Hi All,

since I changed tyres a month ago always had steering wheel vibration around 55-65mph. Very annoying. Did 5 different wheel balances, moved wheels from front to rear changed pressure and the vibration never changed. Always at the same speed and always steering wheel which seemed odd considering I moved the wheels from front to back.
This morning brought the car back to check and finally discovered that I had bad bushes in front upper and lower control arms. It was very noticeable once the mechanic showed me the excessive movement. Plan then is to work on front suspension and replace front upper control arm left and right (ref 3W0407505/06) and lower rear left and right control arms (ref 3W0407693/4).
Now while inspecting noticed that the lower arm is AUDI the upper had no branding.
Do you have any cross reference for VAG group for any chance? Alternatively I found a full set (included arms that I do not need at the moment) on ebay for 500 GBP but aftermarket although they state OEM quality.

My car is a 2016 GT V8s. I assume the W12 engines have different control arms?

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome!

thanks!

Filippo

 

Source the exact same control arms for Audi or VW at one quarter the price of the exact same price from Bentley.

You will require a new 4-wheel alignment after replacement.

Recommend replacing all upper and lower arms on both sides all at once.

 

Many thanks! Would love to do that but struggling in finding the correct part numbers. On the arms it’s missing and can’t find cross referencing on the web. Any ideas?

 

Flippo,

When I was looking at replacing mine, I changed the "3W0" prefix to "4E4" to find the VW part number and that seemed to match up the VW Phaeton part numbers and for Audi possibly "8K0". I did not have a way to verify if the structural integrity of the parts were the same, but it is my understanding it was. I ended up not needing to do mine and I thought it was the same parts. When I looked up the pricing on the equivalents, for the first two (ref 3W0407505/06) at the time Scuderia and Flying Spares were less than VW's cost, but the opposite on the last two (ref 3W0407693/4) and the VW part was less. From the part numbers you gave, they look like the same parts that are on a W12, but you need to investigate. The Phaeton's bushings can supposably be replaced, but when I showed a shop my original versus the new VW bushings, he said the existing old bushings on mine were better than the new VW. Make sure to order new self locking nuts and bolts instead of reusing them. Note the pinch bolt can be a PIA and I had to drill mine out. The last letter of the part numbers may mean a different build of the part.

 

Many thanks for all your comments. Unfortunately finding the original spares seems very difficult. Found the replacement ONLY for the damaged arms from *** and MOOG which seem to have good parts and reputation. Any thoughts?
So considering to change only IN PAIRS the damaged parts. Would this be ok?

Also because the front rear front arm is specific to V8 S which have stiffer bushing or ball joint so would avoid replacing that with non stock parts and change possibly the handling considering it seems intact.

Any thoughts are more than welcome. Honestly was hoping that this would be more straightforward and btw I really hope to get rid of the vibration on the steering wheel replacing these parts....

thanks!

 

Hi All, I finally purchased a set of front control arms. Ended with Flying Spares as I found particularly difficult cross referencing and making sure to find the correct parts. Didn't want to end taking apart front suspension and ending with wrong parts...my mechanic wouldn't have been happy....

I now have a dilemma: surly my car needs upper and lower front control arms as the bushing is close to dead. You can move the arms with your hands and hear a slight knocking sound however I'm not 100% that is the reason for steering wheel vibration. As said the vibration disappears over 80 ml/h and my mechanics thinks that if the cause is control arms the vibration should stay....as discussed I had wheel replaced and balanced done 5 times from different shops and swapped wheels from front to rear checked wheel bearings - all ok. I can only think its the control arms but wanted to check with you guys. Any thoughts?

thanks

Filippo

 

Hi All, any comments? Would really appreciate some guidance!

 

Morning All, just an update on this.

After changing front control arms I went for a test drive yesterday and the steering vibration seems solved!! Great news and hope stays like that

My understanding is that these cars eat front suspensions due to their weight - my car has 37,000 miles on the clock -. In my case the issue seemed to be ball joints more than bushings.

thanks

Filippo

 

Replacing control arms every 30-45000 miles is typical for these heavy beasts.

 

Morning All,

my 2016 BGT V8S is still having steering wheel vibrations (do not have any other vibration or shakiness in the car) between 70-90 mph (other speeds the car is fine) even after:
- changed front suspension
- new tyres (maybe bad)
- wheel alignment
- wheel balancing
- swapped front/rear tyres (might all 4 wheels be bad? very strange)

Thought could be disk brakes but the vibration happens also when NOT braking or in neutral gear.

Though maybe drive shaft but if it was that shouldn't it vibrate at all speeds?

FYI I replacing the power steering pump as it failed but would exclude that could be the cause right?

HELP, any suggestion is welcome. Really can't find a solution and as you can imagine its very annoying and frustrating.

thanks!