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What follows is a quick 'how to' guide for removing these. Hopefully it helps someone else along the way.
In principle this job is pretty straight-forward but with 17yrs of road grime an crusty bolts you need to be prepared for a bit of a fight... Using the attached PDF as a reference to which bolts - I didnt bother with photos so far.
Prior to doing this job I had been judiciously spraying WD40 at all the bolts I could see for a few days. Glad I did... You cannot remove the upper wishbone in-site - the whole rear strut/damper & spring assembly has to be removed.
1. Jack up the rear and onto stands... Best tip here is to NOT use a stand under the lower wishbone mounting point as this restricts you later - I found that out the hard way. Use the rear subframe mount for your axle stand(s).
2. Buzz of the wheel nuts
3. Remove bolt #18 where the upper wishbone meets the control arm.
4. Remove bolt #16 where the bottom of damper attaches to lower wishbone. I had lots of corrosion here, but got lucky with good tigh sockets and a swing bar.
5. Remove 4 x bolts #13 that secure the strut assembly to the body... I used a buzz gun for this - and it was good.
6. Now leveraging down on the lower wishbone and with a pry bar you can tease the damper out of its tight location. Continue to pivot the whole assembly down towards the centre of the car... Until you have enough clearance to remove the whole thing from the wheel arch.
7. WIth the assembly on the floor or bench you can attack the bolt #17 that connects the upper wishbone to the strut. I found these to be stupidly tight and crusty... Also - the nuts and bolts had squeezed into the rubber bush giving very little metal to grip on. I had to cut out some rubber before I could just hammer on a 17 or 18mm socket. A big swing bar and some controlled agression had them off without too much stress.
That was all plain saling until my parts shipment arrived... Our Ben @ Coventry TPS did a great job as ever, but I soon realised that I had a massive brain fahrt when ordering new wishbones (couldnt be bovvered to fight with bush removal). I also forgot the big new bolts
So here is the scoop - if you have the earliest B4Q setup with cast wishbones - before 8C-P-250 000 then you need TWO of 8A0 505 323A and TWO of N102 194 01 bolts.
If you have the later setup with a pressed upper wishbone (from 8C-P-250 001 onwards) then these are sided parts which are in common with B5 - 8D0 505 323B and 324B. These need a MUCH longer bolt N 102 655 01 on each side.
Make sure and renew bolts #13, #16 and #18... And also get 3-off nuts #15 for each side. Also don't forget that washer #19 as it looks pretty gnarly after big mileage.
I'm going to fit these pressed one onto my B4Q sedan and get the Powerflex bushes into the cast bones when they come available.
Chance of me getting thru an MOT this week look slim now - but its my own stupid fault for leaving this too close to the wire. Oh well.
Cheers,
Paul
In principle this job is pretty straight-forward but with 17yrs of road grime an crusty bolts you need to be prepared for a bit of a fight... Using the attached PDF as a reference to which bolts - I didnt bother with photos so far.
Prior to doing this job I had been judiciously spraying WD40 at all the bolts I could see for a few days. Glad I did... You cannot remove the upper wishbone in-site - the whole rear strut/damper & spring assembly has to be removed.
1. Jack up the rear and onto stands... Best tip here is to NOT use a stand under the lower wishbone mounting point as this restricts you later - I found that out the hard way. Use the rear subframe mount for your axle stand(s).
2. Buzz of the wheel nuts
3. Remove bolt #18 where the upper wishbone meets the control arm.
4. Remove bolt #16 where the bottom of damper attaches to lower wishbone. I had lots of corrosion here, but got lucky with good tigh sockets and a swing bar.
5. Remove 4 x bolts #13 that secure the strut assembly to the body... I used a buzz gun for this - and it was good.
6. Now leveraging down on the lower wishbone and with a pry bar you can tease the damper out of its tight location. Continue to pivot the whole assembly down towards the centre of the car... Until you have enough clearance to remove the whole thing from the wheel arch.
7. WIth the assembly on the floor or bench you can attack the bolt #17 that connects the upper wishbone to the strut. I found these to be stupidly tight and crusty... Also - the nuts and bolts had squeezed into the rubber bush giving very little metal to grip on. I had to cut out some rubber before I could just hammer on a 17 or 18mm socket. A big swing bar and some controlled agression had them off without too much stress.
That was all plain saling until my parts shipment arrived... Our Ben @ Coventry TPS did a great job as ever, but I soon realised that I had a massive brain fahrt when ordering new wishbones (couldnt be bovvered to fight with bush removal). I also forgot the big new bolts
So here is the scoop - if you have the earliest B4Q setup with cast wishbones - before 8C-P-250 000 then you need TWO of 8A0 505 323A and TWO of N102 194 01 bolts.
If you have the later setup with a pressed upper wishbone (from 8C-P-250 001 onwards) then these are sided parts which are in common with B5 - 8D0 505 323B and 324B. These need a MUCH longer bolt N 102 655 01 on each side.
Make sure and renew bolts #13, #16 and #18... And also get 3-off nuts #15 for each side. Also don't forget that washer #19 as it looks pretty gnarly after big mileage.
I'm going to fit these pressed one onto my B4Q sedan and get the Powerflex bushes into the cast bones when they come available.
Chance of me getting thru an MOT this week look slim now - but its my own stupid fault for leaving this too close to the wire. Oh well.
Cheers,
Paul
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