Originally Posted by Zwoobah

1. jack up car, remove wheels
2. place jack under front control arm, and raise it to relieve the tension on the spring.
3. remove center nut on top of upper strut mount, which holds the shock shaft. remove 3 17mm inner nuts which hold the upper strut mount to the lower mount (the outer 3 13mm nuts do not get removed). gently lower jack, allowing spring to fully extend
4. use a big-*** pipe wrench or the audi special tool to remove the nut holding the shock inside the strut. remove upper strut mount, metal cap below upper strut mount (on shock shaft), and shock (with the nut that holds it in)
5. use two spring compressors to compress the spring as much as possible. now, the strut and spring will hang down *just* enough that you can get your fingers up in there, and manipulate the lower strut mount to get the bearing out from below. remove bearing, noting that the little "tab" that indicates the direction it should be mounted is closest to the engine bay
6. slip the new bearings in place. make sure to get the semicicrular relief cutouts properly aligned so that they match up with the studs that hold the upper mount in place (this will be pretty clear when you do it, a little hard to imagine though)
7. remove spring compressors, making sure the bearing stays properly located and that the spring is located correctly under the upper mount
8. place jack under control arm, raise until strut is vertical under top opening, so you can install the new shocks. install shocks, and metal cap on top of shock shaft, and slide the big strut cap nut down the shaft so you can tighten it later.
9. install new upper strut mounts. put the 17mm nuts on the 3 studs first, then tighten the center 22mm nut, then re-tighten the 3 17mm. attempt to get camber settings similar to old settings when you tighten these bolts.
10. lower jack, allowing the spring to extend again. use big-*** pipe wrench through the spring coils to tighten the strut cap nut. reinstall the rubber dust boot over the lower plastic lip that holds it. check that everything is aligned. reinstall plastic dust caps in engine bay. done.