Front control arm question?

[MikeH914]

First time poster here. I just picked up my 2016 S4 a few weeks ago.

Shortly after I brought the car home from the dealer, I noticed the front passenger wheel sat very far back in the wheel arch. I figured it was just an alignment issue and the caster was way off. I took the car today to get an alignment done and ran into some trouble. The first alignment shop wouldn't even put the car on the rack, saying the wheel was so off no caster adjustment would fix the issue. They went straight to "bent frame, car's been in an accident." I was worried, but the car has no signs of an accident, and a clean carfax, but still raised some red flags. I ended up taking the car to another alignment shop to get a second opinion. This shop was much more professional and decided to put the car up on the rack. They came back with a much better diagnosis, but I was still a little concerned. The tech said the rear lower back most control arm has a significant bend in it.

My main question is how rare/hard is it to bend one of those arms? Should I be concerned about anything else? They seem pretty heavy duty. The car has 65k on it, so I'll just replace all the front arms. Other than this issue, the car drives perfectly with no other (known) issues.

[Smac770]

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-volkswagen-audi-parts/front-lower-control-arm-curved-right/8k0407694ad/

That's your front right lower rear (curved) control arm. It's a big piece of metal. You figure it works with a lot of stress in that position. So if it's bent, .... But maybe it was simply some fool thought it was cool to lift the car at the control arm. I'd be back at that dealership, but they were probably thinking as you drove off, "did he leave the lot yet ... yes!".

[DarrenOman]

Are you able to drive the car up onto ramps and lay underneath to compare the two sides.
You could probably pick up a used control arm from Wolf Auto Parts. Do not see any need to buy a new one.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[Ashtonts]

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-volkswagen-audi-parts/front-lower-control-arm-curved-right/8k0407694ad/

That's your front right lower rear (curved) control arm. It's a big piece of metal. You figure it works with a lot of stress in that position. So if it's bent, .... But maybe it was simply some fool thought it was cool to lift the car at the control arm. I'd be back at that dealership, but they were probably thinking as you drove off, "did he leave the lot yet ... yes!".

This would be my guess as well. A front end collision repair job would be pretty obvious, even if it was done well

[oaybar007]

Could it be possible that the car hit a curb earlier in its life or a local impact to that specific wheel area? Not sure what the bend looks like but yeah, I would replace all the front arms to have fresh components.

[MikeH914]

Could it be possible that the car hit a curb earlier in its life or a local impact to that specific wheel area? Not sure what the bend looks like but yeah, I would replace all the front arms to have fresh components.
If I had to guess I would say this is probably what happened. I was able to look more throughly underneath the car today. There are some harsh scrape marks under the bumper as well as some of the plastics on the passenger side. I took some rough measurements and the passenger control arm does seem that the two ends are slightly closer together if that makes any sense. Other than that I could not find any evidence of a front end crash. Everything appears to be original to the car from the stuff under the hood and near the fender, to the parts under the car. The bushings appear to be original, and all the suspension components have Audi logos and P/N.

[MikeH914]

Just a quick update. I went ahead and ordered the Meyle front control arm kit. After I installed everything my issue seems to be fixed. The passenger wheel is no longer sitting way back in the wheel well. The passenger side rear lower arm had a pretty good bend in it. Just need to go get an alignment now.

https://i.postimg.cc/15HXtNHw/IMG-9181.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/t44TVCSf/IMG-9182.jpg

[Smac770]

Wow, that thing got wrecked. The bend in that direction wouldn't be from lifting; must have hit the blazes out of something. But it's curious that nothing else was jacked. For that arm to be so out of place, the straight lower must have been pulled backwards at the spindle end. The inside end of the lower straight, where it mounts to the subframe, looked all fine there? Glad it's all good now.

Though, what's the part number on that old arm? Maybe it's not even the right arm.

[Ashtonts]

Wow, that thing got wrecked. The bend in that direction wouldn't be from lifting; must have hit the blazes out of something. But it's curious that nothing else was jacked. For that arm to be so out of place, the straight lower must have been pulled backwards at the spindle end. The inside end of the lower straight, where it mounts to the subframe, looked all fine there? Glad it's all good now.

Though, what's the part number on that old arm? Maybe it's not even the right arm.

Agreed that it makes no sense that was the only thing that got screwed up. It would take a lot of force to bend an arm that thick by that much. The arms definitely do have a slightly different design so I would be curious too if the incorrect part was installed.

[sepheroth86]

Aren't these cast aluminum? I would think they would break before bending.

[whts4]

It looks to me like different parts...do they both havz the same Audi pn on them? It is very very difficult to bend an "I" beam cross section, so skeptical its bent....the arms are clear different designs (mfgr).

[MikeH914]

So I got the car aligned today. Brought it back to the shop that originally diagnosed the issue. Everything checked out and went perfectly. Front wheels are sitting exactly where they are supposed to be.

As far as the bend, I'm really not sure. Every part I took off of the car had Audi logos and PN. Nothing other than the rearward lower arm on the passenger side looks to be off. Maybe it was replaced incorrectly at some point? I really see no signs of a crash or accident. The hood has stickers dating back to 2016, the bummer has some scrapes on the underside that suggest it has never been replace, and the passenger fender has Audi logos embossed on it.

Here are some pictures of all the parts that came off the car.
https://i.postimg.cc/90SMz6v4/3.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/Wpft9Zh2/4.jpg

[Smac770]

Manufacturing defect? That's odd.
Part numbers on the lower curved arms should be 8K0 407 693 Q left and 694 Q right. Q was replaced by AA, and then replaced again by AD. Looks like the same arm is used on all the B8 (A4/A5/Q5, A/S/RS) so shouldn't be an issue of a similar but different B8 part.

[MikeH914]

Manufacturing defect? That's odd.
Part numbers on the lower curved arms should be 8K0 407 693 Q left and 694 Q right. Q was replaced by AA, and then replaced again by AD. Looks like the same arm is used on all the B8 (A4/A5/Q5, A/S/RS) so shouldn't be an issue of a similar but different B8 part.

Hmm that’s interesting. Both the lower curved arms ended in H. Hope that’s not something to be concerned about.

[Smac770]

Oh, this is probably that whole composite part vs component part mess. The 693/694 part number is the arm+bushing, and the bushing went through a lot of revisions. The physical arm component, which would be some number other than 693 as well, probably had few revisions, so the arm might still be H while the overall part moved on up through the letters. If there's some way to know which revisions of the components are included in a particular revision of the composite, I have no idea how to find that. So I'm sure it's fine, well, other than being defective. Just seems odd no one picked up on it at some point during the history before you.

[usmcfieldmp]

That is interesting. As another pointed out, cast aluminum tends to have a brittle snap versus bending... but anything is possible. My initial reaction to looking at it would be to think that someone put the wrong part on it.