Its not a simple ball joint replacement. The bushings will deteriorate before any metal ball joints. Youd have to remove the arms to press them out/in and I dont even think replacement joints/bushings are sold for replacement. Easier to just remove and replace the whole unit.

 

I don't have a link... but I did read it somewhere, and I definitely have heard about Meyle's reputation locally.
The febi bilstein kit was cheaper anyways. clconversion is an Audi parts guy here in Ontario... and he can get the Febi kits at a great price. Even with shipping and everything, it might be worth it for you to talk to him.

And you can get the balljoints out of the hub assembly thing easily enough with a punch and a hammer... same goes for the uppers... but yeah, its the devil bolt that will cause the most trouble. Mine had to be drilled out the first time... (when I did my coilovers) -- that thread was actually revived a few days ago!
When putting the new bolt in... slather it in anti-seize compound to save yourself a nightmare if you ever need to take it apart again.

 

i have replaced all my control arms and both tie-rod ends.....

when i got my A4 (5 years ago) ALL the OEM control arms and tie-rod ends were totaled!! i got Meyle's becuase of the price and havnt had any problems with them at all, and ive had them on for 5 years!!

if you live in the US then DEFENTLY buy your tie-rod ends from O'rilyes!! their only $52.00 eachwith a life time warranty!! O'rileys FTW defently, im very impressed with rilyes, they always have my part instock (if not, they get it for me within 3-4 hours) and beat auto zone, pepboys and advance auto parts with their price's by miles!!

like others have said, you will need thatone off18mm spanner. you might want a long steel pipe or something simalar to use for leaverage and a couple of cansof WD40.



i can do the tie-rod ends withing 10 minutes, their realy easy to do. just remember to count the threads on the old tie-rod end before taking it off and put the nut to the same amount of threads to the new tie-rod end, and make sure your stearing is inline before putting that new one on.

the lower control arms are pretty easy to do. the hardest part about them is getting that bolt out from the lower rear control arm.

sway bar links are also realy easy.

the upper control arms are the worst!! Audi dosnt give us much room to get that top bolt out holding the upper control arms inplace, just be carefull not to bend it, thats what happend to me. that bolt is 'THE BITCH', fact lol.
I found that if you drop your suspension/strut, by taking the 3 (maybe 2) bolts out under the bonnerwhich holds the strut up, it will be much easier to work on those upper arms.

you WILL need a hammer to knock those arms and tie-rod ends out of their knuckles!

hope this helps.

 

Hey thanks guys. I am going to order my control arm and tre kit tomorrow. I am going to be doing it myself. I will let you know how it goes.

Josh

 

There are some tricks to save you time

1st lower front rear control arm. Do not losen the subfame bolt. Get some pb blaster and soak. Take 2 18mm wrenchs and remove the nut. Get the bolt as far out as you can to the point where it is touching the body of the Car. Take out the ball 18mm wrench few tapes with a hammer on the spindle and its loose. Then angle the arm and remove it if the bracket bends ok it will move back. Angle the new arm in and tighten eevrything up.

The upper arms are bit of a pain. Get a new pinch bolt. Remove the pinch bolt. Take the upper 3 strut mount bolts let everything slide forward remove the rear arm bolts and your good to go. This is my method that i use on a daily basis. Any better ideas let me know I love to save time

 

Ah, just treat it as a learning experience, take your time and do things right and all will be well. It is just one more way to learn a tid bit more about your car. Best of luck!

 

I replaced all my control arm with Meyle's about 40k-50k miles ago. The upper front control arm on both sides went within about 30k miles. They begin to squeek and if you dont get some lub in the joint they go within 2 weeks. They may have fixed their design though. They rest of the arms are fine every joint is tight last time I checked.

 

Make sure you get an alignment after completing this job.

 

I still haven't gotten one... I might need to replace my power steering boot, so it'd warrant another alignment...
I don't know how critical the alignment is after this job... the only adjustment we have on our cars is at the tie rod, and you don't touch that when you do this job. I'll get one eventually after everything, just for kicks... but I bet it doesn't need one. The car tracks straight as an arrow, so we'll see what happens.
Last time, when I did my coilovers, I brought it in for an alignment afterwards (had the upper arms off, obviously), and they said it was fine... they hardly made any adjustment at all.

 

if you are doing new tie-rod ends then you will need an alignment.
you dont need an alignment if you place, take off, or mess around with your control arms.
trust me though, once you replace those tie-rod ends, dosnt matter how close of a match you can get those threads, you will be going through tires like no tomorrow. i went through 3 tires becuase of bad tie-rod ends and not getting it aligned. i was rotating my tires constantly!

like ive said above, BEFORE you lossen your old tie-rod end, count the threads to the nut!!!!!! then put the nut to the same number of threads on the new tie-rod end, but you WILL still need an alignment.
if you count threads and put the nut in the right place you might get a month untill your tires wear down too much on one side and start to pull you.
once you get an alignment, swap the left tire with the right. doing this will level/balance out your tread again (eventualy).