A6 suspension links
 

Took my daughters A6 for an MOT today and it passed with a couple of advisories for the front suspension real lower link arm bushes. A quick look on the net and Eurocarparts had them and I could have a 30% discount so I booked online then collected them. When I returned home I was surprised at how simple it was to remove the old arms and the tools required were a couple of 18mm ring spanners.

Looking at the new balljoint end it looked different to the old one and I thought it must be a sleeve, so I put it in the vice and gave it a few sharp hits with the 4lb lump hammer. It never even budged, so a little heat applied and tried again...nothing. So I called ECP and spoke with them, they confirmed it was definitely a sleeve, so I put the arm in the big vice and using a forked balljoint splitter and applying more heat I attacked it with the 4lb hammer, it did eventually part from the balljoint and went flying across the garage floor, so if you are doing this fit the old nut onto the threads before hitting ten bells out of it.

The reason I thought I would post this here is I suspect the A8 will have a similar set up and this information might be of some help to others working on their cars suspension.

Old balljoint
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/Audi/A62.jpg

New balljoint without the sleeve
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/Audi/A63.jpg

This is the sleeves that have to be removed from the old arms and fitted to the new arms
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/Audi/A61.jpg

suspension arm
 

I have changed a few on the a8 and s4 over the past few years, and I ve never had to remove anything so difficult.

Usually I just removed the old part and put the new one in its place. Twice I bought lemforder arms from allgermanparts and on the last occasion I bought some aftermarket bits off ebay.

But I will look out for this issue next time...I m really surprised you had wrestle so much with a new arm before you could fit it.

The sleeve isn't something I've come across ever in all the years I've worked on cars. Maybe it's only some models that have it, maybe it's something to do with the steel pin of the balljoint going into an alloy casting, who knows, but at least if you come across it now you will know what it is.

Done several 4/6/8 and never had the problem. If there was sleeve it stayed in the hub. I would think they are inserts in aluminium hubs but they are not supposed to come out.

The inserts are metal not alloy or aluminium

Spoke with the MOT tester and he said there are a few different cars with the sleeves, they are meant to come out with the balljoint and it's a parallel fit to allow it to be removed from the hub without doing damage.

I realize that they are steel not alloy and that they are there to protect alloy hub. It's just that I think that they are moulded or pressed in hub and should not come out at least they have never come out for me. I had a look through ETKA for various years of A6 and it does not list sleeves or show them in pictures.

Spoke to the garage today again regarding the sleeve and they said they are fitted to stop the tapered pin of the balljoint from splitting the alloy and they are meant to come out with the balljoint. :rolleyes: