(Disclaimer - the following explains how I replaced the trailing arm on my car. This is purely advisory, and is given in good faith. This method may work for you, and it may not. If it goes wrong, then don't blame me!)
1. Jack the car up and take the road wheel off and put the space saver spare wheel on, then put the car back on the ground. The spare wheel has a bigger centre hole and you'll find out why that is important in a minute.
2. Put a 41mm socket onto the central hub nut, and then a very big bar. A 3/4 inch drive socket is advisable - the nut is torqued to 280 lb ft (which means it was effing tight even before the effects of a few years of rust). A half-inch drive socket might not be up to the job. Caution - on some cars, the hub nut on the offside (right hand side) has a left-hand thread. Mine didn't, but check carefully because you don't want to tighten a nut that was effing tight to start with. Don't put "jerky" pressure on the bar because you'll break it - a steady pressure is what's required. Find a friend who likes pies and still has a good sense of balance when standing on socket bars. If you try this with the ordinary road wheel on the car you'll find the socket doesn't fit through the centre hole - hence the apparent faff of step 1!
3. Jack the car up again, making sure this time that it's WELL supported on axle stands or similar. You will be doing some serious heavy-duty shoving and pulling and you don't want to end up in the middle of a car / road sandwich. Leave the nut on the hub but take the spare wheel back off.
4. Right, now you need to take the hub off the driveshaft but first you need to strip the brakes. You might be able to take the whole brake assembly off complete with backplate but it's very fiddly. If you decide to strip the brakes full details are here. Once you get the shoes off, clamp off the flexi hose between the chassis and trailing arm, to minimise fluid loss, and disconnect the brake pipe at the rear of the wheel cylinder, then disconnect the other end from the flexi-pipe, and remove the flexi-pipe from the bracket on the trailing arm.
5. Then take the handbrake cable out of the backplate. Be very careful not to break the locating pins because you don't want to be buying and fitting a new handbrake cable unless you have to. Remove the nut on the bracket holding the handbrake cable to the top of the swing arm.
6. Take out the 4 bolts that hold the hub and brake backplate onto the trailing arm. They are accessible using a socket and extension through holes in the hub flange.
7. Take the big hub nut off, and the washer behind. The driveshaft will still be held in place by the splines in the hub. Hit the end of the driveshaft in with a rubber hammer or block of wood, to disengage the splines. Watch that the hub flange doesn't fall off the bearing and land on the floor to get filled with dust and grit. Put the hub and bearing aside in a plastic bag to keep any grit out.
8. Right. Now loosen the bolt through the bottom bush of the shock absorber. Get it loose, take the nut off then leave the bolt in place to support the trailing arm for now.
9. Exactly the same with the bolt through the bush into the rear of the chassis (ie right in front of where the tyre would be). Take the nut off and get the bolt loose, but leave it in place for now.
10. Now (on the S3 / S4) remove the 4 bolts that hold the inner part of the arm to the inner bush. These 4 bolts go through from the back of the arm, and locate the arm to the inner bush, through adjustment shims. The S1 / S2 is different - there are no adjustment shims so you have to remove the other bolt and bush from the chassis.
11. Now support the arm on a jack or axle stand (or a friend's head) and remove the bolts from the two bushes at steps 8 and 9. Pull it sideways off the end of the driveshaft and you're laughing! (Knackered, manky, but laughing.) Recover the shims from the inner joint (where the 4 bolts were).
Reassembly, as they say so glibly in the manual, is the reverse of removal.
One very important point - DON'T try to put the front bush bolt in AFTER the 4 bolts on the other side. It doesn't work. What you have to do is start with the big front bush. Line it up, get the bolt through and the nut on the other end, complete with all washers.
THEN and only then, wiggle, waggle, kick, hit, threaten, jack, drop, lift and cajole the inner end of the trailing arm into place until you can get the 2 inner bolts (the ones nearest the chassis) located on their threads, but don't tighten them up at all - leave as much free play as you can. Then slide (or push or if necessary hammer) the shims in from the wheel side - they are slotted to fit over those two bolts. A small screwdriver might help to prise the joint apart till you get the shims in. Then waggle a punch or drift through the other two bolt holes to line up the holes in the shims. Put the other 2 bolts in and tighten them all up.
Reconnect the shock absorber, refit the hub and brakes, bleed the brakes then use the spare wheel again to tighten the hub nut. Don't tighten the two bolts through the bushes (the shock absorber and the front bush( till the arm is in its "loaded" position - in theory this means sitting on its wheels but it's easier to jack the car under the swing arm so that it takes the weight, and then tighten them.
Refit road wheel and you're done!
Remember to get the wheel alignment and geometry checked, unless you know how to check it yourself.
...
| [home] |