Specifically those which hold the upper arms to the hub carrier on a mk1 Superb.

What a complete pain in the @rse.

Has anybody successfully prevented these from seizing using copper grease?

Phil.

Specifically those which hold the upper arms to the hub carrier on a mk1 Superb.

What a complete pain in the @rse.

Has anybody successfully prevented these from seizing using copper grease?

Phil.

Yes, had to use a tourch to heat mine up when changing the CV boot. Its a crap design!

Yes, had to use a tourch to heat mine up when changing the CV boot. Its a crap design!

I've tried heat but I'm unsure how much to use? Do you mean a light warming or really getting it red hot?

Thanks,

Take them out once a year and coat the bolts and the bores with grease - then no problems. The track rod end pinch bolts need to be treated in the same way at the same time.

The whole job takes about 10 mins per side and saves no end of grief when the crappy suspension needs new arms and track rod ends.

Designed by a genius - ferrous parts with access slots for water and mud directly in line with the tyre - perfect rust trap. (Wonder if he designed the plenum chamber and pollen filter seal?) Well done VAG.

rotodiesel.

Ended up replacing the leg on the offside of mine when I had to replace the upper arms on that side, needed the bearing and hub too :'(

Tried drilling it out and didn't get it dead centre so my own fault.

When the inevitable happens and I eventually have to do the other side I'm going to remove the leg and take it to an engineering company to press / drill it out.

A friend who is a trained VAG technician generally removes the leg, runs a grinder through the slots, twists / breaks off both ends and then with a large lump hammer and drift spends around 2 hours trying to get the remainder out !, so there is no 'magic dealer trick'

Just a crap design and choice of materials.

On the leg I replaced I smothered it in copper grease and every 6 months I've removed and cleaned it and it comes out a treat - as roto says it's a 10 minute job.

Remember when you replace the upper arms you won't be able to tighten the mounting bolts when the car is on it's wheels as the bolts are inaccessible, VAG have a measurement from the top mount to the arm from a certain point so you don't load up the bush too much.

Edited 8 April, 201016 yr by Cledwen

Phil, My old man got a spade or shovel placed it above bolt to protect the rubber bushes, heated for about 30 secs at a time.

Edited 8 April, 201016 yr by berr0010

This is the method I tried :

http://www.passatworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233225

which resulted in the threaded end breaking off - it just stretched and snapped, that is when I tried drilling it.

So if you had found this it may not and thought about trying this method it isn't foolproof

Take a look at this site :

http://audi.kris-hansen.com/upper_control_arms.htm

Though it's for a B5 platformed VAG group car it's a useful walk through and there is a link to show how to measure the control arm angle.

I'd make my own measurements from my car before starting though and copy these for the new arms

Question is could you get suitable stainless bolts?

Probably - but this is a safety critical item and departing from the VAG spec material might invalidate your insurance in the event of a big claim.

Keeping the bolts free and greased is the answer - the job can be done without even taking the wheels off. Once a year is often enough, when I remove the nut and turn the bolt head slightly, I can push the bolts out with very light hammer taps and a drift.

If I didn't mind changing the specification, I would use a stainless steel stud and two nuts. The threads would hold the grease and minimise contact points for rusting and it could be pulled in alternate directions with the nuts to aid removal.

It's just a completely crappy detail - the OE VAG bolts are not even plated...

rotodiesel.

Edited 8 April, 201016 yr by rotodiesel

16 months later and I'm trying again!

All 'easy' methods of failed for me even after soaking the whole area in penetrating oil every day for a week.

I managed to cut through the slot closest to the bolt head and just managed to get the head and first section out. Then I tried pulling the rest through but the thread was not good enough after previous attempts and just sheared the threads straight away.

So I cut the threaded section off flush with the arm and so far have tried bashing it through with a spare new bolt after heating it up... no luck.

My next plan is to try a g-clamp and a section of new bolt to try to push the remains through, but I'm not hopeful.

Final option will be to drill it, but I'm not keen. I thought I would try drilling 20mm or so at a time, and then try the g-clamp method again.

I recently rebuilt a 1998 Peugeot with 200,000 miles on the clock and it came apart so easily. Stupid Skoda!

Stupid VAG.

Skoda are just an assembly plant - and they do it very well. Apart from a few flaky bits at the very ends of the car (eg. bonnet safety catch) Skoda have nothing at all to do with the design - it's pure B5.5.

If you want to run one of these cars for sensible money there are three basic rules:

Buy a 1.9 diesel.

Keep well away from dealers.

Find the design weak points (water ingress, pinch bolts, wiper spindles etc.) and fix them before they bite you.

Do all this and the cars will give good service with plenty of pattern spares available.

rotodiesel.

Well I have good and bad news. The good news is after about 4 hours I managed to get the stupid bolt out. I drilled and hammered an drilled and hammered and drilled and hammered and eventually it came out! I was in a very foul mood after having to cycle to b&q for new drill bits though!

So new arms fitted.... The bad news is.., it still clunks :-(

It is improved so I'm glad I did it, but clearly the lower arms are also dying.

The top arms have never been changed in 6 years/230k miles and yet the bushes seemed fine... It would be nice if the ball joints could be removed from the arms to keep costs down.

The other bad news is that the n/s cv boot has died so that's another job for tomorrow.

I can't complain with the mileage I do, but it is frustrating having to throw so much money at the damn thing just to find it swallows it up and wants more!!

I use cosmoline to protect the exposed parts. It forms a brown waxy coating that lasts forever but it easy to remove.

You can prolong the life of the very poor quality CV joint boots by coating them lightly in silicone grease every year. This stops the rubber from cracking at the base of the pleats. If you look at a failed boot, they are never cracked on the inside where the grease is.

This component is badly designed (too few pleats) and is made form bad material. Thanks, VAG.

rotodiesel.

It may be way off, but check the brake pads aren't rattling in the caliper mounts - I've just had a 'learning experience' with control arms and a rattle that sounded like the whole front end was about to collapse and in the end it was the non- OE pads. I could not believe how much noise/clunking they made! (sorted now with OE pads)

There's no such thing as "OE" pads - VAG don't make brake components. There are pads to OE standard (ATE, Pagid, Textar etc.) and cheap Chinese/Indian rubbish.

Fit the rubbish and you get what you deserve.

Remember on the B5.5 (Teves) the inner front pads are handed - the shim cutouts are mirror imaged. There is an arrow on the leaf spring showing disk rotation.

If you fit the inner pads on the wrong sides they will rattle.

rotodiesel.

There is another issue with using non VAG pads as I've discovered, aftermarket suppliers of at least ATE pads do tend to, at least for my late model B5 Passat, sell "Japan market only" pads which have a slightly different shape of backing metal - they came from ECP and I didn't discover that until I went to replace the ATE replacements and GSF supplied, once again "Japan market only" Pagid pads. The only way that I could get hold of identical to VAG supplied pads was to appeal directly to TMD Friction - they got a set sent over from Germany as it seems that the two official importers of aftermarket use ATE and Pagid pads don't bother to ask for the correct items - strange but true! Mind you, these "Japan market only" pads will still do the job if you don't mind having the correct pads for that car.

Stupid VAG.

wiper spindles

rotodiesel.

Wiper spindles, I take it that you have found that they start to seize, mine are okay on my 2000 B5 Passat, but I suppose I should really take them apart and clean and re-grease - that is if they come apart okay - do they? Also are there any seals fitted that wear and allow water in?

I do know someone with an old Golf that suffered from this, he ignored his wife's warnings and she got stuck away from home with no wipers and continuous torrential rain (not a happy bunny!)

Edited 1 September, 201114 yr by rum4mo

The spindles have a pathetic "O" ring seal which lets in water, but the real problem is that the cheapskates use sintered iron bushes in the bearing housings rather than bronze.

Although bronze/steel will run well when dry, steel on iron just rusts solid - which is precisely what happens. When I took mine apart (when fairly new) there was little evidence of any lubricant.

When I replace the battery and have everything apart, I'll drill the bearing housings for oil holes. At the moment, I remove the arms (puller needed first time) and the circlips on the spindles, which enables them to drop sufficiently to oil them over their entire length. This is now annual maintenance, + a load of other things cause by a half-baked VAG design department.

rotodiesel.

The spindles have a pathetic "O" ring seal which lets in water, but the real problem is that the cheapskates use sintered iron bushes in the bearing housings rather than bronze.

Although bronze/steel will run well when dry, steel on iron just rusts solid - which is precisely what happens. When I took mine apart (when fairly new) there was little evidence of any lubricant.

When I replace the battery and have everything apart, I'll drill the bearing housings for oil holes. At the moment, I remove the arms (puller needed first time) and the circlips on the spindles, which enables them to drop sufficiently to oil them over their entire length. This is now annual maintenance, + a load of other things cause by a half-baked VAG design department.

rotodiesel.

Ah, I've got a proper puller for the arms, I've now, this morning, spotted a top weather seal/trim, so maybe I should get in there as the car is now 11.25 years old. Yes STEEL on STEEL is crap as is ALUMINIUM on ALUMINIUM (see that too!) I'm afraid that I've been trusting Mr VW to do things correctly (shows I'm a mug!). Done this sort of job on Fords many times before but expected that that was down to Ford quality - but prevention, or periodic maintenance is always better than cure.