69RS

Nice write-up but could be more than required. I removed the upper control arm bolts at the strut (I've been to pinch bolt hell), remove the nut from the strut bolt on the lower control arm, push the bolt out until the head hits the other lower arm and just swung the strut out of the wheel well (You can't remove the strut because the bolt is still holding it, but it can now be angled enough to work on). Then remove top plate, strut nut and slide old air spring off.

02 6MT

K6XT

Today I removed the pinch bolts. I was relieved that I did not have to reinvent some of the user experiences I read about here, they came out with just a bit of persuasion.

My question is this. I'm doing a coilover replacement of the airbags. Arnotts with Bilsteins arrive Monday. I got the front end on jackstands OK. What's worked for jacking points on the rear end? The owner manual is very specific on using only Audi's jack points, the drawings show typical hydraulic lift pads. I'm using a floor jack. What has worked to lift the rear of the car with a floor jack, without destroying any hardware?

Thanks
Art
04 allroad

ShowMeData

I generally jack the rear diff then put stands under the bodyside jack points.

K6XT

Thanks info. I considered that but ultimately this seemed like the best idea. The 2x4's under each side provide clearance so the 4x4 doesn't squash the exhaust. Takes a bit over 5 ft of 4x4.
Regards
Art

Spot

Hi all -

My wife's '02 allroad was a victim of the dreaded front suspension sag. After the soap bubble test showed the left front air spring to be leaking, we ordered two new front bladders from Arnott. We also splurged for the Bilsteins (for all four corners).

Yesterday I replaced the fronts. Thanks to the writeup at https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...php?p=18122653 it went well!

I would like to make two observations based on my experience. I haven't seen these mentioned elsewhere, but if they are, my apologies for the inadvertent reposting.

First, I found that it was unnecessary to disconnect the upper control arms at all! I left the pinch bolt in place. I'd seen another post mentioning disconnecting the upper control arms at the inboard end where they connect to the upper mount, in lieu of declaring war on the evil pinch bolt, but I found that even that was unnecessary! Once I got the bottom shock bolt removed, the top mount swung clear of the fender well and I was able to work on the six top bolts quite easily with the upper control arms still connected to the suspension upright.

Second, when I replaced the bolt holding the bottom shock mount to the bottom of the suspension upright, I installed the bolt in the other direction since it was easier than wrestling the length of the bolt past the lower control arm. That is, I fed the bolt through from the front of the car toward the rear, with the nut at the rearward end. I can't see how this would be less preferable than the other way; I could still get a wrench on the nut end, and it didn't appear that it would cause any interference with any suspension members.

Thanks again for the great informational posts - it made the job much easier.

Cheers,
- Bob

K6XT

I looked into reversing that lower shock bolt. Concluded there is potential for interference. In my changeover to Arnott spring/shock I put them back the hard way. Please post if you find it rubs on the wheel at full turn.
Regards
Art

Spot

Hi Art -

I just checked, and you are correct, there is interference at full lock. It turns out that it's not with the wheel/tire, even though our allroad currently has 16" winter wheel/tire package on it. Instead, the interference is between the nut and the rearmost lower control arm, which occurs as you mention at full lock. When the wheel is turned fully to the right, the right side encounters the interference. I checked this on Level 2, BTW, didn't bother checking at other height settings.

Looks like I'll need to do a disassembly! I'll need to dig into the right side anyway, since I discovered a torn CV boot over there when I did the air spring replacement.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Cheers,
- Bob

K6XT

04 allroad 2.7T
After changing out the airbags for Arnott Bilstein coilovers I pulled the driver rear side panel to access and unplug the air suspension computer. That was ok no dashboard errors. Now, how the heck to I reattach the side trim panel? I can get all but the rear most pair of hooks re-hooked. But those last two have me stymied and baffled. Not a lot of room. any hints?

Thanks
Art

jay956

hey guys, i am trying to tackle this today. everything is going well (actually looks like some changed it before), except the upper control arms. the pinch bolt came out no problem, but i am having a hard time getting the arms off. any sugestions? arent they supposed to just pop right off?

Kneale Brownson

I found when replacing axles that using a big rubber hammer to pop out the upper control arms worked pretty well. I also found that if I did the rear one first, it came out easier than if I took out the front one and then struggled with the added pressure on the rear one.