I recently found out my front suspension was a little, uh, broken and is in need of new A-arms, tie rod ends, lower ball joints, etc.

Has anyone attempted this as a DIY project? The shop I talked to quoted around 8 hours of labor on the job (I think, it was a while ago. I've been out of town).

If it is more pain then gain, I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet and pay to have it done, I thought I'd just check first.

Thank you,
Jason

 

Pretty easy, bolt in stuff - if you're comfortable wrenching and have some reasonably heavy duty tools. An alignment would be a must. Time required depends on how much will be replaced, but 8 hrs would be generous.

 

Thanks for the reply!

Would a four point lift be required, or would jackstands work? I have plenty of those...

At my house we have air tools, normal tools, skinny tools, fat tools... so I'm sure we'll be fine .

When I did a search, it seemed that I'd need to unbolt some other stuff... would I also need to unhose that stuff or is there plenty of room?

Saving the million dollars the dealer quoted me would be awesome!

-Jason

 

The top A arm bolts inside the engine bay can be a bear to get at to undo. The rest is easy as long as you have a good ball joint separator tool (see other threads on what and where). Remove the caliper, and suspend on a wire so you dont have to disturb brake hoses. Get the wheels looking close to aligned (at the bottom ball joint adjuster, and toe at the tie rod) before doing any driving.
jp 83 EUro S AT 48k, mostly BTDT.

 

Jason, I'll shoot you if you take that job to a shop. I just replaced all that stuff after a "ahem" mishap up in the hills. Like Jpit said the upper arms are tough but if you have skinny arms your golden. I needed my wife to put the nuts back on after replacing. You'll see how tight that area is and I'm a fat bastard so that didn't help.

First, pop the tierods, unbolt lower shock bolt, and lower ball joints. The popping is self explanatory.
Second, not necessary in this order. Change tierods, Change lower Bjoints.
Third, Get yourself some rachet wrenches. If you look down in the engine compartment by the wheel well you will barely see the nuts you have to get at. The left one from on top and the right one from underneath the car.The left one is a little to the right of some crap so it is tough to get at. I didn't have the rachet wrenches at the time but I see it would have helped here. Get a 22mm rachet wrench and go work. You can get a breaker with a socket on there but it is tough and you have to be very careful of the plastic bottle by the passanger fender and that makes it worse (BTDT). The right one you get from underneath. It wasn't tremendously difficult. The hard part is the torque to break the nuts. They are on there 108 lbs at least. Take the arms off put the new ones on and bolt up in order things came off. I figure 4 hrs a side is a good guesstimate maybe even a little less with some knowledge going in. I did mine on jackstands in the garage. Just make sure you on the jack points. Your main nuts and bolts are 22mm 19mm 17mm.

HTH

 

Great, you've got the gear required!
In addition to the good advice from JP & Joe, here are some thoughts from doing the motor mounts, where all the lower suspension is unbolted anyway.
On jack stands, remove tires, suspend calipers, and remove the rotors (less weight helps swing the assembly later). Back the nuts off - but do not remove from both upper & lower balljoint: seperate the joints using the correct tool (if you are so lucky), or a good smack on the faces of the spindle eye using the "two hammer" method. The same applies to the outer tie rod end.
Not forgetting the ABS sensor, the spindle is now out, and the rest practically falls apart - except for those two A-arm nuts Joe loves so much. IIRC, once you are at this point (lower arm off), you can get a better shot at these from below.

 

Jason this would be the ideal time to change shocks if there is any indication that yours are weak. It a job I have done at home in my driveway with limited tools and no air. I wanted to be at the house rather than borrow the lift at 928 INT. Also check the parts yourself they may not be that bad.