Digging in to the cars suspension tonight to do more work on the car. Coil-overs will be completely installed tonight, and I have to replace my right front CV boot. I rented a spring compressor and gear puller for the jobs. I'm hoping with some assistance of air tools and the wonderful knowledge here, I can get it all done in less than an hour per corner. What do you guys think? I'm all ears!

 

Keep in mind I am used to working on American cars.

I jacked the car up, took off the tire, and inspected the area. I disconnected the bolts holding in the shock and spring set-up. I attempted to squeeze the spring together using my spring clamp, only to discover autozones spring clamp is built for cars that DON'T have shocks running through the middle of them!!!

Needless to say, it's sitting in the garage with nowhere to go form here til I get a proper spring compression tool. Anybody have a source?

 

Now being this is my first look at the A6's suspension, I can tell it sucks to work on already. I am starting on the passenger front because thats where my torn CV boot is that needs replacement. So where my issue stands is that it looks as if the lower mounting bolt for the spring/shock unit was put through backwards. When trying to remove it hits the rear lower control arm. I attempted to jack the suspension up to move it out of the way with no success.

It appears to me as though the bolt should have gone in from the other side (from the front) with the nut towards the rear of the car. This way everything would slide in and out easily with no need to mess around with the rest of the suspension.

From here (after the bolt gets removed) it looks as though I just need to compress the spring (on the spring/shock combo) to relieve pressure from the lower mounting point. Then remove the shock tower upper mounting bolt, and with some luck it could be slid out without having to take apart the rest of the suspension. Am I in dreamland here?

My major problems at the moment are: Can't remove lower strut mounting bolt due to rear lower control arm interfering, and my rented spring compression tool is built to go through the spring in order to compress it. I can't go through my front springs as there is the shock unit in the middle.

My thoughts are that I need to find a different spring compression tool that is compatible with these types of suspension components,... and I'm going to be stuck removing that lower control arm (doesn't look easy, although it's hard to tell whats goin on under there with the CV joints grease covering EVERYTHING) in order to remove the lower bolt. Does this sound right?


One last thing; I will be doing the CV boot at the same time, and while I had the wheel off last night I checked out the mammouth allen key needed to remove the hub and get at the CV boot. What size is that thing? If memory serves me correct it's 17mm, is that correct?

 

can't get pinch bolt apart,... even smashing with hammer,... is there a trick?