B9 FY SQ5 / Q5 Upper Control Arm Bushing DIY

[Gunnarrrrr]

Total time: about one hour

Total cost: $120 for 4 bushings from genuineaudiparts.com - 4M0407515A

Tools & Supplies needed:
A floor press
a jack
a pair of jack stands
a 17mm socket to get your wheels off
a 16mm socket
a 16mm wrench
a socket wrench
a torque wrench
some anti seize
a pair of bushing press cups, I got mine on ebay. Need one with a 46mm outer and maximum 36mm inner diameter(driver), and one with a 48mm inner diameter(receiver). You can make them if you have a lathe, or get the $300 snap-on ones from the audi manual (lmao)
I got these on ebay, they're sold by inner diameter. They have a 5mm wall thickness. I ordered the 36mm and 48mm option
https://www.ebay.com/itm/333989884193

• Get the front of the car on jackstands (don't forget to engage your ebrake) and take off the wheels
  
• Unbolt the pinch bolt on the steering knuckle. 16mm on both ends. slide it out.
  
  
• use a flat head screwdriver as a wedge to open it a little, and pull the ball joints out while doing this. A couple upward taps with a soft hammer on the arms and they should practically fall out.
  
  
• Unbolt both of the control arms from the chassis. 16mm again. very little room here, can't get a socket wrench in. a 16mm ratcheting wrench helps a lot here. I’d recommend buying one as they’re very helpful for most audi suspension jobs, especially sway bars. However they're under a lot of torque, so you might have to get creative with a socket wrench and a crows foot and a makeshift breaker bar to crack it loose first.
  
  
  
  
• With the arms out, measure the offset of the bushings. In my case, they were all a half mm off center, measuring 4mm on one side and 5mm on the other. Write it down or take a pic. Also take note of the orientation of the notch in the bushing. They should be facing up.
  
  
  
• Get your new bushings and press cups ready. line them up in your press, and push them out. Should be effortless to remove. If its not, something probably isn't lined up.
  
  
  
  
• Press in the new bushings, keep the orientation of the notch the same as before. Press slowly once its mostly in and measure it. Keep pressing until its exactly the same depth as the ones you measured earlier.
  
  
  
• Bolt in the control arm to chassis bolts, slowly tighten it until they don't fall down anymore, then back off a couple degrees. You'll want them to be slightly snug but still move freely at this point.
  
• Put a tiny bit of anti seize on your ball joints and the thicker smooth parts of the pinch bolt. If you've owned an older audi you know how much of a nightmare seized pinch bolts can be.
  
  
• Torque the pinch bolt down to 30 ft/lbs
  
  
• jack up the steering knuckle from the bottom. Jack slowly until you see the car start to move off of the jack stand. That's when you know your suspension is compressed to ride height. Then torque the control arm to chassis bolts to 40 ft/lbs plus a quarter turn.
  
  
• Your all done. Torque your wheels to 104 ft/lbs and enjoy the steering response of having fresh control arm bushings.

[Whycantidrive]

Nice man. Thanks for this.

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[eclipse1]

Thanks for posting this. I have an A4 B8. Been having some serious clunking noise coming from the front suspension anytime I steer or brake or go over bumps. Not sure if I need to replace the entire front (lower, upper) with the kit. It's an expensive kit (>$700 parts only). I was thinking of replacing all the bushing but that will be a challenging task too. I can possibly take it to a shop and have them switch out the bushings.. just looking for suggestions and options.

Thank you.

[Gunnarrrrr]

Thanks for posting this. I have an A4 B8. Been having some serious clunking noise coming from the front suspension anytime I steer or brake or go over bumps. Not sure if I need to replace the entire front (lower, upper) with the kit. It's an expensive kit (>$700 parts only). I was thinking of replacing all the bushing but that will be a challenging task too. I can possibly take it to a shop and have them switch out the bushings.. just looking for suggestions and options.

Thank you.

your local machine shop will be happy to replace your bushings for you for a small fee. Even if you have to give them $50-100 to press 4 bushings out you’re still saving a lot of money.

I’d start with just the four upper bushings. The next would be front control arm links. I managed to get a new oem pair for about $40. bushings aren’t sold separately for those. I did my 4 upper bushings and two front sway links and all of my clunks went away and the suspension feels brand new again. It’s unlikely you’ll need to replace lower control arm bushings, they’re a lot more durable. The upper ones get beat on the hardest.

If you do your pressing yourself, it’s extremely easy, and if you go with a harbor freight press, you’re looking at about $200 in tooling including the press cups. Worth it imo, it’ll come in handy if you have to press out wheel bearings or do other bushings in the future. Just don’t get one of those $100 bench top presses, you need a lot more than the 4” or so of working range that those give you. get one of the standing H-frame ones.

Also, I would avoid the aftermarket full arm replacement kits. Something just feels better about retaining the 100% OEM arms with fresh OEM bushings. The quality just isn’t there with the aftermarket arms, I’d be hesitant to attempt to press in oem bushings into those in the future.


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[eclipse1]

Thanks for the reply. So I have the upper control arms removed. The bushings look beat up. Cracks in them. I was looking at the ball joint of the upper control arm and it doesn't look that great. They move without much stress but feels to be sorta dry and not much grease in them. I don't think there's any way to add grease in them.. How was yours? I'm thinking it'd be better to replace the entire control arm since I can't lube or replace the ball joint.
Thoughts? I found some Moog for better price than the others available.

[Gunnarrrrr]

totally your call. Mine seemed fine at 50k miles. the ball joints are designed to last a lot longer than the bushings.


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[eclipse1]

One pinch bolt came out without a major PITA but the other one got stripped!
I was really hoping I won't have to deal with the dreaded pinch bolt but here I am!