Pinch Bolt Removal Easier way for Audi B8 A4, A5, S4, S5, & Q5 DIY Front Control Arm Replacement 

Thanks! Safety - shmafety. Guess it helps with confidence when you have 22 ton jack stands like this under your car amzn.to/3PR4PKP

Thank you! It can be helpful yes. Unfortunately, I had to fight with the passenger side first, to figure all that out. Fortunately, the driver's side went MUCH more smoothly.

@@veshapidze You said it’s important To keep the spacers flush. Would it have been easier to have added more nuts rather than using grips?

@@markchandler001 In general, maybe, if you have enough of those. My channel locks are very flat so they worked just fine. In-fact, they have more surface area so they were sitting pretty flat. I just had to reverse the second one and insert it from the opposite side as they have that big round bump in the form of a metal grommet interfering and also wanted to slide out from the friction of the rotating nut. Plus, with the pliers, you don't have to back out the nut all the way to insert another nut/spacer, you just slide one in from the side. It really makes little difference but that's what I had handy and it worked out. The smaller vice grip at the end is not as flat as the channels but the lips of it were still flat so it worked out well to hold the bolt and prevent it from turning when unscrewing - once the bolt got a little looser. I was really being extra careful so that the pressure was distributed evenly on the nut and therefore the bolt threads. In hindsight, a little sloppiness wouldn't have made much difference as it came out pretty easily but why risk it? It may have been much tighter so I wanted to ensure it didn't fail. This procedure would have taken 5-10 mins tops if I didn't hold the camera in one hand and didn't bs too much :), but was thinking of editing later. Ultimately decided to publish a full vid as I tried to provide some extra tips, some of which I guess are common sense but don't hurt to have.

@@veshapidze It’s was great, well informed!

@@markchandler001 Glad it helped. I had a few more roadblocks doing this job, especially with lower ball joints, as well as getting out and inserting a triple square on the lower control arm. Let me know if you encounter an issue further down. Good luck!

Thanks. Though not entirely my idea. I saw a British guy using a kit a special spacer kit he bought that I couldn't find in the US. They were basically progressively long tubes. You would cut off the bolt and then add spacers to drive through the other end. This accomplishes the exact same thing without the special one-use tool and is just as effective if you keep it flat at 90 degrees.

@@veshapidze I have to change all my 2008 A6 C6 upper control arms shortly and will need to remove this pinch bolt on both sides. Hence my interest in your great video. Wish me luck :-)

@@michaelsharman7176 I wish you good luck if it helps. :). If your control arms have 100K+ miles on it, I would replace both upper and lower control arms with OEM quality parts. Do them once and will happily do another 100K for you and you'll have a cushy ride. You don't want to go back and redo that work. Just be mindful that lower ball joints are also a PITA to deal with as well as the hex bolt that goes above the steering rod. I have short videos of how I dealt with them but haven't had a chance to edit and post them.

I’ve seen videos that show removing the spring and shock completely from the car with the upper control arms still attached ….. that way you can replace the arms and torque up the bolts much easier. My car has 127,000 so I think I did ok? The reason I’m attempting this is that garages don’t want to do the work given the cars age. Although the car is in fact in excellent condition. They think the pinch bolt will be a real pain …. They’re right it will

Same, dealer will always do it but at an outrageous price. I am too scared to remove the whole shock. Plus if I mess up at least I have an option for a flatbed :). At 125k I would proactively replace a few things that can go bad on these cars and be happy. A BIG item that I can think of that can kill your car is the timing chain tensioner. Unless you got it done under a recall (which replaces it with a new type of tensioner), you are probably at the high end of its life before it goes bang. Relatively low cost way to diagnose that is to get the Ross Tech VCDS (every Audi/VW diyer must have) cable and it can pull numbers for you to see how far the tensioner is stretched. Anything below 3-6 is considered ok, above that yellow zone. 8+ is waiting for the imminent failures. This is numbers I remember top of my head so check to make sure. I also proactively replaced fuel pressure sensor ($43), oil separator ($136), upper/lower control arms and all ball joints (~$720 +some special tools), timing cover gasket and seal (~$25) was leaking a bit, rotors and pads. A few years ago I had to rebuild both shafts in the front as the boots got torn - check those for any grease. Car runs like new now.

Mine came with the control arm replacement kit but they are also sold separately. My specific VIN needed this part: parts.audiusa.com/p/Audi__/Steering-Knuckle-Bolt-Upper/48760877/N10491802.html You should also be able to get one at a local dealer for a few bucks. If all else fails, and its more pricy but they are also sold at Amazon amzn.to/3VR2Pa5 I would carefully check compatibility and part numbers for your model before purchasing.

@@veshapidze Thanks!

Hard to tell. I would be more comfortable to get it at least turning. That's why I used longer wrenches to get good leverage and at the same time feel the amount of real pressure I was applying. Warming up a couple of times helped loosen the corrosion - so maybe go through a few cycles of that. I would not heat up the metal to the extreme though, just warm it up enough for the corrosion to loosen. See later on I the vide, as the bolt comes out, what sort of corrosion I was dealing with.

Sorry bud, I’m just a diy-er. My shop is my garage ;)

@@veshapidze how much would you charge to fix mine ?

What is it called, name model, etc? I don’t think there is anything official from VAG. Could be just an aftermarket tool that basically accomplishes the same

I saw two mechanics using it, the video was in German, unfortunately my German is not up to scratch.@@veshapidze

@@dannytall8699 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OeC85U6LLXY.html

Huh? I started the video at that spot because that's when I decided to make a video to share my success. I also covered in length, how I got it started, and for me, the bolt moved exactly as I described. This is an advanced repair and if you expect to see a tutorial on how to use a propane torch or basic wrenches, you shouldn't be attempting this repair anyway. You are free to lol, or move on and make your own better and improved video ;)