control arm bushing??

So I was rotating my tires today and noticed this:


Now, I'm not that good at suspension/steering stuff but I believe this is a control arm bushing that is all cracked up. This photo is drivers side but the passenger side looks the same way.

What does it take to replace these? How much do they run? Also, I had a person change lanes in to me a few months back, hit my front quarter panel/front wheel, could that have caused this?

Thanks!

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=154137

http://tdiparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=700

http://tdiparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=670

should be all you need

if these have not been done while your in the area may as well get this too http://tdiparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=457

Once you get the parts, it is fairly easy to do, my first time out of the gate and it only took a few hours to get it done. Largest time killer for me was figuring out how to get the bolt from the front bushing on control arm for drivers side (I have an auto tranny).

Vegged-Out said:

Once you get the parts, it is fairly easy to do, my first time out of the gate and it only took a few hours to get it done. Largest time killer for me was figuring out how to get the bolt from the front bushing on control arm for drivers side (I have an auto tranny).

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hmmm, i have an auto tranny too. i read something about rotating the engine?!?! that seems like alot of work. how did you do it? I've never done any steering work

also: I'm at 85k miles, should I replace the ball joints down there, or leave them if they're fine?

rshelton said:

hmmm, i have an auto tranny too. i read something about rotating the engine?!?! that seems like alot of work. how did you do it? I've never done any steering work

also: I'm at 85k miles, should I replace the ball joints down there, or leave them if they're fine?

Click to expand...

Final solution was to drop the bolt from the sub frame and then front bushing bolt past right by the tranny.

NOTE:I dropped the tranny bolt a well, but it is highly not recommended by JasonTDI, so I probably wouldn't do it again that way; just the subframe bolt.

i noticed the same thing at 45000 miles. replaced the entire control arms under warranty.

what could be the cause of this? bad bushing, or something else?

replaced my control arms with new oem vw/audi ones,

15k miles later bushing is torn, just put in r32 bushings and handles and rides good. They should last alot longer.