Front upper suspension arms , d3 s8
 

Would anyone have the correct code for the front driver's side front upper control arm ,the rubber is damaged on the track rod and and I'm going to replace it as part of the winter maintenance,i've checked through posts and parts diagrams on net and the different versions and codes appear to be a mine field ,I contacted ecp as they have lemforder and trw listed but chap I know in there says although it's listed for s8 it's actual for the a8 and they don't do the ones for the s8 ,or if you had the correct lemfordor or trw part no and were to purchase that would be even better .
Thanks

Are we talking about 13 and 14?

https://a.d-cd.net/ee3b79u-960.jpg

Part numbers are dependent on VIN number with the S8. Details of both sets of top arms (left and right) are as follows:

VIN up to 4E-4-012 700*
Left front upper - 4E0407505E
Left rear upper - 4E0407509E
Right front upper - 4E0407506E *
Right rear upper - 4E0407510E

VIN past 4E-4-012 701*
Left front upper - 4E0407505F
Left rear upper - 4E0407509F
Right front upper - 4E0407506F *
Right rear upper - 4E0407510F

NOTE: The one marked with '*' is the one you specifically asked about, but just provided a list of both sets.

m&l in omagh have meyle ones they would be the oem equivalent just done mine today.

Try and loosen the pinch bolt sometimes they are a nightmare to get off.

Thanks chaps ,it's no 14 i need to change ,I was only going to replace it as rubber is damaged on the track rod end ,i'm assuming I don't need to change both at the same time ?

Good point, and having gone through the process of removing a seized one, something I prefer to try and forget!

If required, part number for the bolt is N10576802 (M10x105x26) and costs about £4. The part number for the nut is N10272302 and costs about £2. If you plan on keeping the car, just replace them anyway.

Shouldn't it be number 13 as 14 is the upper 'rear' arm?

Thanks Sean you are correct ,I didn't spot that that was the passenger side diagram

I had a go at that this evening (as well as the crankshaft seal etc and ps pipe replacement) i got the bolt out fairly easily even though it was seized solid , I purposely rung the head of the bolt and sprayed penetration oil in to hole and cleaned the 2 slits in the strut and sprayed them as well , removed the nut and added 3 washers refitted nut and kept tightening nut with a spanner and slacking and increased washer space by sliding in open end spanners as required to pack space between nut and strut and continued to tighten nut and it pulled the bolt out ,I had to cut end of bolt as it was hitting strut before it was out but it was well freed as that stage so a roll pin punch and hammer tapped out remains ,I looked at removing arm from strut and gave it a gentle tap and lever at the same time but it didn't seem keen on moving,is there a trick to lift it without damaging strut ?

is it the pinch bolt at the ball joint end or the bolt at the top of the arm at the upper part of the strut Keith?

i was wondering how long it,d be before you figured out it was me
I have all bolts out it's the stub of the ball joint were it goes down into the strut (i didn't want to abuse it )

picture please.
Keith who lol
the ball joint should just come straight up out of the strut i have a ball joint separator if needed just let me know.

or get the persuader out never fails lol

I'll go at replacing both side upper rear arms in the next week or so. Is there a PDF for the service procedure on this? Also, will I have to do the tracking after replacing these?

I've found the Running Gear pdf - I must have skipped over it the first time I was downloading them. I've also ordered two bushings for either side rear arm - as they are a tenth of the price of a pair of new arms.
In videos I've seen of the process I saw the pressing out of the bushes done with a press - which I don't have - but I was presuming I could use a threaded bolt and washer/spacer arrangement to pull out the old bushing and pull in the new one? Has anyone done it this way?

Never done it but there are plenty of videos on YouTube showing it. I suspect the most difficult part is getting the new bushes to go in squarely without damaging them.

I still haven't tackled this. The bushes are after arriving but I'm now after ordering the complete arms thinking I'll change the bushes on the arms I take out at my leisure (if it ever actually happens!) and have them ready for next time.
It all looks straightforward enough except for the part of torquing the bolts with the weight of the car on the suspension - has anyone any tips for this?

Perhaps a jack under the hub and raising it slightly?

I put a couple of bolts in to the brake disc and lower it on to axle stands positioned under the hub of the disc. The suspension moves as the car is lowered so I'll lower halfway and give the stands a whack with a breaker bar to settle them, then lower the rest of the way and whack them again. When they go 'thunk' instead of 'clang' they are properly settled and won't move, then I'll go under and tighten the bolts.

Thanks for the above replies. Do I need to disable Jacking Mode before lowering it onto axle stands, or/and will I need to calibrate the suspension afterwards?

I think you'd need to disable it after loweing it on to the stands so that it settles at its normal ride height before you tighten the bolts.

Yes disable it after you have lowered the car. Just don't forget to re-able it before you lift the car back up to put the wheels back on

're changing the bushes ,removing the arms is simple if the pinch bolts aren't seized,removing the old Bush's is simple ,I run a hole saw thru the rubber ,opened a hacksaw and put blade thru and reassembled saw and cut the sleeve and popped it out with a screwdriver,10 mins will take all 4 out ,now the fun part ,,i am lucky enough to have a neighbour with a 10 tonne press in his workshop which pressed them in very easy,the big issue was getting them to sit square to get them started ,we filed the leading edge by a mill or so just to help them start square as the arm is alu and the bush kept biting and going of square ,the edge we filled sits out of the arm so it shouldn't matter , 're loading the suspension i did more or less what mj had said ,thou i hadn't thought of disabling the Jack mode

There's an ever-so-slight chamfer on one side of the arms. The bushes only go in without biting if you push them through from that chamfered side. Might not have been your issue but thought worth posting for others in the future to be aware of.

I discovered this when doing the D2 rear suspension bushes. When the steel covered bushes started chewing the aluminium . . . .

Famous last words!...What an absolute pig of a job this has turned out to be. The long pinch bolt was seized solid in the wheel bearing housing and after hammering it and heating it to no result, I remembered one tip I'd read in the comments in one of the youtube videos I'd looked at - snap the head off the bolt and then pull it through with the nut and washers. This was working a treat until I'd realised I'd trapped my ring spanner on the nut before getting it out fully so I ended up having to cut the bolt before the nut just to get my spanner out. I continued with the open end of the spanner until the bolt was fouling the wheel bearing housing knuckle so then I had to cut the bolt again after the nut. I then drove what was left of the bolt out of the housing with a metal drift I found at the bottom of my toolbox that looked like it hadn't been used in 20 years....I was probably at it close to two hours at this stage. Next came the ball-joints so off I went and bought a separator which snapped before it freed the first ball-joint I attempted. I hadn't used one of these before (quick bang of a lump hammer always did the trick) but it doesn't seem to be able to be used without damaging the ball-joint boot?

https://i.imgur.com/KsIpj5El.jpg

EDIT: I've a feeling the ball-joint tapers are seized into the aluminium in the same way the bolt was...

Once the pinch bolt is out I use a large tapered punch to push the upper arms out. Usually they need to be worked back and forth a bit to break the ring of corrosion around the pin where the pinch bolt goes.

I had the same problem ,I used a trolley Jack and a small round bar to apply heavy upward pressure on the pin in the track Rod and then taped the housing gently and prolonged and pin eventually started to move ( it's not that easy to get the bar and Jack positioned to get the strong upward pressure as part of the suspension stops u from getting directly under it)(same as yourself I didn't want to damage the rubber boots ) ,I think I cleaned the corrosion out of the slit with a hack saw blade and sprayed penetration oil into it before hand as well ,when I went to the second side i just rung the head of the bolt right away and pulled it thu with the nut as it seemed to be the only thing that worked on mine

Are you doing this on the bench or on the car?

On the bench - I never do control arms on the car. The principle should still work on the car, but you're swinging the hammer in an awkward direction of course.

I had tried the punch method on the car but couldn't get a good enough thump at it to free it with the hammer so moved on to the Jack and bar

Now ya tell me!!...lol
Indeed, no swing could be had with a hammer with the bearing housing on the car so I decided to take your lead and remove the whole assembly until I ran into the same problem again (only worse!) with the tie-rod ball-joint. The pinch bolt is seized solid and there doesn't even seem to be a bolt head to shear off to pull it through like I did with the other one. I had liked the idea of pulling out the whole assembly as the arms could then be torqued up to the referenced angle on the bench (if I read the manual correctly?) not to mention full access to my arch liner as I have a washer fluid leak issue to look at while I'm in there as well.

Thanks for that...I was ready to admit defeat and had the wheel back on with the intention of giving it to a professional, but I'll give it another go and see if I can get anywhere with the jack pressure. I did speak to a mechanic who told me he just hammers in a ball-joint fork and at the same time expands the slit in the alloy to get the arms out.

Its rare to need to re-use the arms, so destroying them to get them out is not uncommon.

These days I tend to assume I will need to change both inner and outer tie rods in a D2 when doing control arms. The outer will usually be seized in to the upright and often in to the inner rod as well, so I remove the upright by sawing the tie rod end off and then separate the remains on the bench.

Have managed to get the drivers side done - found it a right bitch of a job tbh.
Is there any knack in getting the arch liner back in - I see the procedure mentioned in the pdf but in Rep-66 which I don't see in the downloads.

EDIT: I now see that the arch liner push trim clips are not reusable as no matter what I try I can't get them to fit back in.

I bought a pk of them on ebay ,how did u get the tie rod out in the end

Yeh, I'm after buying some of the rivet clips. I didn't get the tie-rod out in the end and I wasn't going to start cutting it like was suggested, so I got the arms out the conventional way by leveraging down the shock mounting plate after loosening the three bolts.

Hi all,
I am at the point where I need to replace all of my control arms (scrubbing tyres big time) and have found this thread very interesting.
Two questions I hope you may be able to help me with.

1-Are Meyle products any good. I hear that they may not be of german quality??

2- Bushings were mentioned earlier. Can anyone let me know where I can source these, other than Audi. I'm told that Lemforder is the place to go but in Aus it's a little difficult as they seem to deal with the trade only.

Any advise greatly appreciated.

I don't know anything about Meyle, I bought TRW even though I'd usually buy Lemforder parts. I still have the TRW bushes I bought (JBU138) as I wasn't able to remove the arms without damaging the ball-joints, so my complete arms needed replacing. There's a video of a guy on YT doing the bushings, but the video skips the part where he removes the ball-joints. If you don't have much galvanic corrosion and you can get movement on the ball-joints then maybe you'll fair better than I did - mine were seized solid and took a lot of brute force to get any movement at all. With corrosion, I think the only way to get them out without damaging them would be to have the whole assembly on the bench and be able to drive them out from underneath.

Managed to get all Lemforder bushes through ZF here in Aus.

Your comments on ball joints are duly noted.

Thanks for the reply.