Front OEM sway bar bushings?

[This is Ryans face]

Trying to get rid of a weird slop in steering when going over bumps at speed. The steering wheel wants to almost jerk away if I hit a bump at speed while on an on-ramp. I also notice that when rolling over inconsistencies in the road, the steering wheel wants to follow these inconsistences instead of remaining stable.

Since most of my suspension has been refreshed within the last few years, I'm ticking things off, and wanted to look at replacing the sway bar bushings on front and rear. Rear looks easy and loads of options seem to exist, but I can't really find anything for the fronts without getting a new bar entirely or going aftermarket. I'm trying to go for more OEM feel, and don't want more NVH/complications.

Without having looked at all the options of removing these brackets, I know most tend to drop the subframe to get the bar out to replace the bushings... is this necessary?

That said, anyone know the OEM part # for the front sway bushings?

 

[jay745]

There's no way around removing the sway bar without at least lowering the subframe a few inches. If you're doing it on jackstands vs a lift it's much easier to just remove the whole subframe with the sway bar.

 

[This is Ryans face]

There's no way around removing the sway bar without at least lowering the subframe a few inches. If you're doing it on jackstands vs a lift it's much easier to just remove the whole subframe with the sway bar.

Is there a way to replace the front bushings on the sway without lowering the sway bar however?

 

[jay745]

I doubt anyone would be able to get the oem bushings off with the the sway bar still up. Just remove the subframe it's really not that bad.

 

[MrFancypants]

Is there a way to replace the front bushings on the sway without lowering the sway bar however?

Not the stock ones. You have to drill out the welds that secure the nut to the bracket so you can open the bracket up to remove the bushings.

I assume other swaybars do this but my Eibach swaybars reused the brackets by providing stock sized poly bushings to put in there, but you can't disassemble the bracket without removing the whole swaybar from the car.

Dropping the subframe sounds a lot more intimidating than it is, it's just a few bolts and the whole thing comes down easily. A lot of jobs are easier with it out of the way and it can be pulled in minutes if you're using an impact to pull the bolts. The only down side is that the bolts are one time use so you have to buy new ones.

 

[speeding_ant]

I do know that running the steering angle sensor calibration resolved many wandering steering wheel issues for me. I had car aligned after all new bushings, and it was still wandering about on the motorway. Ran this basic setting procedure and it's resolved fully, back to feeling like it did when new.

http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/VW_Golf_(1K)_Steering_Assist

 

[This is Ryans face]

Not the stock ones. You have to drill out the welds that secure the nut to the bracket so you can open the bracket up to remove the bushings.

I assume other swaybars do this but my Eibach swaybars reused the brackets by providing stock sized poly bushings to put in there, but you can't disassemble the bracket without removing the whole swaybar from the car.

Dropping the subframe sounds a lot more intimidating than it is, it's just a few bolts and the whole thing comes down easily. A lot of jobs are easier with it out of the way and it can be pulled in minutes if you're using an impact to pull the bolts. The only down side is that the bolts are one time use so you have to buy new ones.

So to replace them you need to drop the subframe, and the from sway and then drill out the old bushings? Fuck yo lol.

No wonder I couldn't find the part number for OEM bushings anywhere. I assume they may be the same as the rears?

 

[This is Ryans face]

I do know that running the steering angle sensor calibration resolved many wandering steering wheel issues for me. I had car aligned after all new bushings, and it was still wandering about on the motorway. Ran this basic setting procedure and it's resolved fully, back to feeling like it did when new.

http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/VW_Golf_(1K)_Steering_Assist

Yeah I just recently replaced most of the suspension components. I'm gonna go for tierods next, maybe front bearings, but I'll give this a shot too. Can't hurt at this point.

Which part of the procedure did you do... or did you attempt all of it?

 

[MrFancypants]

So to replace them you need to drop the subframe, and the from sway and then drill out the old bushings? Fuck yo lol.

No wonder I couldn't find the part number for OEM bushings anywhere. I assume they may be the same as the rears?

Yeah the front bar/bushings are kind of a one piece thing. Annoying but not that difficult to deal with if you have aftermarket bushings that’ll fit.

The rear bar has a more traditional design, it all comes apart easily like the fronts should. Two bolts per bracket, easy to reach.

 

[speeding_ant]

Yeah I just recently replaced most of the suspension components. I'm gonna go for tierods next, maybe front bearings, but I'll give this a shot too. Can't hurt at this point.

Which part of the procedure did you do... or did you attempt all of it?

Sensor for Steering Angle (G85) basic setting + the following procedure.

 

[This is Ryans face]

Sensor for Steering Angle (G85) basic setting + the following procedure.

So apparently there's been some minor changes here and there with the VCDS versions. I don't think my car is adequately aligned either since I installed the racingline spring/shock kit recently and haven't done a solid alignment yet, but I figured I'd give it a try and repeat it later if necessary. First few times I botched it up trying to get my wheel center so it would be between -1.5 and +1.5 as described but I think I finally did the pre-reqs and procedure ok thereafter. The first time measuring it out, it was way off with some +7.24 number, now it's +0.56 or something I believe. Just driving it around my carpark seemed like a little tighter and less play or movement so maybe that's the ticket. The real test will be Monday when I'm on the highway. If this doesn't pan out, I'll have to maybe replace that steer assist sensor or something.

I realized though that this assist thing kinda runs off of functioning speed sensors which I've had a few go out in recent years... kinda correlates to the timeline where my car started to get fucky and feel unsafe to drive at high speeds.

 

[speeding_ant]

The order in which you enter the security code is important from memory. But yes, I noticed the same thing, the steering angle sensor was out by a few degrees. Shouldn't be too hard to get the wheel straight on a flat piece of road, they would automatically centre themselves. If the steering wheel isn't aligned compared to the wheels that can be fixed later.

I believe the steering assist relies on the steering angle sensor output, and if calibration is out by a few degrees this has quite the effect on steering and makes things quite vague.

 

[This is Ryans face]

The order in which you enter the security code is important from memory. But yes, I noticed the same thing, the steering angle sensor was out by a few degrees. Shouldn't be too hard to get the wheel straight on a flat piece of road, they would automatically centre themselves. If the steering wheel isn't aligned compared to the wheels that can be fixed later.

I believe the steering assist relies on the steering angle sensor output, and if calibration is out by a few degrees this has quite the effect on steering and makes things quite vague.

Wait, to clarify, I need to do this while the car is in motion? I did the pre-req single turn left/right then straightened out the wheel, rolled at about 10mph for 45-50ft then stopped and did everything in gear with my foot on the brake.

 

[speeding_ant]

Nope? What you did is correct as per the instructions.