ARB Bushes and Droplinks
 

I am getting a slight suspension rattle on crossing rough ground (e.g. car parks made from un-compacted road stone) and think that this may be ARB bushes and/or drop links. Had a look underneath this morning and whilst one of the drop links/bushes looks fine the offside link top bush had broken rubber poking out of the side. The ARB bushes dont look too bad from what I can see - which is not much. Some questions:
1. Any way of testing for play (given I havent a lift)?
2. What are the replacement part numbers for the drop links and ARB bushes?

Any help/info appreciated (I have noted the ARB bush replacement sticky)

OK, so I have found my parts list and the part numbers i have are:

ARB - Bushes (00-03) 4D0 411 327G
Bracket 4D0 411 336D
Link, stabilizer 4D0 411 317K

Any comments/tips on testing or DIY replacement?

ARB bushes don't fail that often and usually resuld in creaking noise going over bumps if they do. Drop links on the other hand fail quite often and give ratling noise. OEM are quite expensive I think about £40, aftermarket can be anywhere £5-25, cheap ones don't last long, maybe 1 year <10k miles, more expensive like Meyle HD only last for 2 years even if they have 4 year warranty. Changing is pretty easy, best if you have 4 post lift but can be done on driveway. If doing on driveway you want both sides to be lifted up so that there is no tension in ARB when changing them and you need to remember that bolts need doing up when you have car weight resting on suspension. If tightened up while car is in the air it will twist the rubber when you put weight on them and cause them to fail prematurely. This is where 4 post lift comes in handy as you cannot get to bolts with wheels on the car and car on the ground. I just put some wooden blocks under suspension with the wheels off and release car weight on them to do up bolts.

Meyle links are only £14 each and come with new bolts :) Mine are fine after 18 months, but they've only done 7000 miles!

Meyle and Febi also do the arb bushes for about £6 each. I have some of each and I think the Febi ones are slightly harder which would be better for an S.

Thanks Ainars and MJ for the advice +++
I do so little mileage in the 8 now that I can accept the chance of Meyle items perhaps not being so long lasting.

Have got the new links but am confused with the part number for the ARB bush. My parts list show different anti-roll bars for "w/o sports suspension" and with (i.e. S8). I have measured the diameter of the ARB and its 30mm. However, the same parts list only lists ONE bush (and one bracket), part number 4D0 411 327G for 00-03 cars - no mention of different part number for sports suspension. When searched this pt no comes up with a 25mm inside diameter bush. So can anyone tell me whats the pt no for a 30mm S8?

Anybody?

327G is the non-sport bar at 26.8mm. 327H is for the sport bar at 29mm.

Interestingly, the Lemforder equivalent of H is listed as 27mm so presumably the aftermarket are specifying the diameter of the loose bush as 2mm smaller than the bar it fits.

Also, the Meyle bush is softer than the Febi so not the preferred choice in this instance. Not sure about the Lemforder.

Thanks MJ 👍

i did wonder about the 27/28/29mm sizing. I measured the bar at 30mm using calipers and a ruler so probably over-estimated it. The bushes for the non-sports bar are all listed as 25mm so 1.8mm less than the actual bar size. Interesting +++