tip on A2 suspension

Various parts wear over time.

- Droplinks go "clunk" when the wheels are tyrned and are pushed up at low speed
- loose ARBs go "clunk" over bumps driven at straight-on. If the noise sounds like it's coming from the right, it's coming from the right.
- ARB bushes should be changed as a matter of course at 8 years old or so. Replace with Polo rubber bushes, tighten correctly *with the car on the floor*.
- the front mounts of the wishbones are in the "consoles" themselves and it's relatively easy to strip the threads of the main bolts in the consoles. So replace them if you have to - you can get the complete setup for €55 on Ebay. (or at least you could when I last looked). Symptoms of worn bushes include excessive tyre wear and wobble at higher speeds that is not consistent.
- if you change one side, change the other, too.
- droplink replacements include something from Meyer called a "HD droplink" (google for it using the German word, "Koppelstange"). The ends of the bars are significantly larger than the originals and should therefore hold longer.
- if you're replacing shocks, replace the seats and top mounts at the same time. There's no point not doing it.
- remember that quite a few components on the suspension actually have a limitation on how many times you should re-use the bolt, i.e. zero - so replace if for example, you replace the consoles or the wishbones.
- wobble under braking at low speeds MAY be caused by the track rod ends, it may be the discs are warped. I've swapped the ends and they were a cause of a lot of it, but my discs are still obviously not 100%. OTOH, they are 106tsd kms old, so I'm not complaining too loudly... still on the first pads, too.
- other sources of wobble include the mounts of the engine and gearbox, and possibly the driveshafts. There's not much you can do to specifically isolate one, though the rearmost gearbox mount - "Pendelstütze" - is relatively simple to replace with one from a polo at 1/3 of the price of the A2 one... It will also deal with some of the vibrations.

HtH.

- Bret