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Thread: Control arm replacement intervals

  1. #1
    Registered User mrdave's Avatar
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    Control arm replacement intervals

    Obviously the front upper control arms need to be replaced the most often, tons of info on these. But what about the front lowers? Same time as the uppers? Less often?

    And the rear? I haven't been able to find any information on rear control arms, other than they're not too cheap.

  2. #2
    Registered User
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    Replaced uppers at 44k

    Everything tight

    No potholes in AZ

  3. #3
    Registered User 4.2Crew's Avatar
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    Dave, We drive on similar MN roads... After putting 200k+ miles in a 2001 AL 4.2L, I replaced the lowers once in that time frame. On the RS6, the lowers are still original after 90k+ miles. In the past (on all the Audis owned) I'd replace the uppers as a set, now they're replaced individually as needed. YMMV.
    2003 RS6 l SE Exhaust l Koni Yellow Sports w/stock springs l Lowered 1"F 1.25"R l EPL Tuned l 19 x 9.5 VMR V713 & 265 PSS's l 50% window tint l Protective film on entire hood, bumper and front quarter panels l

  4. #4
    Registered User Bigglezworth's Avatar
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    Straight forward math on this one. Upper fronts are changed out 2-3 times as often as the lower fronts (i.e. 40-50K max for uppers usually, 100-125K for lowers as an average). Rears have entirely different loads applied to them since the wheel is fixed as compared to the front. This greatly lengthens the lifespan of the bushings for the rear bars. The reason why they are so expensive is that they rarely if ever get changed... My one car here had 240K on it and was a documented car. It had 5 different sets of upper front controls arms on it over the years. 2 sets of lower fronts, and had never had the rears changed once.
    '02 S6 Avant Silver - Pokey | Carbon Black/Ebony RS6 w/ stuff - darn quick | '03 Daytona Grey/Ebony RS6 w/ more stuff - quicker yet | '91 NSX CDN issue with 6spd & BBSC - quicker yet and then some | '87 Buick GNX OEM clone w/ lots of stuff - quickest hands down

  5. #5
    Registered User mrdave's Avatar
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    That's exactly what I was looking for, thanks guys!

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