200q20v suspension = 1, me = 0

[Ken Keith]

Man what a pain.  Changing springs in a 200q20v sure ain't as easy as
in a Coupe GT.  I wasn't able to get it done and had to put it all
back together.  The sticking point was getting the ball joints out of
the strut housing, fighting the sway bar pressure (and losing).

A call to my Audi tech friend confirmed that there's no shortcut to
simply being able to apply leverage against the control arm/sway bar
to push it down and out of the strut housing.  He said it's a two man
job on a lift, with a beefy 6" pipe for leverage.  I probably could
have gotten it out, but I doubt I would not have been able to get it
back in again by myself.  I only had the car on jack stands and I
think even with a long bar I might not have enough room for downward
travel to get it done.

I thought by undoing the front sway bar brackets it would let it drop
enough for the ball joints to come out, but no dice.  I'm wondering if
I would have dropped the whole subframe if that would have helped
anything.  I'm much more of a fan of releasing the stored energy in a
controlled fashion than trying to use force to overcome it.  But maybe
that's just how it's supposed to be done?

I spent most of the day beating up my hands on it, and the only real
thing I got done was replaced the noisy squawking starter.  I'm
starting to see the value in paying to have someone else work on my
car, and free up my day for more productive and less frustrating
things.  If indeed I have to have a shop do it, at least in this case
I know it's worth it.

Has anyone done their own spring install, and is there a trick or
special method to getting it done?  If there's a way to DIY, I'm
willing to give it another shot, but otherwise I'm going to have to
pay to have someone else do it.

Thanks,

Ken