Pendulum Mount bushing - non factory

[dubrav]

Hi guys,
I have a really frustrating one here , in the last 4-5 months my Arteon developed suspension noise which was really bad when going over speed hump. As i have only a month worth left of warranty i took the car to a dealer and they apparently diagnosed that the noise is coming from shock absorbers but they could not cover it because " because the software in the control unit that operates their rebound and damping parameters has been modified to allow them to operate outside what the manufacturer had them set to." I said to them what and they repeated it and i got that in an email.
My car does have APR stage 1 but that has nothing with suspension so i complained to the management and they took the car back . I got a call today from them today and they said that they identified where the noise is coming from but "as its aftermarket part they cannot cover it under warranty " they said it was a Pendulum Mount bushing that is an aftermarket part fitted on my car is rubbing and making noise , i was even more surprised to hear this and i asked why would someone even replace that part and they said because of a car being involved in an accident and that's where i completely lost any faith in this dealership as my car was never involved in an accident , the only time my car spent more than one day was at their dealership.
As originally they thought that it was a shock absorber they replaced one of them and they said they were going to leave it on a car , last time i checked these are replaced in pairs and it a very unsafe thing to replace just one.
They have attached the photos of what they said is an aftermarket bush and its purple in color , would anyone one spare some time and try to check on their car if it is black or purple
I think that this dealership is trying to hide something as nothing they report back makes sense unless the car was damaged before the sale and that during a repair they fitted this after market part . I bought a car in October 2018 as a new car

[nermal]

That's very interesting... I think poweflex do purple pendulum (dogbone) mount bushings. Supaloy and Superpro also have purple bushings with some of their products.

I'd be asking the shop that did your APR tune.. may have been part of a package or something.

I have the RacingLine dogbone mount insert that fills in the gaps and makes a big difference to the cabin NVH (marketed as a "growl"). Though does improve the power delivery - more direct and less elastic-y..

[dubrav]

Thanks Nermal, so from your experience this color is after market part?

[nermal]

I have a MY18... but it doesn't look right to me. It should be a 2-piece "puck" with whitish plastic outer and black rubber inner that has gaps.

Unless the newer Arteon's came with a different setup. Hopefully others can weigh in

I'm also not sure about that purple bushing extruding out the top and sitting under the ?sway bar? in your photo - though I haven't seen above the dogbone mount before, so it could be normal..

FWIW - anything messing with your sway bar is likely to produce suspension noises over bumps.. (ie. if there's any way that it could be contacting with that purple bushing?)

[nermal]

Actually, it looks like genuine ones do come in purple - VAG parts sell them: 5Q0198037F - (MQB) Dogbone Subframe Mount Kit (PUCKS) - Volkswagen Gol– VAGPARTS Australia

The top still doesn't look right.. perhaps the top part of the 2-piece "puck" is petruding up against your sway bar. They need to be pressed into the subframe like other bushes.

You haven't happen to have been running a single (upper or lower) dogbone mount insert have you? This can lead to a failure of the mount due to uneven force/motion. That's why RacingLine etc produce them in pairs (upper and lower)

[kamold]

Can you get a better pic of the puck?
It will have a part number and other identifiers on there.
From way back here it looks like there might be 'VW AG' on the black part. Given you can't seperate that from the purple as they are bonded that would make it OEM.
But again can't really make out from the pic.

[nermal]

The more I look at it, the more I think that the purple disc (puck) protruding out the top is the source of your suspension noise (assuming it's contacting that sway bar)..

Either way you probably need it replaced and/or re-pressed into the subframe.

034 do uprated (solid) replacements that should compliment your APR tune with more direct power delivery. Though it will add some extra NVH to the cabin.

[dubrav]

Pendulum Mount bushing - non factory

Thanks guys, spent some time under the car today to try to get a better picture buts just too hard as there is not enough room, i will attach the best ones . And yes , that top part is definitely the noise source the dealer diagnosed it and this morning i sprayed a bit of silicone spray and went for a drive and the noise was gone .
As far as i know , no work ever was done on that part and i'm the first owner so what ever was installed in a factory it should be there.
This is what the dealership said:
We have replaced the N/S/F strut as per previous communication. This did not resolve the rubbing noise evident over bumps.

Now after investing 7 hours of senior diagnostic technician time we have identified that the Pendulum Mount bushing is non factory and is moved up in the subframe and rubbing on the sway bar. As the sway bar moves with suspension in the images attached you can clearly see where it is rubbing.

As this time is not claimable under warranty the costs should be passed onto the vehicle owner however you have made it very clear that you do not know what has happened and therefore are not willing to contribute.

The Pendulum mount would require removal and replacement to resolve it rubbing on the sway bar.

[MIG]

That part is marked with VW AG and has a moulding date of 2018; it seems to line up with that being original?

Can you take a better pic from the top at all? see if there is some type of insert been installed?

[dubrav]

Hi MIG , there is no way of accessing the top , there is no space at all .
So, purple , black and that metal piece are all molded together ? If that's the case then this is very worrying , people that are servicing and doing warranty work on our cars have no clue about it.

[kamold]

Yeah it's an OEM part.
But the bolt that's holding it in doesn't look original. They don't have any stamping on the face of the bolt normally.
Maybe someone has used a shorter bolt and torqued it up so that it's pulled the insert up and through the subframe?
Would think it would be pretty easy to just get the correct OEM bolt, remove the existing one and get the insert back to the flush correct position and re-torque the bolt.

[nermal]

There also appear to be some marks on the subframe, bushing and bolt... I wonder if someone jacked it up by the pendulum mount and popped the bushing up out of the subframe?

[Lucas_R]

Looks original to me, as someone else stated, it has all of the VW AG markings as well as a manufacturing date of 2018.

[dubrav]

Thank you all for weighing in on this , i was told by dealership manager that they will have a talk tomorrow about this , lets see what they gonna come back with .
I've been thinking if i should even get them to look at the car again with all the bs they came up with , i'm just thinking of contacting a local VW specialist ans ask them to fix it , at least these guys have their heart in what they doing

[dubrav]

So , they withdrew their comment that its non factory , they said it may be factory fitted bush. But now they said because of the markings on the metal they cannot cover it .
I do not have issues with putting a blame back on me if there is evidence of it , i know that i did use a jack once to lift the car but i cannot remember where i jacked it up so i will take it on me , but all the crap about non factory part , story about aftermarket "software" that controls suspension module which caused shocks to fail , and then replacement of one of the shocks after i asked for a proof and of course they had nothing , to blaming me for wasting 7 hrs of senior technician time and not even saying sorry , "we screwed up and miss diagnosed it " is just showing what the dealerships are like and that they do not care about you as a customer ,\, no wonder a lot of people are servicing their cars elsewhere .
Thanks Castle Hill VW for treating me like sh.. , you lost me as a customer

Thank you all for your input on this , i do believe now that the bushing is pushed through as Nermal mentioned it , it was either me or the local mobile mechanic who does the oil change .
Now i need to find someone to pop this back in or replace it if needed as i do not think that this is DIY job