trailing arm referb/ replace

trailing arm referb/ replace

Author
Discussion

Jonty355

4,423 posts

212 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
How big of a job is it to remove these? Is it easier to do if you were carrying out a body off restoration on an S3?

I'm very tempted by an S3 currently for sale but one of the trailing arms is shot and the other isn't far off (though after seeing the above post it may be as bad but hidden). The chassis also looks like it requires the body off resto as there is corrosion around important welds.

If I decide to take on the job of restoring the car is it worth doing the trailing arms and then enjoying the car for the summer and doing a body-off resto in the autumn or would it make more sense to do everything as a whole despite missing out on the start of summer with the car being off the road?

Cheers
Jonty

Kitchski

6,514 posts

230 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
You wouldn't know until you took the arms off. The trailing arm mounts also like to corrode, and are equally as important as the arms. You might pull the arms off to refurb them, and find the mounts and the rear beam is sound (and I mean after you'd gone at it with a screwdriver, not just finding no holes and declaring it safe!) in which case you could crack on. Alternately, you might find the beam and mounts are shot as well, in which case you'd be daft not to attend to one with the other, and to do it properly you'd want the body out of the way, and so on......

If it's cheap enough and you like the car, and are prepared to do the work, I'd get it and work on the basis that it's a bonus if it's on the road this year. Whatever happens, you'd get it sorted and pump some value into it if you've done a body-off resto, as it's pretty much the biggest thing you can do to these cars.

Jonty355

4,423 posts

212 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
Ok thanks for that. So once the body is off its probably going to be off for a while then? I'm guessing while its off then there is a long list of jobs that may as well be done too?

Kitchski

6,514 posts

230 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
Unless you have every day free to work on it, it'll be off for the summer, yeah. If you go body-off, plan to get it ready for next year, as work/commitments etc will get in the way.

There are loads of things you can do while it's off. Some people look at it like you only need to change what needs changing, others (myself included) just renew pretty much everything so that you don't need to worry about it again for a long time.

Don't skimp, take your time, do a thorough job. That's the best advice I could give anyone. It's the difference between finishing with a car with a repaired chassis, or a thoroughly sorted S3.

Jonty355

4,423 posts

212 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
Cheers for the advice guys.

spivvy

1,534 posts

253 months

Monday 27th April 2015
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its a horrible job to do without the body off
you will need a big torque wrench
a hub puller
and something to press out the old bushes if you change them

phillpot

17,105 posts

182 months

Monday 27th April 2015
quotequote all
spivvy said:
its a horrible job to do without the body off
Disagree, once the big nut is loosened and the trailing arm pivot bolts are out you can get the whole thing on the bench, body on or off smile

spivvy

1,534 posts

253 months

Monday 27th April 2015
quotequote all
phillpot said:
spivvy said:
its a horrible job to do without the body off
Disagree, once the big nut is loosened and the trailing arm pivot bolts are out you can get the whole thing on the bench, body on or off smile
the problem i had was getting it all to line up again with the spacers and pivot bolts , not a lot of room for spanners and stuff
but very satisfying when it did all go back together