chefred112

Hello all

does anyone know where I can find removal/ installation instructions for q7 front shock assembly ? It seems self explanatory just by looking at it, remove bottom bolt connecting to control arm, unbolt top and drop an replace. Just curious if I have to pop a ball joint and unbolt tie rods etc. I will be doing this today..wel see how it goes. I saw q5 instructions here but it appears to be a different setup than the q7. I have a 2012 q7...thanks, fred

BenDover

I found these 3 videos, do any of them apply?

chefred112

well I kinda followed the 1st vid but he did alot more than I did and I'm glad I didn't see the vid beforehand...lol

What i did was as follows (after removing wheel)

1) unbolt the sway link "arm" (the one bolted to the shock..bottom bolt 1st so that there would be no stress on top bolt)
2) unbolt the bottom shock bolt and remove from lower control arm
3) unbolt and pop out the 3 ball joints (i loosened the bolts and tapped the ends til they sprung loose), upper control arm, lower control arm and tie rod end. at bottom of ball joint threads is a torx opening so that you can hold it while unbolting.
4) unbolt the 4 small nuts at top of shock (at the point the shock comes loose)
5) unbolt and remove the 2 bolts holding the lower control arm to frame and pry the lower off, and then lift the ball joint part out of the spindle
6) at this point the spindle will become loose, I supported it with a floor jack so it wouldn't flop around and put too much stress on abs/brake lines.
7) since axle is still attached i forced the axle/spindle down a little while also pushing upper control arm up so i can get the top of shock clear of control arm.
8) I unbolted the small bracket (torx) that holds the abs/brake line to spindle so that I can move the lines which made it easier to pull the shock up and out.
9) then reversed the procedure for installation.

Although it took me awhile to figure this out...the installation portion was pretty quick (less than an hour)...and the passenger side took a fraction of the time since i knew now what to do.

hope this helps anyone who may try in the future

flynavy

don't just replace one ... always replace both on each axle ... fronts or rears

BenDover

Good write up, pics would have been awesome.

Step 7 was the biggest PITA for me when I did the airbag struts on my GL450.

chefred112

I did both fronts...passenger side was a breeze..driver side was the learning moments...