Tightening fasteners when the suspension is loaded?

[Hereward]

I replaced both front wheel bearings on my 2003 Touareg which involved removing the hub carrier.

The hub carrier is connected to ball joints on the upper and lower wishbones and the steering tie-rod. I also detached the anti-roll bar connection to the shock absorber plus the lower wishbone's connection to the shock absorber. The Red circles in the picture indicate the fasteners I removed/re-fitted - you may need to click on the image twice to enlarge it.

I re-fitted and tightened all these fasteners whilst the car was in the air. Do I need to loosen and re-tighten these now that the car is back on the ground and the suspension is loaded? Or does this requirement only apply to the wishbone's bushed connections to the vehicle (these were not touched)?

Thank you.

[steveo3002]

just the bush on the left imo ...ball joints are free to move

[InitialDave]

Those all look like taper fit ball joints to me, should be fine.

The need to tighten when at normal ride height is for through-bolted rubber bushes which can resist moving properly and twist/bind if tightened down out of normal movement range.

[Hereward]

Thanks for confirming.

I will just re-torque the ARB drop link. That's also the easiest one to get to.

[JoeMk1]

The damper lower to arm looks to be a rubber bush also, although hard to be certain from the picture. Thankfully also easy to access (although it probably needs to be torqued up pretty tight, which can be tricky with the ground in the way...)

[InitialDave]

It is unlikely, but if OP can give clearer pictures of the joint, we can advise.

[Hereward]

JoeMk1 said:

The damper lower to arm looks to be a rubber bush also, although hard to be certain from the picture. Thankfully also easy to access (although it probably needs to be torqued up pretty tight, which can be tricky with the ground in the way...)

Good spot, that is rubber. Thanks.

I crawled under the car, loosened off the ARB and lower wishbone to damper, bounced the car up and down as best I could then tightened the whole lot up again.

Thanks guys.