Replacing Front Upper suspension arms

Cviji

Cviji

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Hi Guys, After some help. Have had this knocking noise on the A4 for a few weeks now, Discovered both front upper suspension arms and the track rod ends are shagged on each side. How easy are these things to replace? Do the shocks have to come out?
Thankyou for any help.
 
Unless you have access to oxy-acetalene I wouldn't even attempt it, trust me, I speak from experience!
 
The upper suspension arms can be a right pain to remove.
The balljoints on the 2 upper arms are held in to the upright of the suspension leg by means of a pinch bolt mounted horizontally ,which usually rusts solid in-situ.
I had to remove the whole suspension leg (complete with upper arms) from my A4 and apply gas heat/use a big hammer/swear a lot before I got one of those pinch bolts to move...........
The Passat basically has the same front suspension and the local VW Dealership says that pinch bolt is infamous for giving grief...........
Not what you want to hear I'm afraid................
 
if you are doing it yourself drop the whole assembly.
Hell of a lot easier to redo everything whilst out the work in a the wheel arch!
 
Cviji said:
Hi Guys, After some help. Have had this knocking noise on the A4 for a few weeks now, Discovered both front upper suspension arms and the track rod ends are shagged on each side. How easy are these things to replace? Do the shocks have to come out?
Thankyou for any help.
Click to expand...

It's really easy to do. You drop the car at your local garage an pick it up a couple of hours later,which is what I did...

I know it does no help you too much, but it didnt cost the earth to ge done. it cost couple of hundred quid with parts labour and a service too.
 
Oh dear, not ideal. Ill have a word with the local garage and see what they would charge for labour, ive already bought the parts though.
 
uh oh. i think i need to do this on mine, i have an MOT advisory for a joint on the front suspension, cant exactly remember which one though.

hopefully its not these ones!
 
I would think the bottom ones are going to be just as bad if not worse.

My dads decided hes going to have a go, hes pretty good when it comes to cars, ill let you know if it goes smoothly!:unsure:
 
just had a look and the mot advisery says there is play in a top arm bush (doesnt say which one) and a anti roll bar link.

were pretty handy with cars so will give it a pop, unfortunatly we dont have a oxy acetelene kit but i know a man who does.

if its cheap enough its still tempting to send it to a garage... which is saying somthing as i cant remember the last time one of my familys cars went to a garage for work (other than tyres and MOTs)
 
Got the top arms changed today. Took us about 3 and a 1/2 hours to do both sides. Bolts didnt give us any greif really, getting the joints into the hub was probably the most difficult thing.
 
i take it you didnt have to heat them?

looked on my MOT fail and its a top arm bush and a anti roll bar drop link on the offside that needs doing. will jack it up, check that this is right and then order the parts. anything else worth doing at the same time?
 
oh dear, i have the dreaded knocking as well, guess i need to get me overals on, i'm going to poly bush mine, has anyone done this? do i still need to replace all the arms (they have ball joints which i guess will be shagged), or can i just replace track rod ends and put new bushes in old units?
 
I had someone do my polybushes. I did my Mk2 golf and that was a PITA, god knows what it is like to do a B5 without a decent press and a set of useful powertools

worth it though
cost me just over a grand to get my KW V3's fitted, full set of Polybushes plus fitting and two new front lower arms. Bush kit is just shy of £400
 
nickkeyser said:
i take it you didnt have to heat them?

looked on my MOT fail and its a top arm bush and a anti roll bar drop link on the offside that needs doing. will jack it up, check that this is right and then order the parts. anything else worth doing at the same time?
Click to expand...

Yes the other side, no point doing just one without the other.
 
should i do both on each side, at the moment i have only bought the one that was at fault. hmm; your probably right and i should probably do all the top arms, both drop links, and both track rod ends. are bottom arms prone to ware?
 
Yer would be wise to do all.

Yes the bottom arms are prone to wear, I beleive they went on mine before the top ones. You can get a complete set off ebay will all arms, bolts etc for about £150 I beleive, which is very good value.
 
Hey guys Its a real easy job i thought. Got the parts off ebay, your lookin at about 25 -30 quid per arm.
Audi dealer quoted me 56 + vat each arm and 4 hours labour (£440)
so did it myself took me about an hour n half.
 
Nessy said:
The upper suspension arms can be a right pain to remove.
The balljoints on the 2 upper arms are held in to the upright of the suspension leg by means of a pinch bolt mounted horizontally ,which usually rusts solid in-situ.
I had to remove the whole suspension leg (complete with upper arms) from my A4 and apply gas heat/use a big hammer/swear a lot before I got one of those pinch bolts to move...........
The Passat basically has the same front suspension and the local VW Dealership says that pinch bolt is infamous for giving grief...........
Not what you want to hear I'm afraid................
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your help, I didn't have much trouble - got away with just removing the three bolts at the top of the leg, compressing the spring with a rope and easing it out a bit to get at the arm bolt
 
Hi guys, just had a MOT failure due to excessive play in front upper suspension arm ball joint. The bloke at the garage mentioned the bolts are often a nightmare :(

I will probably attempt myself, but only have till the end of the month :( where is the cheapest place to get a new arm from? Its a P reg (1996) B5 2.8 V6 Quattro Avant.

Have not had the car long so I am pretty lost at the moment!

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Give Jason at All German Parts a call, he'll sort you out with a decent quality arm. Cheap tat will only last about 5 minutes.
 
cheers I will try that out. how much do you think for a ballpark price for one arm?

Do I need to change the whole arm or can I just change the ball joint? Also, where does the problem of the rusty stiff bolt arise, to swap the arm or something else?
 
The balljoint is part of the arm.

One arm will probably cost somewhere between 20 and 50quid depending on which one it is. The upper ones are cheaper than the lowers.

Its often worthwhile if you plan to keep the car to buy a kit which includes all 8 arms, the track rod ends and the ARB links. The kit costs around £350, but its quite a bit cheaper than buying them one by one, and means you refresh it all in one go.

The rusty bolt holds the upper arms in.
 
Hi aragorn thanks for the info!

I'm not sure how long I will be keeping the car for at the moment, it has got quite a nasty oil leak and I'm not sure where its coming from, so just want to do the minimum to get an MOT on it at the moment. Good idea about doing the lot though!

So basically, I HAVE to change the whole upper arm and HAVE to get the bolt out of it somehow?

Thanks!
 
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