Original Audi vs Lemforder

[mtroxel]

A point that has been made before, but a picture is worth...well you know.

Swapped sway bar links at 94,000 miles. Here's the original Audi link by the Lemforder link. Only difference is that Lemforder ground off the Audi/VW logos and part #

[Spawne32]

remind me again why our end links are plastic?

[JBAeroEngineer]

remind me again why our end links are plastic?

the weight savings, bruh.

[red4life5]

remind me again why our end links are plastic?

I’m about to swap to the Moog metal ones, it’s ridiculous


2010 A4 S-Line Prestige

[mtroxel]

the weight savings, bruh.

I’m about to swap to the Moog metal ones, it’s ridiculous

I'm not sure its ridiculous. You might gain some rigidity at the expense of slightly more un-sprung weight. But unless you're trying to shave .005 seconds off your time at Luguna Seca, I'm not sure you'd notice the rigidity or the un-sprung weight. I've never designed a suspension, so its just a guess here.

[red4life5]

I'm not sure its ridiculous. You might gain some rigidity at the expense of slightly more un-sprung weight. But unless you're trying to shave .005 seconds off your time at Luguna Seca, I'm not sure you'd notice the rigidity or the un-sprung weight. I've never designed a suspension, so its just a guess here.

I’m moving to a bigger rear sway and figure they could all use it. By themselves and no bigger bar, I agree with you


2010 A4 S-Line Prestige

[mtroxel]

On the off-chance there is someone else who has to redo a simple little job because they miss something obvious, notice in my pictures how the two bushings aren't identical? See this:

[Spawne32]

ugh for the love of god, always over complicating shit

[bhvrdr]

Lol. Has anyone ever had a stock end link fail. I havent and ive run 32mm bars before.

Mike

[mtroxel]

Lol. Has anyone ever had a stock end link fail. I havent and ive run 32mm bars before.

Fair point. And I don't think mine were bad at all. I just didn't want to put the time into removing them to inspect, put it back together, then order a $20 part and do it all over again.

[flowhigh]

It is disappointing as the B7 was aluminum. Even the B8 subframe looks more like plumbing now.

The end-link is fine.

[bhvrdr]

Audi almost never has chassis issues. Ive had quite a few bmw and built an e36 track car and their swaybar tabs crack off and their subframes will literally rip out the rear tub of the car. Its so common thats there are several companies that make chassis reinforcement kits for them and its a must do mod for trackers.

On a few audis Ive run crazy 650lb+ linear springs and 32mm sways and my buddy would run 1000lb springs on the rear of his ohlins ms and never ever had an issue. In 14 years i honestly dont recall a single failure of an endlink or subframe. Im sure it must have happened but its very very rare.

Id be willing to try moogs but id never put solids on my car. Makes no sense to me to put solid links that require annual service and possible replacement when stock links are lasting forever and ever


Mike

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[mortimersnerd]

I had an end link bushing fail. Went to the moogs front and rear. No idea if It made a difference since I'd been driving around with one sway bar disconnected.

[rcprato]

I bought some TRW Upper Control Arms from FCPEuro and exact same as the original ones I was replacing with exception the Audi Circles were ground off, a few good online sources for exact OEM parts in our cars at a fraction of what it cost to buy at Audi Dealer if you know where to look.

[arjun90]

Is there a consensus as to what is better? Wouldn't plastic be more susceptible to failing due to being plastic? I thought Audi revised the sway bar link to aluminum now

[Spawne32]

Is there a consensus as to what is better? Wouldn't plastic be more susceptible to failing due to being plastic? I thought Audi revised the sway bar link to aluminum now

Honestly there isn't enough stress on the link to worry about that. Composite plastics are very strong, but I wound up just using the MOOG links on mine.

[arjun90]

Thanks for the feedback, did you notice any difference in driving characteristics after installing MOOG links?

Honestly there isn't enough stress on the link to worry about that. Composite plastics are very strong, but I wound up just using the MOOG links on mine.

[arjun90]

Ended buying two of the revised aluminum ones online. The item number is associated with a Porsche Macan, but is also directly compatible with the Q5, lol

[mtroxel]

I can't fault your choice. As for Audi's OEM part, I would guess a suspension designer sees that as a stiffness versus un-sprung weight compromise. However, as always, cost is always mixed in.

[A4x]

It could be a comfort thing? Perhaps the plastic has some cushion effect while the Moogs are more rigid. However, I noticed 0 impact on comfort when going from stock rear sway bar to RS5 RSB with Moog end links.

Plastic parts are probably cheaper. Weight savings is a huge thing too, every gram counts. Seriously. At my old job, I had OEMs freak out about a 19 gram increase in component weight (cough BMW cough).

[Spawne32]

It could be a comfort thing? Perhaps the plastic has some cushion effect while the Moogs are more rigid. However, I noticed 0 impact on comfort when going from stock rear sway bar to RS5 RSB with Moog end links.

Plastic parts are probably cheaper. Weight savings is a huge thing too, every gram counts. Seriously. At my old job, I had OEMs freak out about a 19 gram increase in component weight (cough BMW cough).

lol Cost I think is probably 95% of the equation, consider GM almost killed alot of people over like a 2 cent detent pin in their ignition switches.

[arjun90]

The plastic ones on my Q5 were already on their way out, got this plasticky popping noise coming from the driver side, figured the bushings went past the point of no return. An Audi technician told me this was a common failure on the Q5, and that upper control arms need to be accounted for as well

[capvag]

I hear a noise similar to what you describe... Something like plastic noise when going over bumps from passenger side. The sound you had was from the plastic end link and was doing it more at bumps? Did you get fixed it?

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The plastic ones on my Q5 were already on their way out, got this plasticky popping noise coming from the driver side, figured the bushings went past the point of no return. An Audi technician told me this was a common failure on the Q5, and that upper control arms need to be accounted for as well

I hear a noise similar to what you describe... Something like plastic noise when going over bumps from passenger side. The sound you had was from the plastic end link and was doing it more at bumps? Did you get fixed it?