W212 Lower Control Arm Replacement DIY questions

[Bellow]

The ARB drop link! The nut at the top on the driver's side. Luckily it's the one that's vaguely accessible with the wheel on. I tightened it pretty hard. No clunks,.

As I type, I'm currently waiting for the car to get an MOT, hoping all goes OK... supposed to drive to Germany and back in a day or two...

I'm asking why it wasn't properly tightened when installed.

 

[TeddyRuxpin]

I don't know, perhaps I'm really weak. I know I hit a pothole recently on that side, and perhaps that didn't help the situation... in fact I'm pretty sure that was it. In any case, it should have been tighter, clearly.

I've since bought an Allen key adaptor for a socket wrench so should be able to tighten it with more force. In fact, I should now be able to torque it correctly next time (the top nut at least), but both wheels would need to be off the ground, with the car on stands.

 

[TeddyRuxpin]

Id get a garage to fit those arms , but good luck if your doing them. I once did a cls ,every arm ,every ball joint . Both top hats and drop links . Never again !!

Yeah, if I can afford it, I will. I suspect it'll be £400 though (4hrs), plus up to £100 for tracking (required in any case), and I need a brake fluid flush and gear box service very soon. I just bought new xenon lights and a bunch of other stuff for the car. Add the cost of these arms and ball joints, and it's all adding up a bit, just before xmas, and I'm a self-employed chap that's been heavily affected by the pandemic (and I don't do credit cards), so I'll have to see. Let's hope the MOT doesn't throw anything up.

I was even thinking of doing the lower arms & ball joints myself, as it looks 'easier' than the larger arm that requires getting the strut out, etc. But it's too cold.

Honestly, the current state of 'knocking' wouldn't be felt by most people, so it's not disastrous, but I enjoy working on my car (within my abilities) and driving my car, and want to keep it in good shape!

 

[Bellow]

I don't know, perhaps I'm really weak. I know I hit a pothole recently on that side, and perhaps that didn't help the situation... in fact I'm pretty sure that was it. In any case, it should have been tighter, clearly.

Yes.
And there are no margins for error when it comes to the control arms.

 

[TeddyRuxpin]

I believe that I now have the right tools to torque things correctly, but I hear you. I would never want to pose a risk to others (or myself/my family)

 

[OneForTheRoad]

I believe that I now have the right tools to torque things correctly, but I hear you. I would never want to pose a risk to others (or myself/my family)

Gotta crack eggs if you want an omelette .

 

[MrGreedy]

Thinking of giving this a go.
Painful re-reading about what @TeddyRuxpin has gone through.
Thinking I need @W1ghty 1600Nm impact driver.
Also thinking about some drive on ramps, which would be customised low profile Laser ramps supported on additional scaffold board plus carpet, and some ratcheting axle stands for the wheel off bits.
Must be mad.

Edit: just pricing this up via Autodoc which has alleged 50%ish of most things, it's around £600 for the 4 corners drop links, front lower front and rear suspension arms, 2x ball joints, 2x bolt sets (adjustable for tracking) and 2x track rod ends.

Getting expensive

 

[MrGreedy]

Cheeky barstewards. Autodoc has gone up over £50 since Monday evening!
Ordering will have to wait!

 

[BlackC55]

Got the bastard loose. Tip: keep the top nut of the link tight, not loose. This means that when you hit the breaker bar/spanner with the hammer, all the force goes into the turning of the nut, rather than the whole thing moving and shaking and absorbing the force.

Feels like I won an Olympic medal. Didn’t even finishing unscrewing it, just came inside to celebrate, caffeinate, and recalibrate my brain.

Will contemplate the control arms too…

I read stuff like this and admire it. This is every day for us 5 days a week for 26 years of spannering and we have to make a profit and be time efficient.

 

[TeddyRuxpin]

I'm sure I must have documented this somewhere on this forum, but I ended up renting a lift at a place just outside the M25 and replaced all the control arms on the front, the ball joints, the ARB drop link on the rear, and the front track rod ends. I have a new phone so don't have pics on my phone of the occasion (it was a while ago).

I'd already done the front ARB drop links (as per this thread) so I re-used them as they were pretty new.

I was lucky that the person that runs the lift service was a mechanic and was at hand to help out with e.g. a heat gun for the track rod ends which weren't coming off, and he also had an impact gun that I could use. I probably couldn't have done it without his help, at least not in a day. @MrGreedy is more accomplished with his mechanic skills than me, though! Plus if you're doing it on your drive and have a second car, there's less time pressure.

It was pretty hellish as it was my 'first time' and I was under pressure to get it done in a day. I did 'enjoy' the experience (in hindsight) and learned so much - certainly I have a different level of skill compared to 4-5 years ago when I started this thread - but on my other W212 I have to be honest that next time I'd take it to @BlackC55 It was just after this I took it to PCS for a gearbox service, actually.

Once you add up the cost of parts + a decent indie fitting, it is not cheap or easy work, it can easily push into the thousands, and you haven't even changed springs and struts or top mounts... or much of the rear suspension at all!

I certainly wouldn't do it without a lift!

 

[Supernoodle]

I've done mine on the drive, S211 but similar I guess. When I did the first side I had a cheap jack which could only raise the car enough to support on stands on the lowest height. As a result I had bugger all clearance under the car to swing a breaker bar. That gave me an excuse to buy a big dealt impact wrench, which was a godsend. I would have struggled without.
For the drop links I found this gadget which worked a treat to allow me to use a breaker outside the wheel arch.

https://amzn.eu/d/8Pocs6b

Before doing the next side I treated myself to a proper jack so that I could raise the car to a height I could use a breaker underneath, but I did still use the impact where possible

 

[MrGreedy]

So the Autodoc prices went down last night to a little bit less than the £594 as shown in my basket above, and this morning they are showing at nearly £800!
The prices are all over the shop. So if you are looking to buy, it obviously pays to pick your timing!

 

[OneForTheRoad]

Log in every day , you get 10p to spend.

 

[MrGreedy]

A W212 front control arm vid has appeared on youtube a few days ago!

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[TeddyRuxpin]

Oooh, will check the video soon.

I found that if you add the stuff in your cart (auto doc) and don't check out and the sale ends, they'll email you a 'forget something?!??!!??!?!' message a good discount even if the 40 or 50% offer has expired?

Yes, it's good to make sure you have the car high enough to be able to get a massive breaker bar or spanner extender (or a pipe!) to get enough torque to break free those 10-15 year old bolts!

I have a 2001 Golf mk4 V5 that I'm probably going to work on (suspension and CV joint/boots) and it doesn't make financial sense to pay someone on such an old car... I expect every bolt to snap! So there'll be a learning curve there as I've never dealt with that before.

Not the weather for any of this, mind...

 

[TeddyRuxpin]

A W212 front control arm vid has appeared on youtube a few days ago!

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I skipped through this with the sound off as I can't listen right now and got PTSD/vietnam flashbacks

For some reason I ended up taking the hub and brake disc off with the control arm still attached on one side - I have no recollection why. Be prepared to adapt the methods I guess!

 

[BlackC55]

I skipped through this with the sound off as I can't listen right now and got PTSD/vietnam flashbacks

For some reason I ended up taking the hub and brake disc off with the control arm still attached on one side - I have no recollection why. Be prepared to adapt the methods I guess!

That is a very long winded way of dong it.

 

[TeddyRuxpin]

Yes, I can't remember why, I didn't do it on the other side. I just remember taking a photo of the disc on the floor and thinking 'I'm out of my depth here...'

Got it all sorted in the end though...

 

[BlackC55]

A W212 front control arm vid has appeared on youtube a few days ago!

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This is also a long winded way of doing it.

 

[TeddyRuxpin]

Aye, I only skimmed but didn't recognise the method in the video - you 'should' be able to just get the strut out of the hub and the control arms/track rod ends will hold the hub while you change each one of them, and it'll give you all the access you need.

I'm sure I've seen other videos of it

I also hope I still have the torque settings for each of the bolts somewhere... I also probably have some videos bookmarked that I can share