S4 Front Suspension Arms - labour cost

Afternoon everyone...

Got a bit of a knock on my front suspension from the drivers side upper front arm, done a bit of reading and if I go all out and replace all of the front arms it appears to be a bit of a ball ache to do, and I'll be honest I really can't be bothered, especially with the cold weather now.

I'd thought about just replacing the one arm and the one on the opposite side for now, is this difficult/possible to do with the shock assembly in situ?

Has anybody got an idea of how much labour is involved if I take it somewhere to be done?

I could really do without the additional cost but I'll probably look at getting all of the arms replaced if I take it somewhere, and get a 4 wheel alignment at the same time.

Cheers

Michael

 

I recently done my top arms I replaced all 4 and managed to do it without dropping the top mount on one side but the other side I had to drop the top mount as the bolt wouldn't come out as it was coming out towards the inner wing. its not a hard job to do as long as the pinch bolt comes out easily. I would always replace the pinch bolt while im there. my trick is to spray plenty of wd40 on the pinch bolt I done it for e few days before I went near it. every morning and night I gave it a good spray of it. I did need to use a little heat on one side but it wasn't too bad.

Im planning on doing my bottom ones soon as well. but going to change the subframe at the same time.... the joys

 

Its easy, couple of spanners and a hammer.

You cant possibly **** it up mate! Have a bash at it

 

Do them as a pair as you'll be really annoyed when the other goes tips up after a month of doing the one.

 

Well I'm waiting on a call back from Autotechnic in Sheffield to give me a price for the Meyle kit supplied, fitted and with a 4 wheel alignment.

I'm tempted now just to get the full kit, fit the top arms and do the lowers and track rod ends at a later date. Does that sound sensible?

 

Personally I'd do the lot, then it's only going to need one alignment

 

I mean if I bought the kit I'd fit the top arms myself, and fit the others myself at a later date, then get the 4 wheel alignment. I shouldn't imagine it would need a 4 wheel alignment just after the top arms though as there's no adjustment on them.

Saying that, once I get going I'd probably end up doing it all at once anyway, the only difficulty would be finding somewhere that can do the wheel alignment over Christmas.

 

Good shout there Aragorn, I never gave them a thought. Any idea how much they charge?

Does this look like the right kit for mine? Seems cheap from what I've heard other people have paid. Product code is 116 050 0029/HD, which is what I've read is correct

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A4-A6-PAS...KS-RODS-SET-MEYLE-HD-HEAVY-DUTY-/171073988113

 

Does your s4 have steel or ali uprights?
It's the right kit for steel uprights.

 

ats euromaster do 4wd alignment for less than £50, they put it all back to factory specs.

 

I have yet to have a customer with an s4 which has alloy uprights. I am also yet to hear of any with alloy uprights.

The b5 rs4, c5 chassis, b6 & 7 all have alloy uprights.

 

Is the best place to get a front arm kit Jamie at allgerman? And the meyle hd kit?

Think a kit is around £320.

My 034 adjustable upper arms are doing my head in so instead of just buying the 4 arms I will get the whole front kit and replace the lot.

 

Whats wromg with the 034 ones?

 

I have the adjustable upper arms and they have been on for about 6-8 months and squeek and creak loads. The aurora bearings will have no grease as the boots are not sealed so will wash and dry out. I regreased them but after a few miles they were back creaking. I am sure their normal arm kits are fine. Or if I lived in a dryer part of the world I would not experience this issue.

 

I was thinking about getting the adjustable ones in the future, so good to know. Thanks

 

I think the stern ones look a bit better but they are more expensive.

 

I was looking at s4's over the summer with my a friend looking to buy one, we saw about 6, admittedly all modified, but 2 of them had alloy uprights one on an x plate one on a y. Now they may or may not have had them when they left the factory, but they have them now. It's not hard to check what's fitted, surely it's better to check before ordering?

 

Well I managed to get the kit from the ebay link in my previous post for £310, Jason at AGP quoted me £370 for the same kit. The plan was to spend the weekend doing this but fell at the first hurdle, unable to get the pinch bolt out after about 2 hours! Gave up in the end and just put it back together, I just don't have the time to spend on it like I used to, so going to have to take it somewhere to get it done

 

Yeah I had to use heat on mine first and then hammer it out. I could not have managed on my driveway.

 

Pinch bolt was a bitch on mine the first time. Brother and I battled with it for hours before it gave up and came out.