. 2015 and beyond, not listed as compatible. My gut tells me these would work just fine but seems odd to me. Perhaps not to more experience folks on this board. Would love to get your take on situations like this. This isn't the first time I've seen inconsistent info out there regarding OEM parts since diving in head first on this stuff.

RC

MP4.2+6.0

My instinct is it is just a mid facelift thing/choke in the listings, and underneath I am not aware of any change. Sometimes it seems to take a couple of years for the parts listings to catch up with full or mid model shifts.

The way you can validate it is just work backwards with the full arms. If the part # is the same for 2011-2014 D4 arms and for 2015+ D4 arms, then the bushing pressed into them in turn must logically be identical.

virtualrc

Thank you for the advice. I'll keep this in mind from now on.

ajspaz

Does anyone have a bushing tool that they can recommend for our cars?

MP4.2+6.0

Choice A: take to friendly machine shop. In SF Bay Area though these have almost gone extinct.

Choice B: Per the D3 board where experienced guys do this, consensus is buy a basic press from Harbor Freight. $100 type range, so not big bucks. Also buy the press tool set in the appropriate size(s). From my own experience (though not with the bushings specifically), I can usually just figure out some ½" drive socket that has the correct outer diameter. But I have pretty complete set of those, including bigger ones.

Choice C: Just buy the arms complete (for more $) if you want to skip the $ one time tools outlay and time overhead of A + B.

FWIW, on D3 the dealers just replaced the bushings in a warranty replace scenario. Since there is no official D4 parts listing, they are probably just bolting in complete arms on D4.

audisession

I know this is an old thread but I just had the bushings replaced by the dealer.
I can confirm they replace just the bushings, not the complete arm. It is indeed 4H0407515B

They also have to do a new alignment afterwards

Car feels new after bushing replacement and the slight play I felt is gone.

AlaskanAudi

I rented a bushing press from Advance Auto Parts to press mine out. I went with PowerFlex Poly bushings and they're working great!

RobertISaar

2 year later update on the poly bushings? I started replacing all of the front bushings in my D3 S8 with Strongflex poly units, always the softer option when it was available. Every control arm bushing, roll bar to subframe, rollbar links, eventually the 3 for the rear diff. I didn't have any problems at all except for after rear diff, when cold and any load gets applied, it makes its presence known. Goes away above 50*F or after the oil gets some heat in it. I spent a lot of time doing the Teflon tape trick to avoid noise issues and with the exception of the rear diff, it worked and still works great.

Does the D4, with the chassis soundaktor and noise cancellation via radio, just push noise complaints even further down the realm of possibility? My stock bushings appear to have 150k miles on them and while that is absolutely a fine service life, I bet they were actually done by 100k. That's still not a problem at all in my eyes after my D3 would eat rubber bushings in less than 40k.