[s-cars] Strut Replacement Discomfort

[Calvin Craig]

Brian,

I am going off memory some time ago from replacing control arms on a 200,
but I believe that the sway bar ends are what locates the strut housings in
the proper place.  I think I remember having to use a come-along to get the
sway bar ends back through the bushings - lots of force, but this is
probably 8-9 years ago at this point.

--Calvin

-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of Brian Pleet
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 7:55 PM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] Strut Replacement Discomfort



After 250k km and 15 years I decided to replace the front strut
cartridges on my stock 1995.5 S6 because one wheel bearing had gone
bad anyway.

The strut kit and bearings came from Blauparts. I dropped the strut
assembly leaving the control arm and ball joint in place and gave
them to the local Audi/VW shop. It took them 3 hours to disassemble
and reassemble, because they said the caps holding the strut were fused.

Put it all together and the sway bar was 2-3 inches away (behind)
from the sway bar mounts and the wheels on both sides were touching
the back of the wheel wells. I asked the shop and was told there was
"no way" they could be put back together incorrectly.

So I put it back together again, this time, securing one side, then
the other of the sway bar, pulling the sway bar forward (with a
crowbar) to secure the 4 nuts once weight was on the wheels. The car
drives OK, but the steering wheel is not centered and I'm nervous
that forcing the sway bar back is putting stress on the struts.

Help!


----------
E-mail:bpleet at telusplanet.net


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