well done for taking the time to tackle the post in the first place :)
Yeah, almost took as long as doing those bloody bushes. Still, next time I have to do them (possibly in 120k miles time) I reckon I'll be able to easily have 'em done in an hour or two now I know all the tricks.
but your nuts, depending on how accessible they are, might be better off
> once they are out in the open along with the rest of the hub
> at least that way you can drill/tap/mahher, beat, etc them out :)
As in drop the whole suspension strut out? Can't really do that unless I mess around disconnecting hydraulic pipes from the caliper.
Also, it would involve completely disconnecting the anti-roll bar. Again!!!
LOL! I've actually got a spare keyboard kicking about. It's yours if you're ever in the area. Seriously :-)
Heh! Well hopefully this job won't need doing again until another 120k miles (roughly, though past performance isn't neccessarily a guide to the future, especially if it's me driving!), and for some reason I'm strangely looking forward to it (!), mainly because I reckon I should be able to do it in 1.5-2 hours, instead of 1.5-2 days! If anyone out there has a late shape Audi 100/Early shape A6, is in the Berks/Hants/Surrey borders area, then I'd be able to do this job at a reasonable price, and do a proper job as well, like actually properly setting and using the torque wrench, which is one reason I'd rather do this sort of job myself.
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MMMmmmmmmmmmmmm. I *do* like the look of this one. Interesting what the guy calls a "small" dint on the wing though.
Might be a good idea, though it's more fun using Haynes and guessing the bastard bits they forgot to mention, like:
"do up nuts at each end of anti-roll bar, then do up clamp nuts and bolts"
should have read:
"do up nuts at each end of anti-roll bar, then the clamps won't line up properly, so steer it towards full lock whichever way does the trick, so that they do line up, then bolt them in"
Could be quite a good idea. I'll stay away from the "quick lift" ones I saw a while back in Halfords a while back - "fully raised in two strokes of the jack arm" they say - what that says to me is it's going to be bloody hard work lifting things up with them!
Talking of buying stuff - does anyone know if anyone makes any ramps that have flat top bits (the level bit at the top) ? It would be handy if it was a bit longer and perfectly flat as well - it'd make it much easier on the tyres when needing to flick the steering from lock to lock to make certain jobs easier. Suppose I could always cut a couple of bits of wood to size and wedge them in the middle.
I like to keep my fans amused :-)
Maybe I might make the switch to BMW ownership. That 540 on ebay does look nice, V8 power, mmmm. Probably not too bad on a run as well. I'd bet that it wouldn't too a terrible amount worse than the 37mpg run on a long private test track averaging 100-110mph I get from the Audi as well. And there was someone on ebay looking for a decent condition 2.5TDI SE 140bhp estate. If he wants to buy at the price I want to sell for (and I don't want to let it go cheap, certainly not after all this work!!!) then I might well end up driving a Bimmer in a few weeks.
No offence like but having read all your mechanical mayhem posts do you seriously think anybody would let you near their car with a spanner? Driving a car with no backwards/forwards location of the lower arm is just one of the things that leads me to believe that you really are a liability with a toolbox.
And a tip for next time. Roll bars nearly always expand outwards when removed, ratchet straps are what you need. Oh and a decent quality socket set if you're managing to round off bolts on a nearly new Audi.
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What it says to me is fully raised to the underneath of whatever you want lifted and then it works as normal.
Try using PlusGas instead of WD40, it always seems better to me for breaking rust seals on things like that (I think WD40 is primarily meant to be a water displacer / lubricant, whereas PlusGas is supposed to be a dismantling lubricant). Anyway, it shifted a number of stuck bolts for me where all else failed. Spray some on the bolts, go and have a cup of tea, then try the breaker bar on them. If no good, try a Stilson (with a bit of scaffold pole on the end if need be), accepting that you'll have to replace the bolts.
I think the trouble with caliper bolts is that they're usually done up to a pretty high torque, AND threadlocked, AND subject to a liberal spraying whenever it rains...
Maybe, maybe not. I did the job successfully on my own car. Ok, so my methodology was a bit unconventional in parts, but the end result was correct. And I know for sure that if I had to do the same job again I'd do it a hell of a lot quicker, as I'd have learned from my mistakes. If someone wanted to take advantage of my two days of learning how not to do it (and how to do it right the next time) and save themselves the bother of doing it, and the cost of going to a garage, then I'd be happy to help, and confident that I'd be doing a proper job.
Well I can be certain of one thing, I wouldn't do that again, that was my point. If I was to tackle the job again, I'd know exactly what do to - I'd cut a couple of bits of wood to a size where they'd fit snugly inside the horizontal bit of the top of the ramps, so that the wheels could be steered whilst on the ramps without any risk to the tyres (apart from a tiny amount of scrubbing, no different to steering the wheels when the car's still, which everyone does to some extent), then I'd take it out as I did the first time, put it back in as I did the first time, steer the wheels to locate the clamps and bolt them up, and torque everything up. Job done. TBH it's not a job that requires any more expertise than how to undo and do up bolts, and how to use a torque wrench correctly.
Erm, the roll bars expanding outwards wasn't a problem in the slightest. As I left the car on the weight of its wheels, in the same position as it was when I took the anti-roll bar off (as per the instructions I was following) putting the anti-roll bar back in was a doddle. It had expanded a bit relative to the wishbones, but only a tiny amount, and it was quite easy to fit by hand. It was only when I'd buggered about taking the car off ramps and putting it back on etc., that made the wishbones move all over the place, and even then, the roll bar expanding wasn't a problem, it wasn't wide enough due to the wishbones then being too far apart.
And you could be right about the tools. It's hardly a nearly new Audi btw, it's a 96 model, nearly 8 1/2 years old. But the nuts in question were brand new (the caliper bolt isn't though). Funny though, the sockets I've been using for the most part are from my Dad's socket set, which is a pretty decent quality one that he's had for years and hasn't ever given me trouble before. Maybe I need to invest in some sockets that just grip in a hexagonal shape, IYSWIM.
Erm really, I was thinking that the basic physics of it would dictate otherwise. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but surely the ratio of movement of the arm you apply pressure to, to the movement of the bit lifting the car up, would remain constant whether it's under load or not. And if it's designed so that it will lift to the full extent of it's capability with two full movements of the arm, compared to say around 10 on a standard jack, then surely it's going to take 5 times the amount of effort to lift anything with it once it's raised to the point it makes contact with what you're trying to lift. I don't know about you, but I'm not particularly strong, and I prefer mechanical things designed to give out a bigger force as a result of me putting in a smaller force to work in my favour. To me, getting the jack up to the point where it makes contact is no problem, I always just operate the lever without the arm in. Much quicker that way, as not much force is required to lift the jack by itself (i.e. when it hasn't got a load of its own to lift).
Unconventional? Damaging the inner wing? Slight understatment.
Yeahbut my point is anybody working on a car should know that driving in that condition will cause havoc.
Halfords flank drive are what I've been using for years. I can't remember the last bolt/nut I rounded off and that's working on cars from
1979 onwards.
Really. I have one (Not Halfords, Sealey) and it does exactly that. Normally one pump to meet the car and then the normal amount of pumps to raise the car. It's all to do with valves and stuff.
Well technically not the inner wing (that's only accessible from inside the engine bay, isn't it?), just the inside lip of the outer wing (if we're getting picky here). And the amount of damage caused was really barely noticeable.
By driving, we're talking about backwards off the ramps (so as not to attract the attention of local shitforbrains and result in more damage) and driving back on again. I've just done the sums and figured out that one rotation of the wheels (16" with 205/65 tyres) is just over 2m (a fraction over 2.11m to be precise, so the wheels probably won't have rotated a whole turn whilst not having had the anti-roll bar connected. Now it's not going to do anything any good, but for that small amount of movement, and at very low speeds (at a guess, 1-2mph?) any damage is going to be extremely small.
Surely it depends on the bolt though. Do some bolts weaken with age?
Ah right, clever stuff, might look in to getting one. Still unless it actually lifts the thing higher than mine I can't see much point in upgrading really.
Well I had a fair idea, but when you're feeling like shit with a stinking headache, it's nearly 7pm, and anything other than packing up for the day is going to be counter-productive, and leaving it up on ramps is just going to attract attention from local chavs/yobs/whatever, getting it back to the ground and getting inside and lying down was my main priority. Obviously it's crucial to the steering and suspension - I had figured out that much, and I wasn't going drive across town in the thing, we're talking about a foot or two backwards and forwards here ffs!
Well, I very nearly gave up on it and was going to take it to a garage, and almost resigned myself to the fact that the only way to get it off would be heat, which would f*ck the caliper up, and mean replacement of both calipers (even braking forces), but I picked up the yellow pages and phoned a couple of mobile mechanics. One of them specialised in BMWs/VWs/Audis, and advised me to use an impact socket. Wasn't completely sure that that would do the job, as I thought it might be too rounded off by then, but it did, so I've got the replacement bolts now and I'm back on the way to finishing off!
I don't want to buy a new tool if the only advantage over the current one is that it'll raise up slightly quicker whilst unloaded. Waste of money IMHO - if it ain't broke don't fix it.
I've bought a couple of new tools recently - a Britool Torque Wrench off ebay (for just over a third of the brand new price) and a set of 1/2" drive hex bits (only need one of them, but can't buy them individually) for tightening the hub bolt. So there :-)
Gotta link to a nice piccy showing this ? I thought the steering tie-rods were what primarily glued the wheels together. Certainly, when an anti-roll bar bush sheared on my last car, I don't recall the affected wheel taking on a life of its own - my garage mechanic told me to take it a bit easy on corners until I could get the car in for him to fix, that's all.
That sounds like the BMW version of strut suspension. BMW use a form of wishbone with the anti-roll bar taking no lateral loads - many strut systems simply have a single arm pivoted to the side for track control, and use the anti-roll bar for front/back location.
Pete, now you know why I take my quattro to the garage to get the work done, a wheel bearing costs 150 quid a side, as is a right pain in the arse to do, if you got the quattro on the A6 you may not have had these problems :)))
Fair enough, but where it's a job that's basically simple bolting and unbolting things (which despite the last few days it basically has been) I'd personally rather do it myself, then I know all the bolts have been torqued up properly, no corners have been cut, etc etc.
Now I've done the anti-roll bar bushes and the front discs and pads, and have done everything to the book, replaced bolts/nuts with new where neccessary, torqued everything up properly, and saved myself a wad of cash in the process. Ok, I've been off work this week (well, sort of between companies) so there wasn't any lost earnings as such, but had I been better organised I could have done it entirely last weekend, finishing things off the following Saturday, but I didn't bother as I knew I'd have time in the week.
Oh, and that bastard caliper bolt - I resorted to phoning up mobile mechanics to see if they could come around and get it off, and one suggested using an impact socket, which I forgot I had! It did the trick nicely (black Halfords impact socket), and has certainly made me aware of the importance of quality tools. Though I haven't got a 19mm impact socket, and the replacement caliper bolts had 19mm heads instead of 17mm, and lo and behold the 19mm socket started slipping, so I reached straight for the 3/8" Whitworth socket, which did the job nicely. I guess the 19mm one must be worn down slightly due to use.
Anyway, I've got the appropriate socket bits to undo the driveshaft flange bolts, and the heat shield next to that end of the driveshaft, so once I've done that all I'll need to to is undo the hub bolt, take the wheel off, undo the track rod end nut, whip the driveshaft out, replace the CV boot which should be nice and easy with it out of the car, put everything back together, and go and get my car an MOT. Then it's off to my mate's wedding reception. Hope I get it all done in time. Suppose I've still got the Inca if I don't get it all done in time.
Oh, by the way, what's the special tool called for doing up the clips that hold the CV boot in place? Are they Z-clip pliers or something?
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