Showing posts with label front. Show all posts
Showing posts with label front. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Audi A4 Front Wheel Bearing R R Using Hub Shark
After about 6 months of wah, wah, wah, and grr, grr, grr it was time to get the new wheel
bearing installed. The noise started to impede normal conversation in the car.
I ordered a hub tamer from an online store at a reasonable price. I also then ordered 2
wheel bearing kits from Blaufergneugen (sp?).
Captions follow pictures:
Picture of hub bolt, mine was a 14mm hex (Allen) head bolt.
To remove, I took the wheel off, popped out the center cap, put the wheel back on,
lowered the car * this is necessary because of the torque this bolt is speced to, more on
that later.
Remove bolt (I used a breaker bar) then jack up car that side of the car.
Basically follow the tech on how to do an A8 brake upgrade to remove the caliper,
carrier, and disc, but if you cannot figure this part out you probably should be doing a
wheel bearing change
Pic shows hub with brakes removes
Remove bolt that connects the upper control arms to the knuckle assembly. Then tap out
the control arms.
At this point you need to turn your steering wheel all the way to the left for more
clearance. To remove the axle from the hub, put your old hub bolt in and turn a few times
to engage the threads, then tap it out with a hammer or rubber mallet. Hang it with
something, I used bungee cords.
Grease your pinch bolt! Hub tamer in action now, follow the instructions word for word
in the manual of the hub tamer. Crank on the outer bolt with a 1" socket, preferably using
an impact wrench. I do believe you could do this job without one - though I sure would not
want to. The hub will slowly pull out of the knuckle/bearing.
Hub removed with outer bearing race attached. The hub tamer comes with a puller that is
supposed to be able to remove this but it did not fit in the tight space between the race
and the bolt flange. I called a local shop to ask if they could do it, so I had to run out and
have it removed, 30 minutes round trip. The method they employed was crude but
effective, they took an air chisel and carefully hit the end of the bearing race, this moved
it out enough to pry it off, whatever works right?
Bearing race removed from hub.
My old bearing exploded while removing the hub, I would expect this for anyone,
bearings are only pressed together and they are not held together by anything else but
pressure.
Hub tamer bearing removal assemble, let me reiterate to follow the manual to a tee,
basically at this point there is an inner disk that is pushing on the inner large diameter
bearing race. The pressure from tightening the pinch bolt moves the bearing outwards
into the large diameter cup. Outer bolt on this is something like 1 1/8 inch. I did not have
the right size socket so I just used an adjustable wrench to hold it while the impact
wrench did its thing. The threads on the hub tamer pinch bolt are fine, so it took many
turns to remove the bearing. I had to wait for my compressor to catch up at least twice
during this part. I have a 22 gallon compressor.
Bearing removed. Smile, now the fun begins.
Basically reverse of bearing removal, follow hub tamer manual to press in the new
bearing.
This is the hub tamer pressing the hub into the bearing. This was the only real gotcha I
had in the whole process. I gently tapped the hub to seat it in the bearing and my bearing
came completely apart. Luckily the grease they use is uber viscosity, it actually looked
like plastic so the bearings stayed completely intact when they fell out, I reassembled and
did not tap it in this time. Also, make sure your hub is aligned in the bearing before using
the impact wrench on it, I suggest tightening it up by hand to get it snug and aligned.
The other caveat I had was the piece they tell you to use to press the hub into the bearing
with fits over the hub. This is great to keep it aligned but it was tight, so tight that I had to
rig up the puller they gave you in the hub tamer kit to remove it. In the process I partially
pulled the hub back out. So I reversed it and tried again, this worked well.
Reassembly after the hub is back together:
Put your upper control arms back in, slide the bolt through and use the new nut supplied
in your bearing kit. Tighten to 30 ft/lbs.
In the process of using the hub tamer, I nicked the inside of the hub so I could not just
hand press the axle back into the hub. After a few iterations, I was able to get the axle in
just far enough to thread the old axle bolt to pull it in, I wrenched it tight, and removed
the old axle bolt then put the new one in. Tighten the new axle bolt to 85 ft/lbs,
do not put your axle wrenches away yet, final torque comes with the wheels all back on the ground.
Put your disc back on, caliper hangar, caliper, and wheel. Tighten your wheel bolts to
specs, 89 ft/lbs. Drop the car.
Now find a 4 foot extension for your breaker bar, you need to turn the axle bolt 180
degrees once the wheels are all down. When doing the final tightening of the axle bolt,
make sure the hex socket is ALL the way in the bolt. I stand with my leg pressing the
breaker bar assembly while I tighten the bolt to keep the socket pressed in. The bolt I got
in my kit was softer then the Audi supplied bolt I got in my CV boot kit, just an FYI.
Other notes: I did hand spin the old and new bearings in the car for comparison, the old
bearing clearly felt jagged, and when I looked at the actual bearings that fell out, they
were discolor to the point they were golden. Fresh bearings are silver.
Special Thanks to wifey for taking the pictures.
Take your quiet car for a ride. Hope this helps someone out there. I am sure that with
similar suspensions this process will work on most of the later model Audis with a bit of
modification here and there. Email me with any questions.
Job took about 3 hours which included 30 minutes out and back to the shop that got the bearing race off.
Read the rest entry[...]
bearing installed. The noise started to impede normal conversation in the car.
I ordered a hub tamer from an online store at a reasonable price. I also then ordered 2
wheel bearing kits from Blaufergneugen (sp?).
Captions follow pictures:
Picture of hub bolt, mine was a 14mm hex (Allen) head bolt.
To remove, I took the wheel off, popped out the center cap, put the wheel back on,
lowered the car * this is necessary because of the torque this bolt is speced to, more on
that later.
Remove bolt (I used a breaker bar) then jack up car that side of the car.
Basically follow the tech on how to do an A8 brake upgrade to remove the caliper,
carrier, and disc, but if you cannot figure this part out you probably should be doing a
wheel bearing change
Pic shows hub with brakes removes
Remove bolt that connects the upper control arms to the knuckle assembly. Then tap out
the control arms.
At this point you need to turn your steering wheel all the way to the left for more
clearance. To remove the axle from the hub, put your old hub bolt in and turn a few times
to engage the threads, then tap it out with a hammer or rubber mallet. Hang it with
something, I used bungee cords.
Grease your pinch bolt! Hub tamer in action now, follow the instructions word for word
in the manual of the hub tamer. Crank on the outer bolt with a 1" socket, preferably using
an impact wrench. I do believe you could do this job without one - though I sure would not
want to. The hub will slowly pull out of the knuckle/bearing.
Hub removed with outer bearing race attached. The hub tamer comes with a puller that is
supposed to be able to remove this but it did not fit in the tight space between the race
and the bolt flange. I called a local shop to ask if they could do it, so I had to run out and
have it removed, 30 minutes round trip. The method they employed was crude but
effective, they took an air chisel and carefully hit the end of the bearing race, this moved
it out enough to pry it off, whatever works right?
Bearing race removed from hub.
My old bearing exploded while removing the hub, I would expect this for anyone,
bearings are only pressed together and they are not held together by anything else but
pressure.
Hub tamer bearing removal assemble, let me reiterate to follow the manual to a tee,
basically at this point there is an inner disk that is pushing on the inner large diameter
bearing race. The pressure from tightening the pinch bolt moves the bearing outwards
into the large diameter cup. Outer bolt on this is something like 1 1/8 inch. I did not have
the right size socket so I just used an adjustable wrench to hold it while the impact
wrench did its thing. The threads on the hub tamer pinch bolt are fine, so it took many
turns to remove the bearing. I had to wait for my compressor to catch up at least twice
during this part. I have a 22 gallon compressor.
Bearing removed. Smile, now the fun begins.
Basically reverse of bearing removal, follow hub tamer manual to press in the new
bearing.
This is the hub tamer pressing the hub into the bearing. This was the only real gotcha I
had in the whole process. I gently tapped the hub to seat it in the bearing and my bearing
came completely apart. Luckily the grease they use is uber viscosity, it actually looked
like plastic so the bearings stayed completely intact when they fell out, I reassembled and
did not tap it in this time. Also, make sure your hub is aligned in the bearing before using
the impact wrench on it, I suggest tightening it up by hand to get it snug and aligned.
The other caveat I had was the piece they tell you to use to press the hub into the bearing
with fits over the hub. This is great to keep it aligned but it was tight, so tight that I had to
rig up the puller they gave you in the hub tamer kit to remove it. In the process I partially
pulled the hub back out. So I reversed it and tried again, this worked well.
Reassembly after the hub is back together:
Put your upper control arms back in, slide the bolt through and use the new nut supplied
in your bearing kit. Tighten to 30 ft/lbs.
In the process of using the hub tamer, I nicked the inside of the hub so I could not just
hand press the axle back into the hub. After a few iterations, I was able to get the axle in
just far enough to thread the old axle bolt to pull it in, I wrenched it tight, and removed
the old axle bolt then put the new one in. Tighten the new axle bolt to 85 ft/lbs,
do not put your axle wrenches away yet, final torque comes with the wheels all back on the ground.
Put your disc back on, caliper hangar, caliper, and wheel. Tighten your wheel bolts to
specs, 89 ft/lbs. Drop the car.
Now find a 4 foot extension for your breaker bar, you need to turn the axle bolt 180
degrees once the wheels are all down. When doing the final tightening of the axle bolt,
make sure the hex socket is ALL the way in the bolt. I stand with my leg pressing the
breaker bar assembly while I tighten the bolt to keep the socket pressed in. The bolt I got
in my kit was softer then the Audi supplied bolt I got in my CV boot kit, just an FYI.
Other notes: I did hand spin the old and new bearings in the car for comparison, the old
bearing clearly felt jagged, and when I looked at the actual bearings that fell out, they
were discolor to the point they were golden. Fresh bearings are silver.
Special Thanks to wifey for taking the pictures.
Take your quiet car for a ride. Hope this helps someone out there. I am sure that with
similar suspensions this process will work on most of the later model Audis with a bit of
modification here and there. Email me with any questions.
Job took about 3 hours which included 30 minutes out and back to the shop that got the bearing race off.
Audi A4 B5 Front Control Arm Replacement
The parts book diagram showing all the front suspension parts.
A Complete control arm set with NEW BOLTS and TREs (Tie Rod Ends)!
Yay, get ready for some work!
So your control arms are shot and your ride sounds like a 1930s Ford that squeaks all over. No problem, if the squeaking are your control arms then here is your write-up to replace them.
It is a good idea to replace the TREs as well when you this as an alignment is a very good idea after ANY suspension related work. With new TREs and CAs you wouldnt have to go back to the shop to get an alignment down the road when you replace either one.
Here is Chris Haighs write-up on how to replace the TRE. Go by his write-up on how to remove and replace the TREs and use mine for the control arms. Most Control Arm sets will cost around 500$, you get what you pay for so watch out for those 200$ sets on eBay. After all its the suspension that keeps your tuned and personalized car on the road.
Your Control arms need replacement anyways if the boot looks like this which is torn up and fluffy.
Here are some other ways to check which arm is clunking.
1) Jack car up on side thats clunking.
2) Do not remove wheel. Make sure steering rack is locked (ie key out of ignition, and turn steering wheel to lock it)
3) Grab the wheel by the 9 and 3 positions and wiggle it back and forth as it would turn by the steering. See if there is any play - there should be basically none. If you do have play, look at your control arms and feel around to see if anything is clunking or moving excessively.
Click here for a video of this test.
Click here for a video of a test for lower control arms.
In case you need to get the "knuckle assembly" aka wheel bearing housing out for a wheel bearing repair this should guide you to the removal of that as well.
Enough for the stuff here is what you need:
Breaker bar + extension if needed
17mm hex or smaller bigger depending on your year for the axle bolt
Ball joint removal tool
Set of wrenches
Maybe some air tools
Pb blaster or any other bolt rust breaker spray
Torque wrench
Basically a good garage should have all of the above and maybe even more
Here we go:
I am writing this guide several months after I had done the actual work. There might be some steps missing or not pictured as some of the stuff is a basic unbolt and bolt back on.
1. In order for the whole knuckle assembly to come out you need to loosen up the axle bolt that is attached to the CV boot. Its either 17mm hex (allen) or 24mm head bolt. Check that one out before you start and get the right size tool. That thing is in there TIGHT so an extension might be a very good idea as shown here:
2. Get your vehicle on JACKSTANDS not a floor jack, to many people had been injured and or killed without the use of stands. Invest 20$ in a set of them, they are cheap and safer than the hydraulic jack an article by Andy on where to jack up your car can be found here
3. Remove the wheels on both sides to expose the complete front suspension assembly.
4. Follow the previously mentioned TRE article to remove the TRE http://www.audiworld.com/tech/wheel29.shtml
I had some problems with the passenger side and ended up taking mine to the shop to get it removed. Here is what I ran into when doing my TRE
5. The front should look like this now with the TRE removed:
6. Since you will take out the complete front suspension you will should remove the brake disc and caliper as well.
In case you want to pain the caliper this is the perfect time for that as well. There are write-ups on how to remove the front brakes but here is a quick refresher.
Caliper is held onto the bracket with 2 hex bolts
Caliper is held onto the knuckle with 2 17mm IIRC bolts which are tight on there.
Brake disc is loosely held onto the knuckle with the caliper bracket, once that is loose you should be able to remove the disc. In case the disc is stuck due to rust tap it slightly with a hammer and a screwdriver like a chisel, it should come of that way.
Inspect your brake hoses for any cracking or damage, if you find some REPLACE THEM IN PAIRS! Otherwise hang the caliper now somewhere with a zip tie or have an old flowerpot of box to rest it on the ground. Dont let the caliper hang by the brake hose alone.
This is a good idea.
7. The next item on the list is the so called pinch bolt holding the upper control arms to the knuckle.
A close up
This bolt has been an issue with a lot of people to remove. If your car had been exposed to salty winter roads you will most likely have some issues removing it. I had no issues removing it but spray it with Pb blaster and follow Carsons idea as well:
/quote: Hitting the area around the pinch bolt with a hammer to loosen it up helps (read the directions on the can of PB, useful info)
You can also try turning the pinch bolt with a wrench after you get the nut off the end of it, it will either break the bolt loose or twist the head off the bolt, if it starts to twist stop what youre doing immediately. From experience, most of the time when I have to remove the pinch bolt from a steel wheel bearing housing I gotta haul out my HD Snap-On air hammer./end quote
8. After the pinch bolt is loose remove the upper control arms from the knuckle, they are just "pushed" in. With road salt and dirt in them they could be very had to remove so a tool like this might be helpful:
These are ball joint separators and range from 11$ to 100$ in price, you get what you pay for in quality. Your local car place might have them for rent as well.
9. Now its time to loosen that tight axle bolt up some more. When I did the work on Kevins car I forgot to loosen them up with the car on the ground. I ended up breaking the bolt loose in the air and bended the breaker bar pretty good. So dont forget to loosen that bolt up before you lift the car into the air! Here are our results:
10. With the bolt loose. Tap it slightly with a hammer to "push" the whole CV joint out of the knuckle. I turned the bolt a like 2 turns, tapped it with hammer back to the bearing and turned again and so on... be gentle as the wheel bearing sits in the knuckle assembly. Depending on the mileage that you have on the car its a good idea to replace both bearings as well since those are known to fail at some point and time.
You should be here now:
The knuckle is still connected to the car by the lower control arms while everything up top is loose and removed.
11. The upper control arms are attached to the strut mounting plate and we were unable to remove the bolts because of tightness, we ended up removing the plate. Its attached with 3 bolts as shown here:
Remove those bolts and the top will become loose. In order to take the strut tower out you will have to remove the lower bolt that is attached to the control arm. Also be very careful to not over torque those when you reinstall the whole thing.
The upper control arms showing some damage on the boots when we wedge something in there to remove them.
Remove the old arms either on the car or on the mounting plate.
12. Here is a picture of the lower control arm assembly connected to the knuckle. Now comes the removal of the ABS sensor (already loose in the 1st picture) if you want to. The abs sensor does NOT have to be removed but its a good idea of cleaning it while you in here All that is needed is to disconnect the sensor cable.
In the top picture it shows the ABS sensor already removed. The abs sensor is just "pushed" into the whole where it sits the rest of its live and gets exposed to rust so it might be a bit hard to remove, but ours just pulled right out.
The connector for the sensor is stashed behind the fender well as seen here:
There is a rubber plug that you need to pull out, when doing so you will expose the connector, disconnect it and tuck it somewhere into the top of the control arms as shown.
13.The only thing that is holding the knuckle now to the car are all the lower bolts from the control arms and the reversed C sway bar link and the strut/suspension.
The rear control arm goes in from the top while the front control arm is pushed into the knuckle from the bottom. The reversed C is the sway bar link and connects to the control arm. Those are basic unbolt and removal steps now.
That is how the arms will look with the knuckle removed
You might need to use the joint tool again as the lower arms might be even tighter than the uppers. I had no issues with either, but this tool with be a life saver!
Unbolt those and take the knuckle assembly out
14. If you went the way that we did you car will look like this now:
15. In case you cant get one of the bolts out and you are stuck like this:
You will need to loosen up the green circled plate holding the sub frame on the side. No need to totally remove me but loosening it up will give you enough clearance to remove the bolt.
We loosened our bolt barely an inch and it worked
Remove lower front and lower rear control arms you complete the removal of all the control arms
that is it! Reinstallation in the reverse order!
Couple of notes in the end:
While doing this you can do several things:
Repaint Calipers
Change out brake hoses to stainless steel ones
Change out brake pads and rotor
Upgrade the front brakes to A8 rotors and TT carriers
Spray paint the whole fender well BLACK again while everything is removed for a cleaner look
Flush your brake fluid out
Oil change
Engine mount replacement
DV replacement
Just to mention a few things!
Torque Specs for reassembly:
Kevin always get on me for not using a torque wrench so here are the specs taken from Bentley Manual
Upper front; 50 Nm + 1/4 turn into mounting bracket
Upper rear; 50Nm + 1/4 turn into mounting bracket
Upper pinch bolt; 40 Nm (not TRE pinch bolt)
Lower front; 80 Nm + 1/4 turn into subframe
Lower rear; 90 Nm +1/4 turn into subframe
Lower control arms into steering knuckle; 100 Nm
Mounting bracket (shock tower assembly)
Upper bolts from inside the engine bay; 75 Nm
Lower nut and bolt into control arm; 90 Nm
Sway bar end link;
Lower connection to the sway bar; 100 Nm
Upper connection into the control arm; 40 Nm + 1/4 turn
Rear Sub Frame; Large Bolt 110 Nm + 1/4 turn small bolts; 23 Nm
A few tips for the reassembly. Dont torque down your new control arms "dry" that means without being attached to the knuckle assembly when reinstalling. Doing so will make it hard to move them around as needed.
USE antiseize on the following parts: Pinch bolt, TRE threads and the bolt holding the TRE into the knuckle.
CPP has a set of full metal suspension parts that are likely to last a whole lot longer than anything else. Their website with all the information except prices is here
Kris Hansen added grease fittings to his arms in terms of long term life. He has those included in his Upper Control arm write-up found on his website
Passatworld (VW Passat and the Audi A4 are basically the same mechanically) has a small Control Arm Faq that is Listed on the website
There is an active recall on the front lower control arm that will be replaced for free if certain conditions are met found Under this post
Read the rest entry[...]
A Complete control arm set with NEW BOLTS and TREs (Tie Rod Ends)!
Yay, get ready for some work!
So your control arms are shot and your ride sounds like a 1930s Ford that squeaks all over. No problem, if the squeaking are your control arms then here is your write-up to replace them.
It is a good idea to replace the TREs as well when you this as an alignment is a very good idea after ANY suspension related work. With new TREs and CAs you wouldnt have to go back to the shop to get an alignment down the road when you replace either one.
Here is Chris Haighs write-up on how to replace the TRE. Go by his write-up on how to remove and replace the TREs and use mine for the control arms. Most Control Arm sets will cost around 500$, you get what you pay for so watch out for those 200$ sets on eBay. After all its the suspension that keeps your tuned and personalized car on the road.
Your Control arms need replacement anyways if the boot looks like this which is torn up and fluffy.
Here are some other ways to check which arm is clunking.
1) Jack car up on side thats clunking.
2) Do not remove wheel. Make sure steering rack is locked (ie key out of ignition, and turn steering wheel to lock it)
3) Grab the wheel by the 9 and 3 positions and wiggle it back and forth as it would turn by the steering. See if there is any play - there should be basically none. If you do have play, look at your control arms and feel around to see if anything is clunking or moving excessively.
Click here for a video of this test.
Click here for a video of a test for lower control arms.
In case you need to get the "knuckle assembly" aka wheel bearing housing out for a wheel bearing repair this should guide you to the removal of that as well.
Enough for the stuff here is what you need:
Breaker bar + extension if needed
17mm hex or smaller bigger depending on your year for the axle bolt
Ball joint removal tool
Set of wrenches
Maybe some air tools
Pb blaster or any other bolt rust breaker spray
Torque wrench
Basically a good garage should have all of the above and maybe even more
Here we go:
I am writing this guide several months after I had done the actual work. There might be some steps missing or not pictured as some of the stuff is a basic unbolt and bolt back on.
1. In order for the whole knuckle assembly to come out you need to loosen up the axle bolt that is attached to the CV boot. Its either 17mm hex (allen) or 24mm head bolt. Check that one out before you start and get the right size tool. That thing is in there TIGHT so an extension might be a very good idea as shown here:
2. Get your vehicle on JACKSTANDS not a floor jack, to many people had been injured and or killed without the use of stands. Invest 20$ in a set of them, they are cheap and safer than the hydraulic jack an article by Andy on where to jack up your car can be found here
3. Remove the wheels on both sides to expose the complete front suspension assembly.
4. Follow the previously mentioned TRE article to remove the TRE http://www.audiworld.com/tech/wheel29.shtml
I had some problems with the passenger side and ended up taking mine to the shop to get it removed. Here is what I ran into when doing my TRE
5. The front should look like this now with the TRE removed:
6. Since you will take out the complete front suspension you will should remove the brake disc and caliper as well.
In case you want to pain the caliper this is the perfect time for that as well. There are write-ups on how to remove the front brakes but here is a quick refresher.
Caliper is held onto the bracket with 2 hex bolts
Caliper is held onto the knuckle with 2 17mm IIRC bolts which are tight on there.
Brake disc is loosely held onto the knuckle with the caliper bracket, once that is loose you should be able to remove the disc. In case the disc is stuck due to rust tap it slightly with a hammer and a screwdriver like a chisel, it should come of that way.
Inspect your brake hoses for any cracking or damage, if you find some REPLACE THEM IN PAIRS! Otherwise hang the caliper now somewhere with a zip tie or have an old flowerpot of box to rest it on the ground. Dont let the caliper hang by the brake hose alone.
This is a good idea.
7. The next item on the list is the so called pinch bolt holding the upper control arms to the knuckle.
A close up
This bolt has been an issue with a lot of people to remove. If your car had been exposed to salty winter roads you will most likely have some issues removing it. I had no issues removing it but spray it with Pb blaster and follow Carsons idea as well:
/quote: Hitting the area around the pinch bolt with a hammer to loosen it up helps (read the directions on the can of PB, useful info)
You can also try turning the pinch bolt with a wrench after you get the nut off the end of it, it will either break the bolt loose or twist the head off the bolt, if it starts to twist stop what youre doing immediately. From experience, most of the time when I have to remove the pinch bolt from a steel wheel bearing housing I gotta haul out my HD Snap-On air hammer./end quote
8. After the pinch bolt is loose remove the upper control arms from the knuckle, they are just "pushed" in. With road salt and dirt in them they could be very had to remove so a tool like this might be helpful:
These are ball joint separators and range from 11$ to 100$ in price, you get what you pay for in quality. Your local car place might have them for rent as well.
9. Now its time to loosen that tight axle bolt up some more. When I did the work on Kevins car I forgot to loosen them up with the car on the ground. I ended up breaking the bolt loose in the air and bended the breaker bar pretty good. So dont forget to loosen that bolt up before you lift the car into the air! Here are our results:
10. With the bolt loose. Tap it slightly with a hammer to "push" the whole CV joint out of the knuckle. I turned the bolt a like 2 turns, tapped it with hammer back to the bearing and turned again and so on... be gentle as the wheel bearing sits in the knuckle assembly. Depending on the mileage that you have on the car its a good idea to replace both bearings as well since those are known to fail at some point and time.
You should be here now:
The knuckle is still connected to the car by the lower control arms while everything up top is loose and removed.
11. The upper control arms are attached to the strut mounting plate and we were unable to remove the bolts because of tightness, we ended up removing the plate. Its attached with 3 bolts as shown here:
Remove those bolts and the top will become loose. In order to take the strut tower out you will have to remove the lower bolt that is attached to the control arm. Also be very careful to not over torque those when you reinstall the whole thing.
The upper control arms showing some damage on the boots when we wedge something in there to remove them.
Remove the old arms either on the car or on the mounting plate.
12. Here is a picture of the lower control arm assembly connected to the knuckle. Now comes the removal of the ABS sensor (already loose in the 1st picture) if you want to. The abs sensor does NOT have to be removed but its a good idea of cleaning it while you in here All that is needed is to disconnect the sensor cable.
In the top picture it shows the ABS sensor already removed. The abs sensor is just "pushed" into the whole where it sits the rest of its live and gets exposed to rust so it might be a bit hard to remove, but ours just pulled right out.
The connector for the sensor is stashed behind the fender well as seen here:
There is a rubber plug that you need to pull out, when doing so you will expose the connector, disconnect it and tuck it somewhere into the top of the control arms as shown.
13.The only thing that is holding the knuckle now to the car are all the lower bolts from the control arms and the reversed C sway bar link and the strut/suspension.
The rear control arm goes in from the top while the front control arm is pushed into the knuckle from the bottom. The reversed C is the sway bar link and connects to the control arm. Those are basic unbolt and removal steps now.
That is how the arms will look with the knuckle removed
You might need to use the joint tool again as the lower arms might be even tighter than the uppers. I had no issues with either, but this tool with be a life saver!
Unbolt those and take the knuckle assembly out
14. If you went the way that we did you car will look like this now:
15. In case you cant get one of the bolts out and you are stuck like this:
You will need to loosen up the green circled plate holding the sub frame on the side. No need to totally remove me but loosening it up will give you enough clearance to remove the bolt.
We loosened our bolt barely an inch and it worked
Remove lower front and lower rear control arms you complete the removal of all the control arms
that is it! Reinstallation in the reverse order!
Couple of notes in the end:
While doing this you can do several things:
Repaint Calipers
Change out brake hoses to stainless steel ones
Change out brake pads and rotor
Upgrade the front brakes to A8 rotors and TT carriers
Spray paint the whole fender well BLACK again while everything is removed for a cleaner look
Flush your brake fluid out
Oil change
Engine mount replacement
DV replacement
Just to mention a few things!
Torque Specs for reassembly:
Kevin always get on me for not using a torque wrench so here are the specs taken from Bentley Manual
Upper front; 50 Nm + 1/4 turn into mounting bracket
Upper rear; 50Nm + 1/4 turn into mounting bracket
Upper pinch bolt; 40 Nm (not TRE pinch bolt)
Lower front; 80 Nm + 1/4 turn into subframe
Lower rear; 90 Nm +1/4 turn into subframe
Lower control arms into steering knuckle; 100 Nm
Mounting bracket (shock tower assembly)
Upper bolts from inside the engine bay; 75 Nm
Lower nut and bolt into control arm; 90 Nm
Sway bar end link;
Lower connection to the sway bar; 100 Nm
Upper connection into the control arm; 40 Nm + 1/4 turn
Rear Sub Frame; Large Bolt 110 Nm + 1/4 turn small bolts; 23 Nm
A few tips for the reassembly. Dont torque down your new control arms "dry" that means without being attached to the knuckle assembly when reinstalling. Doing so will make it hard to move them around as needed.
USE antiseize on the following parts: Pinch bolt, TRE threads and the bolt holding the TRE into the knuckle.
CPP has a set of full metal suspension parts that are likely to last a whole lot longer than anything else. Their website with all the information except prices is here
Kris Hansen added grease fittings to his arms in terms of long term life. He has those included in his Upper Control arm write-up found on his website
Passatworld (VW Passat and the Audi A4 are basically the same mechanically) has a small Control Arm Faq that is Listed on the website
There is an active recall on the front lower control arm that will be replaced for free if certain conditions are met found Under this post
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)