Having finished with the driver side front corner yesterday I started out today’s effort by taking care of some house cleaning in preparation for rotating the car. I’m moving on to the passenger side front wheel-well and the position the car was in was not conducive to working on that corner.
Clean up and rotate
After straightening up I swung the front around (on the dollies) to give myself some work space around the passenger side.
Passenger wheel-well work
The rear lower control arm ball joint was quite troublesome, but eventually I got it loose.
Tomorrow I’ll finish removing the lower control arms and set to work installing all the new parts.
While I am waiting on some additional parts to be able to commence installing the K04 turbochargers on this S4 I have been directing my efforts at refreshing and upgrading the suspension and brake components. The past couple of days I’ve been working in the driver side front wheelwell.
Today I wrapped up a bunch of parts swaps.
Audi B5 S4 Suspension and Brake Upgrades
Starting at the bottom and working the lines counter-clockwise we have:
Both lower control arms (balljoint on the front was a blast trying to get out.)
Swaybar end link
Brake rotor
Vogtland Coilover (Had to visit Autozone to borrow a spring compressor)
Brake pads
034 brake line
Tie rod end (Surprisingly pesky putting the new one in)
Upper control arms (Neither went in willingly)
Audi B5 S4 Slotted Brake Rotor
The turbochargers have arrived. I was mistaken about them being Genuine BorgWarner, they are a K04 rebuild from Midwest Turbo Connection.
Midwest Turbo Connection B5 S4 K04
Next up will be to check and set the preload on the wastegates to 8 psi so I can take a short break from the suspension and brake work.
With the new flywheel and clutch installed I reattached the transmission.
Audi B5 S4 Dual Mass FlywheelAudi B5 RS4 Pressure PlateTransmission Reinstall
I am waiting on the BW K04’s to arrive so I can start reattaching the various turbo lines, so I turned my attention to the front end and the brakes and suspension upgrades.
Suspension and Brake Work
Removing the front lower control arm was quite the challenge. The ball joint remover alone was not getting anywhere, the gear puller was not either, so I combined applying the ball joint tool with a pair of hammers to hit both sides of the lower upright simultaneously.
Lower Control Arm replacements
That did the trick, freeing the pesky ball joint.
The rest of the nuts and bolts have taken some torque to loosen, but so far I haven’t had any others that required taking unusual steps to free up.
