B9 rear spring seats

[spartacus 68]

Giving my 2017 Allroad a wash and coat of Collinite and I was cleaning the exhaust tail pipes and noticed the rear coil spring rubber seats are corroding on both sides. These are well documented on B8 platform, but I see B9 is plagued too. The aluminium insert in the rubber bush corrodes and durns to dust If left long enough. There’s a genuine risk if left long enough you could lose the spring too, as the lower bush holds it in situ.

The car is under a 2 year warranty when I bought it (not Audi), but suspect this is classed as wear and tear? I’m spanner handy, and after watching a few videos there seems a couple approaches. Dave Sterl (YouTube) releases the rear shock lower bolt on the the trailing arm, then uses a hydraulic ram to extend the arm down before using spring compressors to compress the coil spring and pop it out.

Other videos, they release the eccentric nut (adjusts camber) on the rear of the trailing arm and the shock bolt. This does look easier, but you need to get alignment done after, although you can mark the current position. To be honest I’d rather not touch the eccentric bolt, but I don’t have a ram. I think you can buy one for around £100. The rubber bushes are just £15 or so each, and Audi charge £300+ to swap out.

I have most of the tools (don’t have a hydraulic ram), and have done this previously on B8 which was a ******. The B9 uses multilink suspension, so different approach. Any thoughts?

 

[spartacus68]

Ignore the 2 year warranty now I've checked, it's a complete waste of time. Just read the small-print from AutoProtect. Car needs to be serviced every 6 months or 6k miles from purchase, whichever is sooner, (car purchased last September and only done 5k miles) or they won't pay out. Company are a joke. Wish I'd read the small print in detail at the time. All it said when I briefly read it - is car had to be serviced in accordance with manufacturer guidelines at VAT registered garage. Actually surprised by their rating on TrustPilot.

 

[Greg B]

I will give you some hints, as I did the job last week. I have quattro too and it is possible to do that with only undoing shock absorber.
I think I know which youtube movie you refer to and had exact same approach. However he did FWD car, so no axles at back , giving lots of extra space for proper big spring compressor. In quattro you will need to use 2 small spring compressors, or something relatively small in size, unless you want to remove axle. Stretching arms down is a must to give you gap big enough to remove and put new spring mounts. I did not have hydraulic ram either. I have used my Audi scissor lift instead. with extra 2x4 stud blocks (photos included).
1. lift the car and put both sides on stands, so no tension on antiroll bar.
2. with hydraulic car jack you can lift just bottom arm as much as you can without lifting car from stand.
3. put spring compressors on spring, and release hydraulic lift
4. shorten spring compressors as much as you can,
5. put scissor lift with wooden blocks between top arm and top shock absorber mount. It is important that top wooden block seats only on shock absorber mount, it should not put any pressure on wheel arch cover. On right hand side, just over wheel arch cover, there is a plastic pipe for adblue or diesel, you want to make sure that you put no pressure on it.

6. extend lift to stretch arms down. Do just as much as you need as this is not very stable structure.

This should give you enough room to remove mounts and put new one back.

PS: Do not wait with replacing these mounts too long. I had mot advisories on one of this mounts for 2 consecutive years, but I thought that it is not a big issue. In the end spring snapped and it might be not related, but I believe that dissolved and full of grit/debris mount played its role.

 

[spartacus68]

Thanks Greg - appreciate you coming back to me. I picked up the spring seat bushes yesterday. If it all looks like two much hassle, I may undo the eccentric bolts instead on the trailing arm. I know I'll need the alignment done again, even although I can mark it. I picked up new eccentric bolts - incidentally not cheap, as current ones look a little crusty. I'll post some pictures.

Thanks for the heads up regards AdBlue and diesel pipes - I'll use top shock mount point only.

The parts guy at Audi said they are doing loads of theses repairs, probably on lease arrangement cars around 3 years old when picked up in health check.

 

[spartacus68]

Part way through this job. Rain stopped play with torrential downpours, making it dangerous given the procedure is a bit Heath Robinson. Got O/S done, just working on N/S. Again thanks Greg for this tip.

Couple of things to note for anyone attempting it. I dropped the trailing arm to hub bolt in addition to the shock absorber bolt. It buys you a little extra space. Both use 18mm. If you are dropping the hub bolt, then an air impact driver is useful. Rather than the scissor jack - a small bottle jack would work too. You will need a spare trolley jack in order to get everything to line up, plus a pry-bar.

Definitely worth checking out these rear seats. Once they deteriorate - you are risking a broken coil spring, or even the spring dislodging, as the rubber seat base is the only thing holding it in place.

 

[mickwillow]

Omg cant believe i've just seen has! my 4 years Audi A6 C8 has just had its MOT at Audi and this is an a advisory on the off side rear spring mount . Audi Derby want £320 each side for a £18 part so I was thinking of do just the same thing as you have Greg B,
One question did u have the spring drop out of the top mount ?

 

[spartacus68]

Audi Derby want £320 each side for a £18 part

Wow.

One question did u have the spring drop out of the top mount ?

Yes, chances you will have to remove the top mount. It's held in place with a plastic grommet, but depending on how much space you have it may be easier to get the bottom seat in place, on the lower trailing arm, then add the top mount to the spring and ease into place. If its a quattro - space is tight anyway. If your remove the lower bolt to hub, that gains about 10-20mm, not much, but every little helps. To get the lower training arm to line up afterwards, then the shock absorber lower mount bolt needs to be in situ, then using a pry bar between the hub and the shock mount you can exert sufficient leverage to pop this last bolt back in. I bought a little Draper bottle jack 2-tonne from Ebay. Possibly smaller than I expected, but something like that could work instead of the Audi scissor jack. Use blocks of wood under the jack, at an angle if need be. Remember - it's under tension and it's a little precarious.

I know the Audi workshop process is to remove the drive-shafts if a Quattro.