I'd like to share my experience (TOP TIPS FOR SAVING MONEY AND TIME) for replacing dampers and spring on any A4. IN my case the stock S4 with RS4 springs and dampers.

It was cheap option since I got used units that had only done 6K and mine were shot and I plan to upgrade to an RS4 come the end of the year if all goes well. (I'm in Scotland)

Anyway, I noted that your car had not covered a lot of miles. I have 56K on mine MAJOR problems with trying to remove a particular bolt, which is apparently, notorious and may well result in serious expense!

I refer to the article on the Front suspension.

The very first picture refers to a 16mm bolt that pinches the two upper wishbones to the bearing carrier.

To quote your article:
"3. Pick a side, and get started by removing the bolt holding the upper control links to the suspension upright (or bearing carrier, or whatever you want to call it--the big part that the wheel attaches to). 16mm."

The shank of that bolt is notorious for becoming seized into the bearing carrier. I couldn't free that bolt with heat in combination with WD40 and a sledge hammer!!

Fearing I may actual snap the cast bearing housing - yes I was hitting it that hard! I eventually sheared the bolt and attempted to drill but knew this wasn't the way to go. In the end I had to remove the whole bearing housing from the car and have the bolt pressed out by a machine shop. 10mins work for them. Serious heart ache for me!

Basically it's gamble as to the amount of heat required to free that bolt without melting/damaging the two upper wish bone ball joints.

Before I started the job a specialist VW/Audi independent told me I needed a special tool that cost £300. ($480)

Since I had the official Audi Erwin manuals which identify all the Audi tools (and there are some crackers - it seems Audi rip their franchises off as well) In short I figured he was after the work. - I was wrong!

When I couldn't get that bolt out the only two courses of action were to heat the cast to the point I was going to damage the rubber boots and melt all the grease out off the ball joints or remove the whole bearing hub carrier and have the bolt pressed out. I chose the latter.

Before doing so I called my local Audi dealership to enquire about this special tool. (The independent guy is 2hours away.) The workshop foreman said, "O yes - it's called two bottles of gas!"

I said, but that will destroy the two upper arms and they are £60 each x 4 (both sides)= £240 ($380) and there is nothing wrong with the ball joints and that's not including the substantial additional labour in that the upper aluminium shock mount has to come out to replace the two upper wish bones!"

Workshop foreman said, "Well at our hourly rate it's cheaper to destroy the arms!"

So I thought nothing more about it and had the bolt pressed out by a machine shop.

When it came to doing the other side. Of course I had the same problem. There was no way that bolt was going to come out without destroying something. So I looked for an alternative way to remove the damper/spring unit.

In short you can do it without removing that bolt by taking off BOTH the LOWER ball joints. It's a real struggle and you have to be careful not to damage either of the ball joint boots on both of those lower arms or the CV boot for that matter. But it can be done. Everything is installed and working great!

However, on returning to the independent Audi specialist to have my car serviced, I enquired about this special tool thinking he was talking bull. He showed me the very tool for the job. It's not made by Audi. It is a special bit of kit milled out of a solid block of steel designed to slot around both the two upper wishbone ball joints and around the cast bearing housing. I can see how it retails at $480!

He bought it after two A4s came in and he struggled both times - Never again!

I'm well pissed off that Audi don't have such a tool they opt to destroy your upper wish bones.

So if your getting someone else to do the work for you it's worth asking them if they are aware of this notorious bolt and just how the plan to get it out if it's seized. Hopefully this will save someone some unnecessary expense.

PS if you ever find yourself having to remove the cast bearing housing you can forget trying to get that pressed in ABS sensor out of the hub it too will be well seized in there and the only way to get that out will surely result in it's destruction. However, help is at hand. If you trace the sensor wiring up into the rubber grommet where it goes through the inner wing bulkhead you will find the block connector for this wiring just above the foot-well dash panels inside the car without removing any of the dash.

Sorry for the length of this but I hope it helps