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My plan is to use a floor jack with this Jack Rod device. Basically provides a safety lock to prevent the jack from collapsing. I still wouldn’t get under the vehicle with this but for brakes I think it’ll be fine.
I am going to swing by that shop today or tomorrow, they agreed to walk me through how they put the SQ8 on jack stands. I'll post as new thread so not to totally bogart this one more than already have.
They will quote me on brake pads and also want them to price swapping my front grille for an RS style one so I can share those quotes as well so people have sense of possible install costs. I just can't find one with a carbon grille surround that doesn't also require swapping an RS front bumper...
So I ran to the shop after work and snapped some photos once I got home but not enough to justify making it's own thread IMO so we will say this is how you jack up the car for changing SQ8 brake pads . I made notes in the captions of each photo. If underside of my car is clean let me know, if you think it is filthy and gross keep it to yourself haha.
BTW - it is totally possible to get all the way under the SQ8 with the air suspension in the highest setting. I never tried actually going under the car but at the shop we were crawling under for them to point out all the spots to use and photos below are from me shimmying under it.
Lastly for them to swap out the brake pads they asked for $200-300 (awaiting final number to book or not but charge labor rate of $150/hr and figure its probably two hours or less for them) and they'd do it with my maintenance wash to keep up PPF/ceramic warranty which is $150. I called a couple local Audi/German repair shops and neither that I spoke to wanted to install customer supplied parts. I most likely will just have my shop do the brake pads if price comes in around that rate they mentioned since they can do that and the wash right after so I don't have to do either a wash or brake job myself so win win for me. I also asked about swapping the regular front grille for a RS style front grille - est. at 3-4 hours of work so $450-600 in labor assuming its a quality part that fits. I spent about $8k with them already on SQ8 doing all the cosmetic mods/PPF/ceramic to date for what is worth in terms of my relationship with this shop for context/willingness to consider brakes.
EDIT: I should also note that I was advised by others with vehicles including factory installed trailer hitches (not Audi Q8/SQ8/RSQ8 owners) that you can jack up the rear of the vehicles by the receiver crossmember. So apparently if you have the trailer hitch option on your Q8/SQ8/RSQ8 you in theory should be able to use that receiver crossmember to use your floor jack (with hockey puck or something not to scratch stuff) and then put the jack stands under the rear factory jackpoints.
Place your jack under the circled bolt in the black surround connecting suspension to subframe - per shop this is safe to use as a jack point as long as you use a rubber pad on jack to help soften things up. Once lifted they placed the jack stands under the factory jackpoints. They recommend using rubber caps on the jacks to avoid damaging the plastic molded jackpoints. Ditto for exact same point on passenger side - driver side location shown above in first photo. They also advised of another jackpoint roughly under transmission crossmember circled above. It is right after the transition from the carbon skidplate to the the carpeted skidplate. This one is located under the carpet skidplate. They recommended if trying to use this jackpoint it would be best to undo the screws and take off that carpeted skid plate to get unrestricted access to the brace underneath - at least the first time attempting. They said once you've done it a couple times and know exactly where to the place the jack they said they can do this without removing carpet (using rubber pad on jack) and leave no marks/trace a jack was ever used there. They mentioned this is the same with the RSQ8. For the rear they were able to jack up my SQ8 by the rear differential and then put the jack stands under the factory jackpoints. Just use a rubber pad on jack (like hockey puck so not to cause any accidental damage being metal to metal).
Last edited by SB_Hurricane; 04-26-2024 at 08:21 PM.
This is super helpful thanks! Should probably be stickied or saved as a writeup somewhere
I will post as new thread later. Doing yard work and happened to check while taking break. This is one of those cars having a flat top jack stand would be helpful for not to damage jack points. I really debate going and grabbing a pair of the Daytona ESCO knock offs from Harbor Freight to have handy since current Husky jack stands we own are really best for pinch weld setups since have a deeper V pattern to top and not sure I trust balancing those rubber caps I see on Amazon.
04-26-2024, 05:43 AM
. I made notes in the captions of each photo. If underside of my car is clean let me know, if you think it is filthy and gross keep it to yourself haha.
