Changing the front subframe bushes -easy or big job?

[Colin Aitchison]

Sub frame bushes are ok to do if you have done a set before but starting a fresh it can be a daunting task, doing the bushes in place, never seen that done before, my advice would be to jack up the car on the jacking points, if the car has 4 wheel drive you will need to support the rear of the gearbox as the box has two mountings in the sub frame, you can leave the front wheel on but I would have them off just for ease of access, remove anti roll bar from the car, you may think that you only need to remove the inboard mounts but it will just get in the way, you will need a stepped 17mm or 19mm spanner to remove the inner wish bone bush bolts (2 on each side), again if 4 wheel drive need to remove the centre bolt of the mount, I may have missed a few bit and bobs but that is it apart from the 4 sub frame bolts, the bolts are not normally tight but they can snap when removing them but that is another can of worms, with the sub frame removed give it a good clean and a look over for rusty holes, if it was mine after removing the 4 sub frame bushes and if I had the time to have the car off the road the sub frame would be sent off to the blasters to get cleaned and etch primed, on its return a good 2 or 3 coats of black paint, most of the guys on the forum would get it power coated, refitting the bushes can be a task but I used my bearing press and soap.
Now for the important bit, you will be advised to replace all nuts and bolts on these suspension components and the car will have to have the wheel alignment done. More free advice do the front wish bone bushes at the same time, also, normally one of the gear box mount will look a bit worse for ware than the other just do both of them, anti roll bar inner bushes, just do them too, you will thank me when you drive it for the first time, as for standard rubber bushes or poly bushes, I have fitted both and driven both and don't like how numb the car felt with poly bushes. As you can now probably see this is not a one day job and may take a few weekends, don't forget to use copper grease on all bolt threads.

[Hanuman]

It’s not immediately obvious from the initial post, but it appears to be a 200 based on the 7zap image.

If so, the following is relevant.
From past experience with the V8 (8-9years ago! similar setup. And be thankful you aren’t dealing with automatic transmission which seems to be about 110% of the total mass of the car.*)

The bonded rubber bushes/mounts can be a big job to remove- it’s really a subframe out job, unless they’ve disintegrated, which I have seen one like that.
You need to support the back of the gearbox as Colin mentioned. Get all the unnecessary weight off, like wheels, as they’ll be a big hindrance getting the track arms back in place. If you are limited on ground clearance, you’ll also have fun due to the ARB, which triangulates the track arms (no wishbones).

If you use poly mounts, it probably makes putting back together easier. I can’t attest to that, though. Once we’d determined the extent of damage that we were dealing with, the car became a definite scrapper.

Don’t just do two mounts, do them all.






*deliberate exaggeration before any humourless accountants kick in

[Adam G]

I have done front and rear Subframe bushes recently, the biggest pain was having a bolt snap on both during removal. A nightmare to drill out.

It might be worth pulling the rubber grommets out of the body just above the bushes and squinting some release fluid down there onto the threads and the lock nut. If you have freeze spray try that on the bolts too.

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[Modus]

Thanks v much for all the advice which is a Massive help.

The car is indeed an Audi 200 Quattro

Can anyone confirm off the Exploded Parts Diagram which item is actually the subframe bush, please?:
https://audi.7zap.com/en/rdw/audi+20...3/3/399-36000/

[tractor Dave]

2 and 3. Front/rear are different.

12 is the gearbox bushes.