How to tell if dogbone is dodgy?

[IanJ]

I'm having the occasional clutch on hard accelerating and braking. It doesn't happen every time.

I haven't had a chance to get under the car and have a poke around. I intend on renewing suspension bushes etc before doing any mods but wouldn't mind starting with whats broken and given that there are some group buys going on at the moment I'm tempted to jump in with those.

[h100vw]

Can you elaborate what your problem is. A new dogbone mount would tighten up engine movement for sure.

I have the softer of the Black Forest Industries mounts on my S3 and it's pretty good. Not too many vibes in the cabin at tickover.

I have the stiffer one here too but never fitted it yet.

Gavin

[Manaz]

What you're looking for is damaged/frayed rubber in the dogbone mount.

If it doesn't look like this:



With the rubber bits (the black bits in the image) all looking clean and tidy.

If they're tatty with torn edges, pieces missing, or the rubber seems uneven where it sits between the metal parts, then it's possible that you'd want to replace the bushes anyway.

I'd be surprised if the metal parts were damaged unless the rubber had perished entirely and there was metal-on-metal contact (that'd be noisy)

Irrespective, the INA Dogbone mount also improves on the stock design by having tougher bushings in it. There's a little more transmission of vibration into the cabin, but it's barely noticable in the street version (particularly in a 5+ year old vehicle), and the whole engine/gearbox/drivetrain combo just seem tighter and better linked together with it in place. It's hard to describe, but it's definintely noticable - less hesitation in the work the engine does being applied to the driven wheels is probably as close as I can get.

[IanJ]

whoops...typo

it's a clunk not a clutch and i can feel it a little through the pedals. First time it happened on braking and i thought maybe it was just a pad seating issue. But if you accelerate hard it does it sometimes too.

[Manaz]

whoops...typo

it's a clunk not a clutch and i can feel it a little through the pedals. First time it happened on braking and i thought maybe it was just a pad seating issue. But if you accelerate hard it does it sometimes too.

Clunking is generally a failed bushing in my experience. Where, that's another matter... Getting underneath and having a good look will help you discover where it is!

[IanJ]

Thats my thinking too....nothing for it but to get it up in the air and have a poke around.

[Fizz]

Check the upper gearbox mount as well as the dogbone mount. I'm having the clunking issue as well and found it to be the upper gearbox mount. Need 2 order new mounts

[gavs]

I replaced the bushes in mine with the Harding Performance ones through Dean at Volkspower, made a HUGE difference, but also increased cabin vibration which i'm either used to now or it has softened off a little after a few heat cycles

If you're after a cheaper alternative, have a look at Dub Addiction, they're on sale there a fair bit cheaper. In my opinion, unless you plan on spending a whole lotta time under your car looking at your torque arm (dog-bone) and shining it up all nice, just stick with replacing the bushes, it only takes 3 more minutes than replacing the whole arm

[JustCruisn]

Dogbone replacement take all of 15minutes, less if you have a hoist.
I paid like $70 for ARP 90 duro bushes, that was only the end bushes, not the round one.

The INA GB for $99 bux is a bit much IMO, and what would you do with the spare metal bit anyway ?

OP I have the stock mounts somewhere in the garage, make me an I can't refuse.

[bujna]

I ended up doing the same as this guy did on vortex. Basically i used the rear dog bone bushing from the bfi stage 1 set combined with the front oem bushing. I found the BFI stage 1 a bit rough for my liking, but the above combination seems to be a good balance. It's soft enough, while still keeping my downpipe from rubbing on anything. I'm guessing the oem bushing might wear out a bit quicker maybe, but they aren't hard to come by.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4328630

[IanJ]

Dogbone and suspension bushes required.....off to post my interest in the group buy threads!

[Manaz]

ECS Tuning have a pretty good front suspension refresh kit for Mk4 Golfs - worth looking into.

[dubbed]

ECS Tuning have a pretty good front suspension refresh kit for Mk4 Golfs - worth looking into.

I think we need a group buy for this kit. The front of my Golf feels terribly sloppy.

[JustCruisn]

I think we need a group buy for this kit. The front of my Golf feels terribly sloppy.

I may be interested in this too. I have had the control arm bushes done, that cost a heap in labour.
How hard is the refresh to do yourself ?

[gavs]

I may be interested in this too. I have had the control arm bushes done, that cost a heap in labour.
How hard is the refresh to do yourself ?

It's actually quite easy, the hardest bit for me was getting the ball joint bolted back onto the control arm. If I did it again, i'd just drop the ball joint while still attached to the control arm.

Tools required:
Socket set
Spanner set
Jigsaw or Hacksaw
Hammer
Cold chisel
2 blocks of wood, 300x50x25
Bench vice


Alternatively, if you have a big socket set (i.e, a socket with the same outer diameter as the aluminium ring on the bush) you can use that to push the bush back in instead of the wood.

I did see a tutorial on how to do it with the wood somewhere.....