Whitesands

Will the shocker/spring drop through the upper control arm on a S4, will the lower arm drop low enough to give clearance. Can't find an answer using search.
Thanks.

Rob Edwards

If you

1. Remove the brake caliper and rotor,
2. Remove the lower shock through bolt completely,
3. Completely undo the lower control arm front and rear (all four big M12 bolts)
4. Grab the lower control arm and rotate it towards the front of the car completely out of the way (at least 120-140 degrees), then
5. Lift it, the front hub/spindle assembly, and the upper control arm so the latter is horizontal, then

6. Yes.

You may have to 'unscrew' the spring to get it to drop out of the space, but it'll come out. Also need to lift the whole thing back to horizontal when putting the new shock/spring assembly back in. Don't worry about aligning the lower shock thru hole before putting it back in- get the assembly in the car with a nut or two on the top shock mount, then get a pry bar or long screwdriver and you can rotate the shock body so the lower bolt hole is pointed in the fore-aft direction.

oups59

Here you go :

http://members.rennlist.com/v1uhoh/lowera.htm

Adk46

In my one experience at this, while in the process of new motor mounts, I omitted Rob's step 1 and 4. I struggled getting the strut thorough the upper arm until I recognized the importance his step 5. Every mm counts.

I had other things unhooked at the time, so that might have made a difference. I believe the WSM procedure is to unbolt the upper arm, but it seems most folks are put off by the inconvenient location of the nuts in the engine bay.

If you contemplate adjusting your ride height, there are some special steps to take. Get a new adjustor barrel and inner ring, probably - the old ones will likely be seized up. Even with new sets, you may need to supplement the simple friction of the inner ring on the strut nubs - Dr. Bob recommends some JB Weld.

Rob Edwards

Ugh, how could I forget Tony's photo instructions? That's the standard by which all shocks should be changed!

Just note that he didn't (and you don't) have to touch the camber and caster adjusters, the whole control arm/spindle assembly will rotate out of the way on the upper ball joint.

Some folks (Dr Bob, for example) have managed to pull the wheelwell liner, remove the lower bolt, tilt the shock rearward, and sort of tilt it out the top of the upper control arm. I have not been successful with that on either car I tried it on.

jheis

Tried the "Dr. Bob method" when installing new Bilsteins on my '89 recently. Thought it was worth a try - but there's no effing way the assembly was coming out the top. Not even close....

soontobered84

I don't remove the brake caliper, but everything else fits what I do. Especially #5

StratfordShark

On my 1991 S4 I found the critical thing for clearance (after dropping control arm as others have said, though it was undone for new mounts) was jacking the upper arm so that it was horizontal. This is especially critical on reassembling so that the spring "sees" the biggest possible opening in the upper arm to go through. I had new springs so didn't want to scraper them by "screwing" the shock upwards!

I also tried the method removing wheel well liner and it didn't work for me. Would have saved a lot of fussing around but not to be on an S4 anyway.

Whitesands

Thanks for all the answers guys, probably tackle it this week.

Whitesands

One more question, once I've got the unit out, what's the procedure for removing the spring, I know I'll need to clamp the spring etc.
Thanks.

Rob Edwards

You need to compress the spring and _then_ remove the top nut from the shock piston- some times the nut will spin off with an impact wrench but usually one has to counterhold the shock shaft on its flats (~8mm?) while undoing the 19mm nut...) Then lift off the upper shock mount, remove the compressed spring and then loosen the spring compressors. Then swap them to the new spring, compress it, place it over the new shock assembly, assemble the washer/foam snubber/boot/shock mount, install the top nut, then undo the spring compressors. Kind of a PITA, and kind of nerve-wrackingly dangerous.

If you can find a shop that would do it for $10-20 per corner, it might be worth it to not have to deal with it.

I bought one of these a couple of years ago, about $180 and worth every penny to not feel like I'm about to take a spring in the temple the whole time I'm working on the shocks.

dr bob

Rob's compressor has served more than a few projects in my garage too. Faster and safer than the bolt clamps.

I stand by my method on taking the wheelhouse liners out on my car. The adjusters were/are cranked up to maintain front ride height, I suspect that's the difference. Didn't work on other cars so well, including a couple 86.5's or other S4's that were sagged low. For those the LCA's came loose.

Whitesands

Using the info above I removed the passenger side shocker today, I don't know who did the "How to", (1uhoh?) that oups59 posted, thanks who ever it was.

Was not as daunting as I feared, I had to drill out one of the small screws that hold the disk on, the only other problem I had, the Craftsmen 10mm Allen socket failed when trying to remove the caliper , I had a set of Harbour Freight Pittsburgh long reach Allen sockets but didn't hold much chance of these moving the bolts but to my surprise they did.

Thanks again everyone.

Rob Edwards

Muy excellente.

dr bob

For those playing along, it's vitally important that you support the caliper rather than let it dangle by the brake hose. Removing the shock and spring assembly also eliminates some really handy places to hang the caliper.

Those screws that hold the disk to the hat deserve an impact screwdriver for removal. The screws are cheap to replace when you do projects like this, and deserve a liberal dose of anti-sieze on the threads and the taper/countersink area to help with future removal. Think in the 3-4 lbs/ft rage for tightening torque too -- they just need to keep the rotor from separating from the hat when changing a wheel.

Clean and paint the rotor hat while it's all apart. Mine are now Duplicolor "wheel silver" to match the wheels, much easier to keep clean. Particularly important with open-spoke wheels since they are now "on display" along with the calipers and the rest of the suspension bits. I dosed the edges of the rotors with instant spray galvanize, including the cooling fins. No more rust there!