Well this is starting out well - Control arms

[MikeWasHere05]

Trying to do my control arms today and nobody around me has a 17mm allen socket for the axle bolt.

So far in the past hour I've taken off the passenger side center cap and wasted two gallons of gas driving around trying to find this stupid socket.

[Burntaudi]

Trying to do my control arms today and nobody around me has a 17mm allen socket for the axle bolt.

So far in the past hour I've taken off the passenger side center cap and wasted two gallons of gas driving around trying to find this stupid socket.

Good luck. I had to get mine from the Snap-On guy. Sears and the likes did not have anything that big.

[Poopie]

got a harbor freight near you? thats where i got mine..i had to buy it in a set but it was dirt cheap anyways

[MikeWasHere05]

got a harbor freight near you? thats where i got mine..i had to buy it in a set but it was dirt cheap anyways

Connecticut

BERLIN, CT 179 WEBSTER SQUARE Opening Soon!


Of course. Sometimes I hate my car, with its 26mm drain plug washers and 17mm axle bolts.

[audispeed]

Save yourself the time ... you dont need to remove the axle to do the control arms. i dont even see why you would.

[MikeWasHere05]

Save yourself the time ... you dont need to remove the axle to do the control arms. i dont even see why you would.

Thats what I was wondering, but I'm not too knowledgeable with our suspension setups and thats what the DIY said

My friend asked the same thing, could somebody explain why the axle bolt has to come off?

[audispeed]

It doesnt. I managed to do mine without taking it off. FYI, you will probably need a torch to heat up the pinch bolt in order to get the upper control arms out.

[MikeWasHere05]

It doesnt. I managed to do mine without taking it off. FYI, you will probably need a torch to heat up the pinch bolt in order to get the upper control arms out.

Looking over the DIY/Bentley again I think the axle bolt only needs to be removed in order to remove the knuckle to replace the wheel bearing. I only need to do the wheel bearing on one side, so I'm gonna try and do the other side tonight. Tomorrow my friend is gonna try to get me a 17mm from his shop to borrow.

[MikeWasHere05]

So I've taken off nut/bolt #2 and #3 and even using a tie rod remover fork still can not get this tie rod out of that socket. I've tried like 8 ways of jacking up the lower control arm to relieve any stress on that connection and no luck.

This isn't really going well.

[audispeed]

have you completely removed bolt 3?

[MikeWasHere05]

have you completely removed bolt 3?

Bolt 3 or nut 3? I removed a nut.

[audispeed]

there's your problem ... got to remove the whole bolt. trust me, you will see why once its out.

[Zach_J]

You need to remove the bolt.

[MikeWasHere05]

Ahh! I thought it was a stud of some sort, didn't realize you could actually remove the entire bolt.

[matt719]

Ironically, I'm starting this install, as well as axles, tomorrow. I've been calling everywhere to get the 17mm allen socket. Sears, Home Depot, Auto Zone, Pep Boys. No luck. I'll try NAPA tomorrow but they have the worst store hours... pretty much never open. I may end up making one out of a bolt. I found an explanation on how to do it:

"You could also go to a hardware store and make one.
Get a bolt ( with the correct size head of course ) and two nuts.
Put the nuts in and then counter twist them so that they lock.
You can then turn the nut that is closer to the head and it won't come
off."

Just trying to visualize this... "counter twist them so they lock. Does this mean twist them towards each other?

I also need to find the 10mm torx for the axle-to-tranny bolts.

[audispeed]

FYI the axle to tranny bolts are triple square. if you use a torx bit you are almost absolutely going to strip at least one of them. also, i doubt the bolt trick will work - you will most likely shear the bolt. the axle bolts are on so tight that i actually slightly twisted the 17mm allen bit. this was after using a 3 foot pipe on top of my breaker bar. loosen the bolt a turn or so with the car on the ground first.

[MikeWasHere05]

So heres where I stand now.

Couldn't get the pinch bolt out for the life of me. Tried everything that I could. Friend is gonna get the 14mm (yes, mine is definitely not a 17mm. It is 14mm, I don't know why.) allen socket from work tomorrow and we're going to try and get the entire knuckle off. We're gonna work until Wednesday. If we don't finish by then the car is getting towed to another friends garage to get the work finished.

Also going to get new brake pads and new set of tires. Due to the wheel bearing/messed up alignment for the past while one of the tires cupped really really bad. Since I kinda needed new tires anyways, I guess a whole new set is on the way. I'm thinking Sumitomo HTR+, only because in every post onemoremile's made about tires he raves about these.

[firstars]

control arms are fun! (not really) ive done them a bunch of times.....

[matt719]

FYI the axle to tranny bolts are triple square. if you use a torx bit you are almost absolutely going to strip at least one of them. also, i doubt the bolt trick will work - you will most likely shear the bolt. the axle bolts are on so tight that i actually slightly twisted the 17mm allen bit. this was after using a 3 foot pipe on top of my breaker bar. loosen the bolt a turn or so with the car on the ground first.

Good call on the triple square, that probably just saved me a huge headache. It's looking more and more like I'm going to have to order these tools online and wait a week to do the install because I can't find anywhere that has these parts. Are triple square bits possible to find? It is 10 mm correct? I was reading a thread where there was unresolved debate over whether it was 8mm or 10mm.

Now I'm wondering if my axle bolt is a 17mm or a 14mm. (Do you measure from corner to corner or from side to side?) I say bolt because the other axle bolt is a regular hex socket (24mm possibly?). I really wish Audi would just use one size hex for EVERYTHING. Somehow.

[LDetter]

Pepboys carrys tripple squares, you buy them in a set of four. My axle bolts are 14 mm. If you are unusre of what they are find a 17mm and a 14mm bolt and see if it fits in the axel nut, that will tell you what size it is.

[D's Avant]

Good call on the triple square, that probably just saved me a huge headache. It's looking more and more like I'm going to have to order these tools online and wait a week to do the install because I can't find anywhere that has these parts. Are triple square bits possible to find? It is 10 mm correct? I was reading a thread where there was unresolved debate over whether it was 8mm or 10mm.

Now I'm wondering if my axle bolt is a 17mm or a 14mm. (Do you measure from corner to corner or from side to side?) I say bolt because the other axle bolt is a regular hex socket (24mm possibly?). I really wish Audi would just use one size hex for EVERYTHING. Somehow.

ECS sells a kit for both the triple square axel to transmission bolts and an allen socket set for your axle bolt. Not sure how the allen socket will hold up after you stand on it though.

[audispeed]

i think the sizes on them can very ... not sure on this though. get a torch, you will need it for the pinch bolts most likely.

[audispeed]

oh, differing sizes probably means one axle was replaced already. also, you shouldnt reuse the axle bolts.

[matt719]

Luckily I have plenty of 6' anywhere through 20' pipe to use as a lever, if I ever find the allen socket. I really wanted to do this tomorrow because I have a long roadtrip this weekend, so hopefully NAPA will be able to help me out. The nearest Pep Boys is ~40 minutes from me.

I'm hoping my pinch bolts aren't too bad because a shop had them off 2 years ago and my car was garaged last winter, but I probably shouldn't be so optimistic. I have a feeling I'll have a few more hairs on my back after this, and probably a lot fewer on my eyebrows if I have to torch...

[Poopie]

Good call on the triple square, that probably just saved me a huge headache. It's looking more and more like I'm going to have to order these tools online and wait a week to do the install because I can't find anywhere that has these parts. Are triple square bits possible to find? It is 10 mm correct? I was reading a thread where there was unresolved debate over whether it was 8mm or 10mm.

Now I'm wondering if my axle bolt is a 17mm or a 14mm. (Do you measure from corner to corner or from side to side?) I say bolt because the other axle bolt is a regular hex socket (24mm possibly?). I really wish Audi would just use one size hex for EVERYTHING. Somehow.

Your axle bolt is a 14mm most likely. However I have seen 17mm bolts used depending though since diff manufactures put there own bolts in their kits if the CV boot or axle has ever been changed. Just take a wheel bolt and put the head of it in the axle bolt. If it doesn't fit then its a 14mm. Make sure it fits in there nice with a break bar and use a long tube to crack it free. Have a friend hold the socket in there with his foot and make sure its straight as it crank it.

[Vreihenmotor6]

I too second the 14mm

if you leave your brake rotor/ caliper carrier on and have 3 lugs in the rotor you can jam a screwdriver in the cooling vent of the rotor and pry against that with the breaker bar if you don't want to put the wheel back on and out the car back on the ground

[SpoolinPelican]

Odd, I got triple squares and a 17mm allen at auto zone. Did you call or look yourself? most parts people havent the faintest idea and shouldnt be working there.

[ModifiedA4]

i know sears sells a 17mm allen key. that and a pipe would definately do the trick.

[kextyn]

I got my 17mm in a set of 4 from Sears.

[A4Shizzle]

There's a little store near me called Parts Plus who had a set of 3 allen sockets which included the one for the axle bolt. It would be best to get a 1/2" drive socket type, and the longest breaker bar you can find. I slid a jack handle over the breaker bar and a friend and I took turns gently jumping on it before it came loose. Definately do this before you try to take the wheel off and jack the car up.

I used LOTS of PB Blaster and a punch or dull philips screwdriver to drive the pinch bolt out.

[ShawFM]

I got my 17mm in a set of 4 from Sears.

2nd that this set

[B5 Quattro]

So has anyone done a good write up of this yet ???
We sound like we need one !

[matt719]

So a few cuts and bruises later, I'm do the point where I need to get the pinch bolt out. My buddy and I worked on it for a couple hours (at the end of the night, we were tired). Here's what we tried:

1. Hammering the bolt and PB blaster
2. Tried heating with a torch and hammering
3. Next we cut off a piece of the bolt in order to put the nut back in (as the threads were damaged). I was thinking if I cut the head of the bolt off I might be able to tighten the nut, causing the bolt to be pulled through. Got the nut back on...
4. Before following through with #3, I tried turning the head of the bolt. It appeared to turn with the assistance of a 3' long pipe, but the other end of the bolt wasn't turning. So I guess that means either it was just stripping or perhaps the bolt is broken somewhere in the middle? Has that ever happened to anyone? After many more turns the bolt started to strip, possibly just because I let the wrench slip off a bit, or maybe it was stripping the whole time and I didn't notice? It's not completely stripped but the edges are giving way.
5. Heated the bolt area for several minutes... like 5 minutes, then hammered. Nothing.

After this I drenched it in PB blaster and called it a night. I've been reading a lot of these long threads about the pinch bolt and everyone seems to recommend a different method that worked for them. I feel like the problem is that I can't get a good enough blow on the bolt because the fender is in the way. I have a pretty good amount of experience hammering things and I know how much less efficient a 8" long jolt is from a full 3' swing...

Is there any way to get a better swing at this?

Should I have the suspension loaded with a jack while working on this? (I've been doing both)

I'm thinking tomorrow I'll go buy a hand sledge and see if the PB blaster from tonight had any affect (I've been using a regular large hammer now).

Then I'm wondering if I should try to cut the bolt up with a dremel and use a punch or if I should try to drill it out. To be honest, I'm a little worried about drilling it out because I don't want to ruin the knuckle and it looks hard to do while it is attached to the car.

I am frustrated but still determined to get this out, seeing as I have no way of getting my car to a shop at this point.

[A4Shizzle]

I'd keep soaking it with PB Blaster every few hours and use a small sledge and punch. If you still have enough threads on it, I'd put the nut back on and hit that, then when the nut is pushed all the way to the knuckle, take it off and use the punch. Heat it up too, if you have to. You might be able to get a better swing with the suspension lowered and the wheel turned all the way to the right. Seeing all these threads about rusted pinch bolts, I feel lucky I live in california.

[MikeWasHere05]

Well here's my update:

Couldn't get the pinch bolt off, so I removed the strut plate from the engine bay and lower control arms from the subframe and removed the shock/spring/swaybar endlink/arms all together.

My friend is now torching off the pinch bolt and pressing the bearing at his shop now, should be here in half an hour to start re-assembling.

Ordered 4 new Sumitomo HTR Z for $380, including rubber, mounting and balancing. Another $60 for an alignment and the drive should be smooth as silk.

I'm also trying to find new brake pads to throw on whenever they come in. I've done my research and would like to get Mintex Reds, but don't want the squeal. Hawk HPS are too expensive. I'd really like a set of PBR Ceramics, but ecstuning is backordered. Gonna make another thread about that right now actually.

Thanks for all the responses guys.

[MikeWasHere05]

So turns out that the ECS Tuning hardware kit doesn't have everything I need, and the "upgrade"d sway bar end links sent to me by FCP Groton need a bolt that they apparently didn't include either.

My old end links had a stud/rubber boot. These new ones need a bolt and are a different type of bushing. Does this sound correct?

[pinky]

i got one from advance once. in a set of 3. in the tool section