Front Suspension Refresh. B5 perches!

[VagCabby]

Well over the weekend I set about changing all my front suspension conponents. Took me all day to do stsrting at 9am and finishing at 9.30pm! But it was well worth it, car feels 100x better than it did. Shes now on 167k so it was time to replace it all.

I fitted
Complete Meyle HD control arm kit
Lemforder inner track rods
Genuine Audi front shock absorbers
Genuine Audi B5 perches

Arms and perches



Old shock vs new, old one took about 5 mins to rebound back!


B5 perch vs B6 perch


strut built up with new parts and cleaned spring (spring had no sign of rust on it!)


Car all finished, front end sits just how I wanted, this is in standard sport suspension


highly recommend doing all this if your clocking up the miles on origional parts

 

[Mike.M]

Looks good. Planning on doing my B5 perches this week too

 

[VagCabby]

Definately worth doing fella. I didnt want to lower the car with springs or coilovers as I have a baby on the way so didnt want to make the ride too bumpy! Its dropped a tad bit more since this photo, ill get another one later

 

[quattrojames]

Nice work, the B5 vs B6 perch side by side pic is interesting :icon_thumright:

 

[AlexGSi2000]

Good stuff - how did you find the upper suspension arm pinch bolt? Was it difficult?

 

[Icarus83]

I spent the last 3 days attempting exactly this. In the end everything was so solid with corrosion that all I changed was the O/S lower two arms and droplink, removing the front one dislodged the steel sleeve so ended up with that stuck on the arm. Took the arm to a garage and they had it off in 30 seconds with the right tools.....I had tried everything, wedges, lump hammers, heat......got the steel sleeve back in with a long bolt and big washers to compress it in.

Pinch bolts did move slightly but were definitely not coming out for me.

Wanted to fit my S4 calipers all round but the brake lines are corroded at the joints, so I stopped before I rounded or broke anything. I dont have a flaring tool or spare brake line.

Also tried to undo the strut top nut and snapped my allen key to fit B5 perches.

I'd prepped the car by spraying plusgas everyday for a week and a half before (used a whole can of) which made most of the lower arm bolts easy to remove.

Oh and I have the flu now.....which started Sunday morning helpfully. Booking it in for next Tuesday for a garage to do the work, as they will be much better prepared for the pinchbolts etc. Once they have done it I'll strip it down afterwards and copper slip everything in sight. Also considering changing the pinch bolts every year to save the problem in future!!!!!!

 

[Icarus83]

I spent the last 3 days attempting exactly this. In the end everything was so solid with corrosion that all I changed was the O/S lower two .....................


........every year to save the problem in future!!!!!!

Oh it could have been that my car is 10 years old and has 203k on the clock......

 

[VagCabby]

B5 perch drops the front atleast an inch which is nice and deffo worth doing if your stipping your struts down

Pinch bolt was a PITA. Took me 2 hours either side to remove the dam thing. Top of the bolt snapped but the nuts came off fine so ended up with alot of heat and screwing the nut on with grease, which pulled the bolt out slowly then added washers as spacers and kept winding the bolt, when the pinch bolt was out as far as it would go I angle grinded the exposed bit off the put a long alen key into the pinch bolt hole and hammered the last bit out. Every other bolt on the car came out fine, no rust on anything which was nice. Only other PITA bolts were the back lower control arms on the front which people say you should lower the subframe to remove and refit but I managed to wiggle them in with a bit WD40. All in all im happy as hopefully I wont need to touch them again for another 100k+ miles

 

[glenandem]

hi mate im gonna do a front end refresh soon,got no problem with doing it all but can i ask how much it all cost you and where you got the bits from?

 

[VagCabby]

No worries fella. I got the meyle HD control arm kit from express car parts which was £395 with 4 year warranty
Front shocks I got off ebay, New Genuine Audi £33 each (pattern parts at euro parts are £70) seach ebay as there were quite afew on there.
B5 perches were £22 each and got them from TPS
Lemforder inner tie rods came from euro parts at £23 each
So all in £551 and a good days work!

 

[MooLard]

Nice write up and images dude, agreed it's good to see the perches comparison side by side too!
I think my shocks have seen better days but I am going to wait until the MoT inspector calls for them or anything further to be done as I am saving to move house.

 

[foursprungdugtechnique]

You'll get a Meyle HD kit delivered for £339 from B&B Components Ltd
Tel: 01622 677662
spencer_s3@hotmail.com
I got mine about a month ago.

 

[k909068]

sorry, new here. what's the benefit of B5 perch?

 

[SmoothAssault]

Extra drop on OEM shocks.

 

[k909068]

Extra drop on OEM shocks.

thanks, how much will that drop?

 

[SmoothAssault]

I think people generally say they've got around 10mm drop from them. Look at the photos above, you can see how the B5 perch sits compared to the stock B6 one.