Help Very Stresses

[colinurquhart]

Hi guys this is my first post since buying my first A4 1.8se avant, which i love. Problem is I have a knocking noise at the front right. When i bought the car it came with a few new spare parts, round about the suspension area, so i've got the car on axle stands changing the parts. So far i've got strut off with two new arms bolted onto top ready to go on. At bottom of hub there are 2 large arms that go to front and rear, the rear one has come off ok but the arm that goes the front just won't seperate at the ball joint and i'm at the stage of now putting it back together and give to the garage to do but i'd rather not, any ideas. Cheers

 

[jcb]

heat, hammers and patience.
what tools do you have?
lubricate the crap out of it with penetrating oil. wd40 if you don't have anything else.

is the upright off teh car with the lower arm attached?
can you take that to someone witha vice?

 

[aragorn]

Is the one thats stuck the one that comes out downwards or upwards?

The one that comes out the bottom should come out with a fork type balljoint splitter, but the one that goes upwards is a bit hard to get to with a balljoint splitter and i ended up taking the whole strut off the car last time to get it off.

Get yourself a BIG hammer, 4lb or similar.

Also, the bushes on the arms should only be tightened with the suspension in compression. Dont tighten it with the suspension on full droop or you'll rip them apart in no time.

 

[colinurquhart]

cheers for the reply guys. its the joint that comes up the waynso its not the best angle to hit with a hammer. I've no way of getting heat onto it as thats what i had in mind too. Tooling wise not had much luck as i tried halfords and their fork tool was too wee so then bought the tool that looks similar to a g clamp so maybe my tooling is also the issue.

 

[colinurquhart]

Well guys finally got the joint apart, I was just lacking a big hammer lol.
Cheers anyway, now have to get it all back together.

 

[colinurquhart]

Well got it all back together again, so thats me changed the 2 large lower arms, the the 2 arms at top of strut and the c shaped arm the connects the front lower arm to the front stabiliser arm and guess what its still knocking, any ideas guys? Might just take it to garage to diagnose the problem then fix it myself.

 

[S4twiggy]

is it your shocks?

 

[colinurquhart]

Not sure mate is there any way of checking them. Actually seen a cheap set of new coilovers on ebay for £220

 

[jcb]

avoid. unless you want to be doing this again in 2000 miles

 

[S4twiggy]

as jcb said, avoid!!!! may aswel pay couple hundred more an get some coilys on it i.e AP coilys or Weitec

 

[colinurquhart]

Cheers guys think your probably right, wheres the best place to source the coilovers that you mentioned

 

[S4twiggy]

look on the net mate, jus shop around for the best price, but i do know that demon tweeks got a set of AP for yours around £355

 

[aragorn]

Have you done both sides?

The only other component is the track rod end, top mount or the shocks themselves.

Can you detect any movement with the car in the air?

 

[colinurquhart]

i've only done the drivers side so far as thats where the noise "seems" to be coming from. If its the strut then perfect excuse to lowe the car on new suspension

 

[jcb]

be careful you are not hearing noises on the opposite side.
it is common for the fault to be projecting the noise through the car.
I had a rear wheel bearing that if you sat in the drivers seat you would have sworn it was on the right, sit in teh passenger seat and you would have said it was on teh left.
It was the left

 

[colinurquhart]

its funny you say that as when my wifes in the car she thought it was her side. Think i might put in garage to find out the problem then jusr fix it myself

 

[jcb]

always a good option. go use their ramp to give things a wiggle and "bring it back tomorrow"