Hotchkis and MeyleHD Lower Control Arms Rubbing

[JakeLight]

Anyone ever see this? Looks like between the oversized pipes on the Hotchkis and whatever the shape of the Meyle HD does differently is causing the two pieces to hit.

Thoughts on whether I:

a) Should care
b) Go back to OEM swaybar front (or no swaybar?)
c) Replace Lower Control Arms with OEM?

Mostly looking to see if anyone else can confirm with Hotchkis installed has chomp-free control arms with any combination of those alternative setups (obviously no sway would be fine...)

https://www.rs6.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19459&stc=1https://www.rs6.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19460&stc=1

-j

[hahnmgh63]

Older set of Meyle HD but no problems. 1946119462
How low is your car? Mine is sitting on KWV3's, probably about 1.5" lower than stock, tops of the tires are just about even with the bottom of the fenders so no real gap showing. I am using the 034 Motorsports Spherical swaybar ends but they should be the same length as stock.

[JakeLight]

Car is currently near OEM height, just had the suspension redone which involved:

o 12-piece Meyle HD kit
o Koni Yellow Sport (4.2 A6 Quattro Sport spec - currently on center rear perch) w/oem springs
o Hotchkis Swaybar (Front + Rear)
o All upper/lower rubber spring seat/mount goodies, and the upper metal strut mounts in the front as well

The Hotchkis sways are a good bit thicker than the OEM RS6 swaybars - so I'm pretty sure that is a big contributor, but I'm just surprised (at least what searching implies) that no one has ever reported this issue. Anyways, going to drive it a bit and see how much chomp it actually results in and if it's significant I'll likely drop an OEM sway back on there with a new pair of lower arms.

-j

[hahnmgh63]

I'd go back and recheck that whole front install, there is no reason why it should rub, I have the Hotcchkis sways front & rear too.

[JakeLight]

Does it look like the upper bolt is not square to you? The horseshoe bracket there looks pushed out at the bottom and it seems like this could leave the swaybar physically closer than it should be to the control arm.

https://www.rs6.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19463&stc=1https://www.rs6.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19464&stc=1

-jake

[JakeLight]

Front Hotchkis sway is coming off and will go from there. May re-acquire an OEM front sway but for now need to solve the fluster cluck that is the front suspension currently. Gut says something is not battoned down correctly, bit since we've had it apart and reassembled three times now need to take another approach to hopefully make some forward progress.

-jake


.

[hahnmgh63]

Yea, hard to check it out without a view of the whole suspension. You're right about the swaybar drop links looking like they are at a bit of an angle and not square.

[Muggy]

Pic of the drop links look normal to me if the wheels are off of the ground on a lift...that said, the sway bar shouldn't be rubbing like that...Hotchkis makes a nice bar that is engineered correctly for these cars, so something is out of whack.

[JakeLight]

So I took a couple more pics this morning and am wondering if the shop actually installed the swaybar upside-down. It looks like there is a bend just off the end links that would normally take the bar further away from the control arms, but if it were reversed that would push it towards the control arm. These two pics are under load, you can see the sway is already good friends with the control arm at rest.

https://www.rs6.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19467&stc=1https://www.rs6.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19468&stc=1

Reference Pics:
https://www.rs6.com/showthread.php/18723-Hotchkis-sway-bar-(arb)-install-on-a-2003-rs6?p=164153&viewfull=1#post164153
https://media.thmotorsports.com/content/images/646/06466346_0.jpg (not sure if this is actually the exact part...but above thread is for sure)

-jake

[hahnmgh63]

Picture is worth a thousand words. Yes, your bar is upside down.

[JakeLight]

Bar is now installed correctly, issue resolved

-jake

[UrS6]

Bar is now installed correctly, issue resolved

-jake

wow. I don’t want to break anyone’s balls but that’s messed up. If it were me, I’d take my car out and give it a good rodgering after getting it back from the shop. And with that geometric fuster cluck you could have a bad situation on your hands when the suspension was limited in travel in one direction or the other on a spirited run.

[nistah]

I took my car to a BMW shop due to an issue w/ my Hotchkiss front sway bars either upside down or brokensway link...was not sure when I finnaly got her back if the front Hotchkiss sway bar is still performingat 100% after the fix they provided do I need to go back to stock sway in front it definitely does not feel as glued to the road at speed anymore[ATTA19722CH=CONFIG]19722[/ATTACH] or perhaps I can fix it properly using this https://www.hotchkis.net/product/2003-2004-audi-rs6-sport-sway-bar-set-rebuild-kit-by-hotchkis-sport-suspension/

[hahnmgh63]

For the Swaybar links you are talking less than $40 in parts from FCP Euro (Lifetime guarantee) and they are a pretty easy install. 16mm wrench for the upper bolt to strut and something similar +/- 1mm for the wrench for the swaybar end bolt. $450+ for labor is ridiculous. The other prices are fairly reasonable. For the headlight you might want to check Ebay.de, make sure they are facelift and for the V8 or RS6 though. A guy on Audizine (Chicagophantom) rebuilds them to better than OEM, newl lenses and reflectors. I don't have a set yet but I'll buy a set soon, I've heard nothing but great things about his work.