Front upper control arms

[Veeb2k]

Can the front upper control arms be changed in situ? Or is it a strut out job?
Sports suspension if it makes any difference.

My front right has been knocking under braking recently and vibrating like out of balance, originally thought it may be pads moving or lost wheel weight - however today grabbed the front wheel and it rocks back and forth with same clunking - appears to be movement at the top, hence assuming upper control arms.

Cheers!
G.

[Crasher]

The bolts were moved around which made the job possible but setting them up can be tricky so that you don’t rip the bushes out, the bolts must be replaced and tightened up with the car at ride height or to a measured specification on the bench, the worst part is getting the steel ball joints out of the hub carrier without destroying it.

[Veeb2k]

Found a video, think it may be better to remove strut for the benefit of the skin on my knuckles! 🤣
Measured spec on bench - if new ones put back at same angle as old ones taken off, does that suffice?

Cheers!

[rhencullen1989]

I did my A4 ones by removing the whole strut. Just take some measurements from a fixed point. Use new nuts and bolts and torque up correctly. Don’t bother with the eBay specials, you will be doing the job again in a years time. Llemforder, Moog, genuine, Mayle HD are a few to go for. Oh forgot to say, the long clamp bolt will need copious amounts of vulgar swear words to remove it. My lad learnt at least 3 new swear words when I did mine.

[Crasher]

That top bolt became a problem in 1994 with the first A4 type 8D and it’s iron carrier but there was a special tool made by KLANN and sold by VAG to get the bolt out which cost around £1k. When the 8E came along the carrier was made from aluminium and the bolt fitted from the front so a new tool was required which was only available from KLANN but it often didn’t work much like the previous design and it ruined itself and the bolt head. When the 8K it became a disaster but that is another story. With the iron carrier you could use the gas axe to heat up the area and eventually the bolt would spin, for reassembly a long 10mm dill made a good job of cleaning the bore and that the arm ball joints were destroyed was of no concern. With aluminium the heating becomes dangerous as the material will change its state without you being able to see it so a oxy torch flame is unstable so we use a 2kw induction heater to gently repeatedly heat and cool using lots of Wurth Rost Off Ice and after about half an hour the bolt will begin to move. Obviously a new bolt is vital.

[rhencullen1989]

Would it not have saved many hours of cursing if the design engineers in Germany put tapered ball joints in the top 2 arms as well, like the bottom ones. I need to do my A4 cab ones soon and am dreading it. Will probably drill them out if they are too seized by making up some drill bushes and using long series ratio drills.

[Crasher]

I would go with slowly applied induction heat, drilling these is risky, can you accurately drill 100mm from end to end by eye and hand without wandering off course?