Why is my B4 so uncomfortable?

http://www.idparts.com/audi-tt-control-arm-rear-bushing-a4a3b4-p-700.html Idparts even states they were having issues with their previous brand in their ad (which was meyle as are most front control arm bushings out there).

I shan't find ya the threads, sadly you'll just have to take my word for it or search a bit better

I suppose if you're not happy with the car you can just sell it, but I think people here were just trying to give you some honest feedback on things you might want to consider changing or checking to resolve your problem. I don't have the problems that you do so that suggests that your expectations are either too high or something is not right.

Lemförder is fine until you find that the package says made in China.

Steve

If you're going to keep your B4 it'll be helpful to recognize that good quality auto parts can come from China. VW still makes similar versions of this car there, and many of VW's suppliers have opened operations in China to supply production. Since these cars are long since out of production in every other part of the world, many replacement parts are now coming from China. Any Behr (OE supplier) A/C part for a B4 will come from China, as will most steering components. Lemforder is another respected German company who is producing parts in China. Here's how I look at it: If a company owns or wholly operates a plant in China, oversees production, is rigorous about testing, and puts their brand on it, the part is good.

B4s do have an interesting character about them...

Stock suspension has quite a lot of body roll, and the first little bit of steering input feels like more action is going towards the body roll and slack in the rear axle bushings before any meaningful directional change begins to happen. Stiffening up springs and dampeners along with upgraded control arm bushings can help.

As for the seats, they definitely aren't very good. I've swapped to GLX seats, which are better, but still not great for someone as long in the torso as I am. At least they have adjustable lumbar and tilt, though.

You could swap in mk4 seats if you were so inclined for a great improvement in comfort. It's not a direct swap, but a little cutting, drilling and trimming they can be made to work, and if you were to do the swap, I can't recommend enough finding either nicely bolstered GTI/GLI seats or the GLS/GLX leather with adjustable lumbar.

When the suspension is taken care of properly on these, they don't make a whole lot of noise... Helps to get good quality mounts when doing struts on these.

My B3 has everything fresh on the suspension - all bushings, all mounts and ST coilovers in all 4 corners. There's absolutely no clunk, knocks, rattles or any other sort of noise from the suspension whatsoever. The coilovers are of course stiffer than stock but other than the odd section of really bad road I really enjoy driving it. Railroad tracks and things at speed are not an issue at all. Rolling on my summer tires the car is a dream to drive.

We also have a Mk4 Jetta wagon. It has older but serviceable bushings, newer stock front shocks, worn rears. All season Continental tires... It's pretty squishy in comparison, still super comfortable but I definitely prefer my B3.

Where the B3 fails totally and utterly is isolating vibration from the engine at idle. It was bad with its stock AAZ diesel, it's still bad with the TDI. The engine mounting design changes on the Mk4+ platforms are far better at containing engine vibration - I suppose the engines themselves are smoother running too. A TDI B4 is essentially still a mechanical diesel, it just happens to have electronic timing control. Still a mechanical plunger compressing fuel and spraying it through a mechanical pop valve injector.

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vanbcguy said:

Where the B3 fails totally and utterly is isolating vibration from the engine at idle. It was bad with its stock AAZ diesel, it's still bad with the TDI. The engine mounting design changes on the Mk4+ platforms are far better at containing engine vibration - I suppose the engines themselves are smoother running too. A TDI B4 is essentially still a mechanical diesel, it just happens to have electronic timing control.

Click to expand...

Sums up my thoughts on the subject.

When I went from my 2002 A4 Jetta to a 2014 NMS Passat the biggest difference for me to get used to was how much more quiet the Passat was. That's a difference of 12 years between the two so comparing a B4 Passat to newer cars would be at least the same experience.

Know what's crazy is at highway speeds, I feel the B5.5 Passats still best the A5 and A6 generation Golf/Jetta for dampened road and engine noise, despite being a much older chassis first sold in the U.S. in 1998. SUPER quiet cars.

But the longi mount setup does transmit more vibrations at idle to the cabin than the transverse mount Mk4 and newer stuff.

Mk3 and B4 stuff definitely feels ancient and very loud in comparison to anything more modern, and definitely significant more engine vibration transmitted to the cabin.

But, sometimes there are other driving characteristics of the old Mk3 and B4 that endears them to me.

I drove an A6 (?) Jetta briefly at work, replacing our usual 2g Prius, and was not impressed with its build quality or quietness.

Again, I have no complaints about engine NVH. It's road NVH that's annoying me.

Control arm bushings: I got Lemförder 10203-02 and 10205-02 en route from Lithuania, supposedly made in Brazil (ehhh) and Slovakia (fine), respectively. 36 shipped for the quad, compared to 30/ea for OEM rears and something like 13/ea for OEM fronts.

Next up... strut mounts? I put the car up on jackstands and discovered that a loose vacuum hose was pinched by the top part of one strut mount when it settled down from the suspension drooping. Are they supposed to flex that much?

moroza said:

I drove an A6 (?) Jetta briefly at work, replacing our usual 2g Prius, and was not impressed with its build quality or quietness.

Again, I have no complaints about engine NVH. It's road NVH that's annoying me.

Control arm bushings: I got Lemförder 10203-02 and 10205-02 en route from Lithuania, supposedly made in Brazil (ehhh) and Slovakia (fine), respectively. 36 shipped for the quad, compared to 30/ea for OEM rears and something like 13/ea for OEM fronts.

Next up... strut mounts? I put the car up on jackstands and discovered that a loose vacuum hose was pinched by the top part of one strut mount when it settled down from the suspension drooping. Are they supposed to flex that much?

Click to expand...

As far as sedans are concerned, the early Mk6 Jetta sedan with the beam rear axle is definitely not a great benchmark for modern VWs. The mk5 sedan was far and away superior, as is the Sportwagen and Golf, as those all retained the fantastic control blade independent rear suspension.

The mk5 sedan also has a better trunk, hinges don't intrude into the interior of the trunk. If you're a compact sedan sort of guy, the mk5 Jetta is where it's at. The NMS Passat is significantly larger, but it does at least retain good driving dynamics with the same IRS. Does also have hinge intrusion into the trunk as well, unfortunately.

I use partsplaceinc for my A3 Jetta. These are Sach struts and shocks and worked very nicely. The springs were a little heavier duty than stock and raised the rear end up higher than I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised when cornering. I could accelerate going thru freeway clover leaf ramps and the car would hold the road very confidently. They know the cars well, and what works well. Give them a call.

https://www.partsplaceinc.com/vw-st...ts.html?p=8&find=1997-passat-1-9-tdi-58236036


https://www.partsplaceinc.com/vw-st...ts.html?p=8&find=1997-passat-1-9-tdi-58236036

Driving around in Sleipnir recently, I realize much of my complaints about road NVH are due to the horrible 000-grit asphalt on many Portland-area highways. It just happened that my daily use of the Passat roughly coincided with moving here.

The seats are still crap, though.