mishar

Audiusaparts.com online, fairly priced, fast, nice guys. No scrambling for sure.

No spacial tools needed to disassembe/assemble suspension. To replace bushings you need small press or big vise.

MP4.2+6.0

I would run down what the mechanic actually put in there the last time relative to the front control arms. Specifically did he just do bushings, or did he do entire arm. If you don't have paperwork he still should assuming it was a regular customer sale. If whole arm and Audi dealer supplied, those are warranted if less than a year. If bushing only and Audi dealer sourced, same answer. If bushing only and not Audi, switch to either Audi or the Lemforder OES if you want std. A8. If you want a bushing that has a harder material of some type but is still identically sized, switch to S8 part number bushing, which is only available via a dealer.

Unfortunately, I have a hunch you may be in one more last category I didn't yet thumbnail: mechanic may have changed the whole arm to non-Audi (or non Lemforder; the original Audi supplier for the upper ams). If so, now decide if the rest of the arm--basically the ball joint--is really up to snuff or not. Having now unraveled the arm stuff in full, I think I see where the A8 aftermarket parts issue (aka junk) is. Normally A8's are not a big market for standalone aftermarket parts if unique to the A8, especially from Asia. BUT, the A8 upper arms cross over to the C6 A6. Well they sell a ton of A6's in China and assemble them there. That means there are a ton of China sourced parts for those arms too. If it is the OES who has moved operations to China, that's one thing. But, if it is basically a no name that maybe adopted a Euro sounding name even to sound legit but has little or no real quality control or enforced standards from Audi, that's entirely different. In other words, if you are already looking at replacement so quickly, huge flag the parts are likely junk in general. I learned this the hard way on my C5 A6 when I lost a front upper arm at only like 20K miles after replacing them with a Meyle brand kit. Never again.

FWIW too, having dealt with this on my Toyota Sienna where the mechanic ran into the same junk aftermarket parts issue on Toyota front control arms, the local supplier made good on the replacement parts and the shop stood behind its labor work under a one year warranty. They switched to some other brand the second time, but not clear if it was better or not; car got sold. Meanwhile on yours, if you track down that only the bushing was changed, from just pulling my factory (Lemforder supplied) ones out that were manufactured in 2005, in general they needed new bushings yet again with about 107.5K total miles, but the original ball joint on the other end seemed fine in the end, including my own full inspection of the parts completely out of the car. I saved them for possible reuse w/ replacement (dealer supplied) bushings where I can just have a machine shop do those as spares before pulling car apart or trying the garage press/vise method.

In any case, if you are in this bucket of now suspect whole aftermarket arms and decide to switch out the upper arms yet again, per my other long post you can go S8 with the stouter bushings, which means Audi dealer and thus audiusaparts.com. If you go std. A8 relative to the bushing choice, then you can buy the Lemforder A8 OES arms for about 60% of discounted dealer. A8 dealer arms are oddly more expensive than the S8 dealer ones (only apparent difference is some secret sauce to the rubber used in the bushing), but several hundred dollars still comes out of the math if you jump over to the Lemforder OES across all four upper arms. Look at autohausaz.com, rmeuropean.com, and rockauto.com (among others) in that case.

sapman

Wow, you guys are such a wealth of knowledge! Per the control arms, all 8 were replaced in June. I'm guessing probably not audi parts, as the mechanic told me he was scrambling to track down all 8 in a timely fashion. He's 1.5 hours away, so car was left, and meanwhile my wife was driving the old Nissan to work. I notified him yesterday of the issues, and he just said drop it off. Well, the distance is an issue. I will call tomorrow and see if they were audi parts.

I'm assuming if the rear issue was fixed, that we could at least get the alignment? The front tires weren't showing unusual wear when I swapped sets last week. Tomorrow I'll pull off that tire and try to see what the job entails. Haha, we were supposed to drive to Kansas for Thanksgiving. Not happening.

Thanks guys!

mishar

I would agree with you. For the time being just fix those rear bushings, have alignment and you are good to go. Fronts can wait.

sapman

I don't have the repair manual or anything. Do you need vag-com to do this? Do the calipers need disconnecting? Unfortunately, I'm starting from scratch, having only changed oil so far.

Thanks

mishar

I don't know which bushings are bad but I think that you do not need to touch brakes, so no VAG-COM. If you are going to do it yourself it may be good idea to fix only that really bad one. Alignment will come back close to the good position before that bushing went broken. Not a perfect solution but much better than what you have now.

MP4.2+6.0

First, likely it is just your upper arms, not lower ones that you also had changed before. Four lower, four upper, in pairs on each side. I just did this drill last week, so remember the steps well.

You do not need to disassemble any part of the brake system, the CV axle or the hub in general for the uppers (the lower tend to be more painful). Conceptually you are just removing the outer bolt that holds both to the steering knuckle/hub area (called the "pinch bolt"), and the respective inner bolts that bolt through the typically problematic bushings into a triangular casting that is under the air shock/strut unit.

To disassemble, first remove wheel. Then you pull the plastic fender liner. that surrounds the front 60% of the fender well. You loosen the two large plastic belly pan screws at the lower front of it, undo two Torx scores right near there at some lower front fender trim, remove two more Torx screws near the back of the plastic liner at the fender lip, and yet two more (IIRS) somewhat further in the fender well area. You also push through four plastic sacrificial rivets in the center of them. A little smaller than a quarter and black in color. Once you push or punch the center through, you pry the outer part of them out with a screwdriver. Plan to replace; likely qty 5 on each side (final one is up right near the rear arm inner bolt by the felt part of the fender liner that gets in the way of pulling that bolt. Finally pull away the liner and set aside; takes a bit of force and flexing, and tends to hang up along fender edge. Just be sure it seems loose in general once you get started pulling, and that you pavement missed some fastener. First time it might take 30 minutes, second one closer to 10.

Now remove outer pinch bolt at ball joint side. If yours were removed just last year they shouldn't be frozen up. 5 minutes if not frozen. Can be nightmare if it is. 16mm wrenches are the tool used on all the relevant nuts and bolts. Push/yank out upper ball joint area. May tap them upward (in the center) with a hammer and punch type tool. Axle and hub will now kind of slump toward the rear of the car, still loosely positioned by steering tie rod, plus all the lower connections.

Now go to work on the inner/bushing side. Go under hood and loosen the three 16mm bolts that hold the triangular plate/casting into which the upper arms are bolted. This makes it possible to get rear bolt out a lot easier. Two of the bolts are under hood, one in the plenum area under the plastic covers. You may find something on each side bolted to the inner three bolts (8 mm allen head) that blocks one of the outer 16mm bolts. Take that (single) allen bolt out temporarily to get the blocking thing out of the way. Loosen the three 16mm bolts, but don't remove Figure on dropping it all maybe 3/8 of an inch. Practice with easiest to get at bolt until it comes out, then re thread in about 5 full turns or so.

Now go after the inner bolts that go through the bushings. 16mm on both sides. Hard to get a ratchet in--just barely on rear outer maybe, so figure some hand wrench work. I use box end. wrenches. If you dropped shock/struts down some, all should come out, just barely and at a bit of an angle as you reach the outer limit of that triangular casting you have to pull them out of. On a W12 the front left side one is a real pain due to ABS pump interference, but I haven't heard anyone note that on a 4.2; pump probably less shoehorned in.

If you are replacing full arm, just bolt new ones in and reverse steps. If replacing bushing only , you need to press it out--home press, vise work maybe, or trip to machine shop.

Audi says replace any nut and bolt you take out of a suspension or brake area basically. New ones are coated with a lock tite (usually greenish on Audis) material. I typically replace them, and they aren't that pricy. At a minimum, I would change the nuts and the outer pinch bolt (lots of stories of that one corroding and freezing up; I used anti seize on the shaft of the new one I inserted--on the shank of it but not the threads). If you reuse everything nonetheless, at least Locktite each bolt end where you thread on the nut. Clean out the ball joint area with air before reassembling that area in general; it will tend to have road grit in it.

BTW, with fender liner pulled, it is the clear shot and deal with any front bulb issues or preemptively change the HID headlight bulbs. That is, you need to pull away the same liner anytime you change an HID headlight bulb. By 2007 yours are already probably somewhat dimmed from the as new lumens. But, up to you.

MP4.2+6.0

I finally drove mine at distance on the open road yesterday post upper arm change. Even though none of my arms had collapsed in any material way at the rubber, as soon as I hit the freeway the change was obvious. At 107.5K miles, everything felt tight, like new car tight. Wow! Car was four wheel aligned (correctly) within past six months or so post my earlier tie rod change. Alignment felt all good--dead on tracking, nice on center feel, etc.

At shop, both sides nonetheless had front toe beyond spec (modestly). Given the drive, I figured they might just check it and i would be done in <30 minutes. All taken care of easily and dialed in toward middle of range. All other parameters in spec and also still toward middle of ranges. Same drive home at freeway speeds--indy shop I use is about 25 miles/30 minutes away. Has a variety of sweepers and some gentle hills so a great shakedown cruise. Again, wow! Like new car feel with everything renewed, and dead nuts on steering and handling wise. Rest of car is all now in great mechanical shape from recent renewed effort to "re-up" for the next several years. Gave me a good smile, along with the 450 ponies galloping along.

mishar

I believe we are talking about rear end right now?

MP4.2+6.0

From prior posts, I thought rear was getting immediate attention--like at the shop --but front was more discretionary/could wait.