Believe I need to replace my control arms/Driver side. Hit a curb a few weeks ago and the wheels looks moved back abit, more so than the other/passenger side. Looked and the arms and couldn't tell by the arms though... How hard is it to replace these arms? More concerned about seperating the ball joint than anything. Any special tools needed? other than a typical ball joint separator.

Also should I replace all the pieces that generally gets replaced... i.ethe parts that's included in ECS's kit.. Can't really tell which arm is bent actually. The car still drives straight.

Thanks.

 

i don't get what you mean by moved back... because if it was moved back it would be both lower control arms are bent, or you could have bent the subframe, but that is pretty freak'n strong, so without seeing it, it is hard to say.

 

oh yeah, the "hard" part of the question, the car is pretty modular, so you could remove the entire front left or right side fairly easily and not have to work under the car or in hard tomaneuver positions, but that is up to you...

[IMG]local://upfiles/32728/1A55353F625548038728AA169D7F0F96.jpg[/IMG]

 

From the end of the front bumper to the front of the wheel, that gap is bigger than on the other side... Also, from a dead stop, when I crank the wheel all the way to the left and slowly move there's a strange noise from the passenger side??? Sounds like the wheels not moving and rubing on the pavement.

Other than that the car drives straight... no noticible pull either direction on highway/street speeds.

 

I'm guessing that you either... (more likely) blew out the rubber bushing in the lower control arms... or (less likely) bent the subframe, but then again the subframe is only 1/8 inch mild steel, so anything is possible.

 

i am in the same spot right now same thing wrong with my car except i didnt hit the curb. i am a member of ondemand.com so i looked it up to see the process and there is a step that involves putting part of the strut in a vice when i read this i started to question things so imjust as curious as you but if you need torque specs or anything like that let me know ondemand5 has almost everything for S4's

 

If you replace that whole side I would say it has always been easier for me to remove the entire strut. If I remember correctly you can do the lowers without taking the strut out or the CV bolt. But I could be wrong.

 

Hopefully, you didn't bend the mounting points!

YOU NEED to do both sides! Get the kit & make sure it's the S4 kit & not the A4 one, the A4 is much softer rubber & will fail quickly with the very front heavy S4.

It's not hard, the pinch bolt for the upper arms seams to be the problem child.

 

So a ball joint seperator tool should be fine getting the lower arms off the knuckle?
Any suggestion on control arm kits besides the ECS's kit?

 

you can use the ball joint seperator but make sure you dont tear the boots on the ball joints because i did when i used it. My method that i like better consits ofscrewing the nut flush with the end of the threads on the ball joint and carefully taking a few precise hits with a big enough hammer to the nut and knocking it loose. The nut prevents the threads from being damaged by the hammer. It works good and lets take some stress out =).