whoa, good eyes. i saw the expansion tank cap come up during my search and thought no way. but it must be that.. no idea why it was there but also adds to this current mystery..

 

NP man im actually kinda in the same boat as you. bought a 98 audi a4 2.8 fwd a year and a half ago. have done a lot to it maintenance wise so far. planning on ordering a control arm kit within a week or two to get the entire CA job done. got about 68k miles on mine plus she has lived in southern california her whole life. so hopefully i dont have any seized bolts. sounds like a PITA and some. just finished a facelift headlight conversion a week or two ago and that was easier than i thought. so did you just PB blast the hell out of all the rust and seizing? any and all tips would help me out in my similar endeavor in the near future.

 

I did mine with the same kit from FCP, option 3.

For the Tie-rods, I couldn't get the outer tie rods off as they were rusted solid. So I picked up a short handled crescent wrench that would open 38mm and used it to just take both inner and outer tie-rods together. Worked like a charm.

For the upper control arms, they weren't too difficult. Having them at the right height made it easier to pry out, just play with a jack and you'll see what I mean. I used a number of spruce 2x4s of various length for prying and also so I could deform the wood with the sledge instead of the metal on metal.

I also used a ball separator tool (giant fork thing) and it worked fairly well.

For the lower, wow. I hear you on the front lower control arm. Most guides say to use a 2-3 jaw puller, that did not work at all. I deformed the puller. Then I tried propping the arm up with wood and then hitting the hub carrier via 2x4 and sledge. I spent hours doing this and nothing.

So I changed tactics. I already had the rear lower arm out, which came out fairly easily (the one that pulls down and out). So I unbolted the front lower and took the whole hub carrier with lower arm attached to my work bench. Placed the hub supported by the bench upside-down, took the sledge and one good hit the control arm was out. Second side was a breeze after I figured this out. I should say that upon inspection the front-lower control arm has a more aggressive taper than the other control arms, so if you can't apply force straight up and down, you will never get it out cause it'll just tilt and jam.

Hopefully this helps you out.

 

thanks, flash.. i finally got it out later this afternoon by burning with a torch and cutting it off with a dremel. i ran through about 15 of the 'reinforced' cutting wheels over 2 hours by cutting chunks out of the aluminum surrounding the ball joint. because i'm an idiot and was wearing safety glasses not goggles i had a nice slice of aluminum fly into my right eye which took about an hour to finally get out. eye is still sore. after that ordeal i went back out and with enough of the ball joint housing cut away i literally ripped the ******* arm off of the ball. now i essentially had a metal cork. PB, grinding, hammering, etc for a while and it eventually popped out. i'll take pictures of whats left of the old arm tomorrow... barbaric but i had run out of options.

it was starting to get dark so i installed the new arm and sway bar link without much difficulty - with the ball joint in first i then got it into the housing on the subframe.. it was all about getting it jacked up at the right height. put the strut tower back in, reinstalled the control arms and tie rod end. the rear lower, which is so bad right now, is still installed. put the wheel back on, started the car, crossed my fingers as i pulled out onto the street... the feel of it is miles different even with an old arm still in there. the ABS light comes on and the brakes are flashing... i need to address this after i finish the drivers side tomorrow. i'll also need an alignment.

so yeah, almost done with the drivers side. i'll show you guys some photos tomorrow and keep you updated with the passenger side which i will be filming - hopefully its easier and will help someone out.

thanks

 

make sure to clean your ABS sensors while your down there, if the light just came on aftyer doign the arms its prolly a lose sensor

 

Did you have a pickel fork?

 

Thanks for posting info like this. Incredibly helpful. Question though: I'm new to the B5 coming from the BMW E34 platform. Over there control arms are a common problem too, signified by the "55mph shimmy".

On the B5, will the car also start shaking when the arms/joints near replacement time? Or how do you know when to replace other than a visual inspection?

Thanks in advance.
Ken

 

yes, which is now bent

 

honestly as stuck in there as these things are i can't imagine them failing to the point of falling out while driving. on my car there wasn't any vibration at high speeds but the steering was awful.. felt loose and sloppy. every bump was loud and caused a knocking. coming out of parking lots or driveways creeped me out because the wheels would shift back while hitting the bottom of an incline. i think the control arms could definitely be the culprit of a '55mph shimmy' and it probably would've introduced itself soon had i not decided to take on the replacement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UE3Xp4rPto

 

Indicators other than visual inspection of the control arms would be:
1. Squirrely handling. In my case, driving under 60mph was fine, highway speeds the steering felt loose and changing lanes was a big event. Felt like I was a dingy going over a wave switching lanes.
2. Loud squeaking
3. Other than obvious damaged joints, if there's play when shaking either wheel at 9 and 3 with car off the ground.