The brief
The Q7 had developed a heavy clunk over speed humps that the owner could feel through the floor. Plus a fine shimmy through the steering at motorway speeds. And the front tyres were starting to scallop on the inside edges, wearing in a wavy pattern rather than evenly.
Three symptoms, all from the front suspension. The Q7's front end is a multilink design, a set of aluminium control arms locating each wheel. When those arms wear, the wheel no longer stays exactly where the geometry wants it: the slack gives you the clunk, the play gives you the shimmy, and the geometry drifting out of spec scallops the tyres.
The diagnosis
We pry-tested the front control arms, levering each one to see how far the bushings deflected under load. The upper arms showed failed bush deflection, far more movement than fresh ones, and one had a split ball-joint boot with grease starting to track from it, which means the joint had lost its protection.
The other arms on the front axle were the same age, showing their own wear. On a multilink front end that means the same call: the arms have aged out together, the labour to get in there is the same whether you do two or all of them, so the right scope is the full front control-arm set, followed by a four-wheel alignment to reset the geometry the worn arms had let drift.
The work
Out came the front control arms, the whole set. In went new Audi-spec replacements with fresh ball joints and bushings, every fastener torqued to the workshop manual values, and the bush bolts taken up with the suspension at ride height so the bushings settle in their neutral position rather than pre-twisted.
Then the car rolled onto the alignment rack. Camber, caster and toe brought back to factory spec across all four corners, with the before-and-after numbers printed for the owner.
A road test confirmed the result before it went home.
The outcome
Clunk gone over speed humps. The shimmy gone from the steering at motorway speed. The steering tightened up, alignment in spec.
The Q7 went home tracking straight and quiet again. For the owner, the obvious win is a big SUV that feels solid and composed again rather than loose. The quieter win is the tyres: with the geometry back in spec, the front tyres will now wear evenly across their tread instead of scalloping away an inside edge, which is a full set's worth of kilometres rather than a premature replacement.
And a fresh set of arms gives the front suspension years of service rather than a return visit.