Is OEM front suspension available as a kit?
 

Hello community,

Soon I'm going to replace front suspension on my D2 when it'll pass the 100,000 miles mark. Will change all arms, bolts, shocks and springs for OEM ones.

Can I buy OEM front suspension as a kit from TPS or from Audi?
I have seen kits with all required arms and bolts from other supplies like Meyle.

Can I buy similar kits from Audi or TPS or should I order all individual items one by one?

Cheers.

I don't think they will supply a kit.
Just list and supply all the individual parts.

You will possibly pay over the odds for standard arms from Audi/TPS, I think they are TWR or Lemforder.

Personally I would go for MeyleHD kit.
That will list everything you need to replace all front arms and bolts.
Its about £400-£500 for a kit I think.

Hi Sergey

As Scott says, no kit from TPS/Audi - individual arms only and they really do like to charge for it! The Meyle HD arms have ever so slightly more NVH when new, but my replacement top arms soon settled down and are as quiet as you would expect.

The HD kits have meatier balljoints than the OEM parts, which I would see as an improvement on the original design.

Kit should be available for your model - Meyle do all the arms except the lower ones required for factory 20s.

A

Cheers guys. Will do more research.

Is there a consensus in Audi community that MeyleHD is better than OEM?

You can get TRW from GSF, not cheap but very good.

Are they worn or are you just changing them because it's done 100k?

I changed brakes and I noticed that the rubber bushes on upper arms started to disintegrate a little bit. No problem for MOT yet, but I will change suspension before about April time. Because I will change all arms it'll be a good idea to change shocks and springs too just to forget about front suspension for another 100.000 miles.

All kits are good no doubt.

Is there a consensus which is the best one?

Maybe claims their HD stuff is better than OEM.
This is serious claim. Is that true?

Well the OEM arms are pretty good for decent mileages since only my upper 4 arms have needed doing due to the tug of the steering ram knackering the bushes on the inboard end of 2 of them.

What I'm finding with proper OEM stuff is it's actually been less than ideally stored, often for years and years, so if there's an aftermarket product that's much cheaper and offers comparable performance I'm prepared to give it a try.

The bigger balljoints on the Meyle HD kits should last longer through having a larger surface area as well as dealing with shock loading a bit better.

I'm not sure there's anything scientific about it but given they're half the price and seem to be just as good I'm happy with them and will fit the rest as ad when required.

On suspension parts, worth noting that Neil (brasiliangringo) changed his shocks and springs on his 170k S8 and barely noticed any difference!

Cheers Adrian. That provides more food for thought.

I'm OEM fan because the whole font part of the car works as one 'system'. If suspension arms are reinforced as Myele claims we want to be sure that shocks and vibrations are not passed to other elements of the system like steering rack, etc. as changing those is a proper nightmare. OEM stuff can be better balanced in my opinion. It can we a bit less rugged, but a bit softer too, and that can be even more important.

This is why I asked about consensus in the audi community. Too many variables in the equation for me to judge.

I watched MayleHD video on YouTube and discovered that MeyleHD stuff is made in Turkey. What a joke... Turkey. For suspension arms I want Switzerland, I want Japan, I want Germany. But Turkey... are they serious?

You won't find too many foundries in Europe now due to emissions laws - I'd be surprised at any facilities outside China or Asia unless they've invested a lot in pollution control tech

The main criteria in manufacturing terms is how well constrained the material properties are and how rigorous engineering specs for accuracy and quality are controlled. Those can be exported anywhere at a cost and as long as the workforce are able to work with them it should mean a product is made that meets the manufacturers spec

It's been a good few years since I fitted oem vw arms to a Passat but pretty sure they had higher nvh to start with. May have been down to doing the arms piecemeal which may have amplified vibration from much older components

All VW parts comes with a made in sticker on it.
Read them and you'll be amazed as where the parts for our 'German' cars come from.

I don't care where the parts come from or made by.
The quality of the parts is all that matter.