front control arm replacement

[cjrob]

while fitting new discs and pads round the car yesterday I noticed that the front control arms are needing replaced, only one on each side but would plan to replace all 4

done q quick search on Eurocar Parts, Ebay and VW Spares and find the price is vastly different on each shop varying between £15 and £75, now I know you get what you pay for unsure what quality to pitch for.

immediately discounted the £15 Ebay ones so can anybody recommend any suitable quality ones that don't break the bank as I would be replacing all 4.

planning on keeping the car for about 1.5 - 2 years now as I am going to do the cambelt, stat and water pump in the spring.

cheers

 

[AB5QTS]

I've just splashed out £345 on a complete control arm kit from Meyle. Supposed to be very good.

 

[CraigG]

i got the meyle kit from german ebay, was 330quid delivered. definetely a high quality kit.
id go for meyle or lemforder(which is OE audi stuff ive heard). although the meyle kit has upgraded track rod end ball joints.

as you say, 100% avoid the cheaper ones, they wont last 10k miles, or anywhere close from peoples experiances on here, i would say avoid those motorfactor brands aswell (QH or such like)

 

[mattpone]

u can get the lemforder ones from GSF, theyre not the cheapest but theyre the same as Audi OE parts (on mine you could actually see where they had the audi logo removed with an anglegrinder)

 

[mattpone]

word of warning though - the top arms are a bitch of a job on older cars - i did mine (a 1999 a4 1.9 tdi) took me all weekend as the bolt that holds the top two arms onto the wheel hub was too corroded to be removed - i tried everything from heat to brute force and ended up drilling it out - took me a few hours, a dozen drill bits and no-end of drill batteries.

the salt in the wound was when i removed the strut assembly i found the aluminium top mounting had cracked so my only choice was a new one from audi!

there were a few choice swear words that weekend!

 

[rasA4]

Meyle or Lemforder are the ones to go for i got mine from here http://www.allgermanparts.co.uk/ourshop/prod_447624-Meyle-HD-control-arm-set.html i didnt go for the full kit they sell them individually and have a good service and quick delivery ask for a discount as well

 

[aragorn]

I can thuroughly recommend the guys at AllGermanParts.

I'm running Meyle kit on ours too, and its been good so far.

First time round i fitted ebayspecials, and 4 months later i was changing them again (plus two front tyres) they were that crap.

 

[rasA4]

oh yeah dont forget to get the wheel alignment done after you have changed the arms

 

[andy110m]

Hi guys, I've done the trickly upper arms on my S4. I'm planning to get the lower arms from all german soon and crack on with them. My question, alot is mentioned about the very awkward pinch bolts to do the uppers. Are there any issues I should know about before hand?

Whats people experiences doing this job.

 

[aragorn]

the lower rear arms bolt is fitted particularly stupidly from new, so you need to unbolt the subframe and lever it down a bit to get it off.

Once its off, you can put the new bolt in from the other side, which will stop you having to mess with the subframe next time.

 

[andy110m]

Hi Kev, I knew you'd know the answer. I'm thinking I might be able to leave the sub frame alone if I get some more bolts and so I can cut the head off the originals and slide them out?

Does this sound possible? Any other things to be careful with, any other pinch bolt type problems?

Thanks mate.

 

[aragorn]

You might get away with cutting them aye, but i didnt fancy using a grinder that close to the floor of the car! I replaced all the bolts anyway, as the meyle kit comes with them all.

Splitting one of the balljoints is a bit of a ******, as its upside down and kinda shrouded. I was doing all the arms, so i just pulled the hub out and knocked it out on the bench.

 

[andy110m]

Thanks for the advice, I'm thinking I might wait until I get some new wheel bearings. It seems to make sense to do them at the same time and thats most of what might go wrong swapped out.

 

[Audijarvis]

Does fitting arms individually reduce there serviceable life?

 

[andy110m]

I'm hoping not but I see you could make an arugement that it would. I have used the HD stuff from all german carparts, that gives me a 4 year warranty.

I had to do the top arms in December to get it through the MOT but given the time of year I didn't want to throw £345 at a full kit. So like I've posted before I did all the top arms, 4 front and 2 rear. I'm thinking because they work in pairs on the same line the life wouldn't suffer as I'm sure it would if I'd gone really cheap and only replaced the one failed arm.

The lower arms will be done in a month or two so all will be well then. The car only really does mileage when the weather gets better anyway so even if it isn't ideal its not going to cause harm with the car sat on the drive.

 

[ian52]

As for the bolts on the rear arms i just got a hacksaw and cut them to get them out and put the new ones in the other way round. From new they must bolt the suspension to the sub frame before fitting it to the car. I got the lower ball joints split using a crowbar and a hammer. works a treat.

 

[aragorn]

Andy: its worth looking at the cost of the whole kit compared with buying the arms seperately, given that it contains all new bolts, and a pair of track rod ends too. From memory the lower arms are a lot more expensive than the upper ones, so you might find your better off just buying the kit, and flogging the spare arms on classifieds or whatever.

If your doing the bearings at the same time then you'll be fine, just pull everything out and anything that doesnt come off you can do it on the bench.

 

[cjrob]

Well from what looked like a simple job it turned into a nightmare, whomever replaced them last time stuck the top bolts in the wrong way so had to cut them off as there was no room for them to clear the wing, also the pinch bolt sheared off. Ran out of time (and energy) yesterday so only have one side done.

if anybody is attempting this I would recomend buying new bolts and just replacing them at the time and please think about which way round the top bolts go !!

 

[ian52]

for the top bolts you have to remove the strut and strut top from the car with the arms attached and take them off then. I dont thinks the bolts will go in the other way round as the spring is in the way.

 

[aragorn]

cjrob: Your supposed to bolt up the top plate with it of the car, as you need to set the distance between the plate and the arms, to set the correct preload on the bushes.

The meyle kit comes with new bolts for a reason

 

[cjrob]

cjrob: Your supposed to bolt up the top plate with it of the car, as you need to set the distance between the plate and the arms, to set the correct preload on the bushes.

The meyle kit comes with new bolts for a reason

yip, with hindsight it appears dropping the top plate is the best option, just wondered if what I have done will cause issues in the future. Basically stuck new bolts with the bushes and tighted tightly (obviously) but now worried I dont have the correct preload, what issues will this cause?

also on a similar subject I had a vibration through the wheels at around 70-80, thought replacing these arms would solve it, the new arms have made a difference but there is still a slight vibration, is there any other obvious items that would cause this?