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Upper control arms (and possibly other bushings) replacement
I am preparing to replace my upper control arms soon. I was hearing pops during acceleration and braking for a while which became more frequent recently. As far as I could see, my upper control arm bushings are torn. Rest of the stuff looks ok from the limited views I had but you never know.
During my research I found lots of material on b8's but none on B9. I have access to the manual but would like to hear from anyone with real world experience.
I know I have to pre tension the bushings before torquing to spec and the pinch bolts are notoriously hard to remove in the b8's. If anyone has experience on the b9 I would be grateful to hear any advice they could give, do's and don'ts and what to look for.
I'd like to bump this thread with the following additional context:
Moog offers an upper-front forward control arm (p/n RK623641), for around $39 USD. They state that there are two required, however Audi's parts website states that the front forward upper control arms are different between the right and left sides (Front right: 8W0407506C and Front left: 8W0407505C).
Is there any difference between the two parts? I'm guessing it's possibly related to the direction they curve, it's strange that MOOG states their control arm works on both sides, but I don't want to do this control arm replacement job only to find out they don't work.
I'm going to buy the bushings separately just in case the parts are different, then at the very least I can press out the olds and keep the OEM control arms, since the ball joints are good.
For B8, Moog lists four unique front axle upper control arms, as expected.
It could well be for B9, they elected to not make a direct clone of the 505C/506C arms and instead make a symmetric arm suitable for both sides. Odd that they don't seem to have a 509B arm or 510B arm at all. But I suspect an actual Audi OE 505C and 506C would not be identical. Meyle on the other hand, does have a unique catalog entry for all four arms.
I would assume if Moog says they work on both sides, they should. I agree with SMac770 comment, Germans are known to over engineer their cars. In this case it could have been possible for Audi to design identical upper front arms but they simply did not. On the other hand, the multilink has a comlex geometry. With identical arm designs, there could have been possibility of interferance at extreme steering angles under certain load scenarios and Audi did not took the chance.
Here is a picture of my lemförder 505E and 506E side by side.
I've seen many videos of people having to use heat to remove the pinch bolts which in turn destroys the ball joint rubber boots. Should you have to heat yours to remove, you would need new ball joints anyway.
Apparently the noise was not due to worn upper arms but loose wheel bolts. I posted another thread about it here.
I think I will keep the arms anyway since the inner bushings are visibility torn and will need replacement eventually.
Those will probably start to squeak soon. You will hear it as the suspension goes up and down. Shortly after the squeaking starts the suspension will loosen up and your tires will start to wear unevenly. If you were a teenager on a tight budget I would tell you to wait until it squeaks but since you already have the parts I would recommend replacing those arms now. It will save you prematurely wearing out your tires.
Those will probably start to squeak soon. You will hear it as the suspension goes up and down. Shortly after the squeaking starts the suspension will loosen up and your tires will start to wear unevenly. If you were a teenager on a tight budget I would tell you to wait until it squeaks but since you already have the parts I would recommend replacing those arms now. It will save you prematurely wearing out your tires.
Thanks for the advice, the car is due for inspection early next year, will probably get this done then.
Update: I'm replacing my control arms right now, the MOOG simple are differently shaped, the front upper front have different curves if it's a left or right control arm.
I ended up buying suspensia, which appear to be decent quality.
Update:
It took me 4 hours to replace all 4 upper control arms (two each side), it was a pain to torque because of the inability to put a torque wrench in there with the strut tower in the way. I ended up torquing the bolt as hard as I could.
I still have the annoying clicking noise, I feel that it might be the struts or strut tower bearing itself.
Last edited by SpeedyTheSnail; 01-16-2023 at 05:21 PM.
Update: I'm replacing my control arms right now, the MOOG simple are differently shaped, the front upper front have different curves if it's a left or right control arm.
I ended up buying suspensia, which appear to be decent quality.
Update:
It took me 4 hours to replace all 4 upper control arms (two each side), it was a pain to torque because of the inability to put a torque wrench in there with the strut tower in the way. I ended up torquing the bolt as hard as I could.
I still have the annoying clicking noise, I feel that it might be the struts or strut tower bearing itself.
I have this exact same issue on my B9 could you recommend any videos or manuals I could use??
12-11-2022, 03:35 AM
Upper control arms (and possibly other bushings) replacement
