Audi 80 and suspension

[futsysmids]

I have an L reg Audi 80 4 door saloon in silver.

I have had it a year now and over 3 months or so the suspension has been playing up. I have not decided to do anything about it until now as I have just come back from Australia after a 10 week holiday.

The suspension has always seemed very hard from when I purchased the car - almost to the point of it being sports suspension. I have alloys on the car.

Recently the suspension is knocking on all four corners, and when I accelerate - just normally it feels like the back axle is coming away from the body.

All 4 tyres need replacing as they seem to have worn down all at the same time - :1zhelp:

Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanx in advance.

[Ian W]

new tyres? check out www.camskill.co.uk for some decent prices.

as for your suspension, i'm having the same problem on mine. had the springs, shocks and bushes checked and been told they're all ok but due to the age of the shocks they could well be on their way out.

the feeling of the rear axle coming off is funny because i sometimes get this first thing in the morning when reversing out of the drive (basically heavy shuddering like a knackered mount or something).

sorry i couldn't help but if it makes you feel better i'm in a similar boat :o

[Timk]

I have an L reg Audi 80 4 door saloon in silver.

I have had it a year now and over 3 months or so the suspension has been playing up. I have not decided to do anything about it until now as I have just come back from Australia after a 10 week holiday.

The suspension has always seemed very hard from when I purchased the car - almost to the point of it being sports suspension. I have alloys on the car.

Recently the suspension is knocking on all four corners, and when I accelerate - just normally it feels like the back axle is coming away from the body.

All 4 tyres need replacing as they seem to have worn down all at the same time - :1zhelp:

Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanx in advance.

Hi,

I have an 80 Avant estate, not sure if the rear suspension is the same as the saloon, I believe it is basically the same. There is not too much to be loose on the back, apart from worn rear axle bushes. These are a pain to change as LOTS has to be disconnected and the whole rear axle assemble basically dropped off. I had mine done originally at about 75000 miles, and think they begin to need doing again now at 150k. An audi dealer quoted £380 which is mainly labour.

The 80 suspension is generally rather hard throughout, but I rather like this in my car since I do alot of mountain driving at a briskish kind of pace.

On the front, you have far more to consider, particularly, wishbone bushes and top suspension mounts. The wishbones are not that big a deal, and are best replaced as whole units (only about 40quid each). The labour on pushing in new bushes is not worth the hassle. Top suspension mounts are also cheap (£10 or so) but its worth replacing the shock absorbers and bump protectors at the same time. You can get this done from 150 quid total each side. Unfortunately I had this done by some very bad monkeys and ended up paying 900quid for the dealer to do it all over again, as the car was much worse after I took it to the first garage (bits were left out etc.!). At least the front suspension is back to A1 now, and all bits are as new. A good independant mechanic should be able to do the job right at much more reasonable cost.

Using Gas shocks rather than oil shocks (original equipment) is meant to soften the ride, but I stayed with the orginal spec.

Cheers,

Timk