2006 Audi A8 4.2 TDI - Project Thread

[Oli18]

Hi,

When i had my car serviced 2 months back with Jack Barclay Audi, they highlighted that my front upper suspension arms were on their way out and that the lower ones were going to be coming up. I had noticed a few squeeks going over the odd speed bump here and there.

On top of this, I also had 2 dead electronic parking brake (EPB) calipers.

So, rather than mess around, i thought i'd take a deep breath and replace the lot on the basis that i'm going to be keeping the car for hopefully some time to come and i really didn't want to do the suspension arms bit by bit. Audi quoted me near £5k so it was off to do some research.

The list of parts I needed were:

Suspension arms:
- Front axle left upper front
- Front axle right upper front
- Front axle left upper rear
- Front axle right upper rear
- Front axle left lower front
- Front axle right lower front
- Front axle left lower rear
- Front axle right lower rear
- Front axle left and right drop links

Calipers with EPB:
- NSR EPB Caliper
- OSR EPB Caliper

I decided on going the whole hog on branded parts as opposed to own brand (you buy cheap, you buy twice) and chose Lemforder for the suspension arms given they are OEM to Audi and TRW for the EPBs. EuroCarParts quoted £1,600 and after borrowing the Honda Civic forum discount code 'FORUMCIVINFO', got it down to £1.3k...and you get about £100 back if you return the old calipers too making it £1.2k.

I had my local independent fit all the parts and they did it for £400 including 4 wheel laser alignment making it all a grand total of £1600 which was a steal given the job and time taken. Both front suspension mounts had to come out in order to get the main pinch bolts out.

All in all, the car drives beautifully and SO much firmer. I should hopefully be free of suspension and EPB issues for the next few years

Oli

[Architex_mA8tey]

Good job Oli! Ive just done one rear EPB and then also done both upper arms and then drop links but still had an annoying squeak or two on certain days which turned out to be anti roll bar bushes. With the D3 you have to replace the entire ARB so bear in mind if that hasn't been done it may be good to get it done if you get any odd noises still

[Oli18]

Thanks for the tip Neil.

Can I ask how much the ARB was, did you do it yourself and what was the level of effort?

Cheers,

Oli

[Norretal]

Originally Posted by Oli18

Hi,

When i had my car serviced 2 months back with Jack Barclay Audi, they highlighted that my front upper suspension arms were on their way out and that the lower ones were going to be coming up. I had noticed a few squeeks going over the odd speed bump here and there.

On top of this, I also had 2 dead electronic parking brake (EPB) calipers.

So, rather than mess around, i thought i'd take a deep breath and replace the lot on the basis that i'm going to be keeping the car for hopefully some time to come and i really didn't want to do the suspension arms bit by bit. Audi quoted me near £5k so it was off to do some research.

The list of parts I needed were:

Suspension arms:
- Front axle left upper front
- Front axle right upper front
- Front axle left upper rear
- Front axle right upper rear
- Front axle left lower front
- Front axle right lower front
- Front axle left lower rear
- Front axle right lower rear
- Front axle left and right drop links

Calipers with EPB:
- NSR EPB Caliper
- OSR EPB Caliper

I decided on going the whole hog on branded parts as opposed to own brand (you buy cheap, you buy twice) and chose Lemforder for the suspension arms given they are OEM to Audi and TRW for the EPBs. EuroCarParts quoted £1,600 and after borrowing the Honda Civic forum discount code 'FORUMCIVINFO', got it down to £1.3k...and you get about £100 back if you return the old calipers too making it £1.2k.

I had my local independent fit all the parts and they did it for £400 including 4 wheel laser alignment making it all a grand total of £1600 which was a steal given the job and time taken. Both front suspension mounts had to come out in order to get the main pinch bolts out.

All in all, the car drives beautifully and SO much firmer. I should hopefully be free of suspension and EPB issues for the next few years

Oli

Wow, now that's what I call preventative maintenance, though I wouldn't expect anything less from you Oli, great sourcing work and savings for work which undoubtedly will make your car drive like a dream for many years to come

I've had discussion with Neil regarding the ARB as mine has creaking noises when cold and I plan to replace it as soon as I get a few other more important jobs done

[snapdragon]

I had my ARB replaced by Audi due to ships timber creaks when cold/damp.
It only lasted 22 months and was back to how it was. I should have gone back at the tail end of the warranty but would forget about it when it got warmer/drier and missed it. I think it was £205 fitted but will check. I am thinking of taking it off and sliding the bar in the bushes and putting glue on the bar as on the last one I tried silicone grease but it didn't last long and seamed to ruin the rubber.

[Architex_mA8tey]

Yep thats exactly what mine was doing creaking when it was colder and ok when warmer, and also very tiny knock still when it hit certain bumps. changing it cured that completely. The ARB was about £112 at our discounted price if I remember and the job was only an hour or so to replace it

[ainarssems]

Originally Posted by snapdragon

I had my ARB replaced by Audi due to ships timber creaks when cold/damp.
It only lasted 22 months and was back to how it was. I should have gone back at the tail end of the warranty but would forget about it when it got warmer/drier and missed it. I think it was £205 fitted but will check. I am thinking of taking it off and sliding the bar in the bushes and putting glue on the bar as on the last one I tried silicone grease but it didn't last long and seamed to ruin the rubber.

I think it needs to move in the bushes so you cannot glue it in but you could try rubber friendly grease to stop creaking.

[Architex_mA8tey]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

I think it needs to move in the bushes so you cannot glue it in but you could try rubber friendly grease to stop creaking.

On the D2 they are separate bushes which you can replace really cheaply but in the D3 they are all bonded in to the one bar and you replace the whole lot

[goldsax]

hi can i please ask about the Delta Mics hub centric wheel spacers from earlier on in this thread.
can you please advise me exactly the size and where you bought these from. do you get the bolts with it?
many thanks
raj

ps any negative aspect to these items?

[ainarssems]

Originally Posted by Architex_mA8tey

On the D2 they are separate bushes which you can replace really cheaply but in the D3 they are all bonded in to the one bar and you replace the whole lot

I know that they come in one piece for D3. I was just responding to snapdragons idea of sliding the bar in bushes and putting some glue on the bar. The bar needs to turn as you go up and down either in the bushes or the bushes in the cups and it's more likely to be bar turning because surface are is smaller for bush to bar than bush to cup. I don't think there is enough rubber to allow enough twist in it considering that you can change height on D3 as well so it will probably rip off glue pretty soon. If you can slide the bar to side and put some graphite or moly greasy on it it should stop creaking. CV joint moly grease should be OK as it is friendly to CV joint rubber boots. Or perhaps use after-market poly bushes if available or get them custom made, I think they also use graphite, copper or similar grease for them to stop noises.