# Coilover Installation Guide on 2001 Audi A4 (8E - B6) (6 MB of photos!)



## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

This is intended to be a helpful guide, mistakes may be present and as such it should only be used as a guide at your own discretion. If you are not fully confident in your own abilities to do this job then you should get a garage to do it.

*Tools Required*

Coil spring compressor
Pair of axle stands
Bottle or trolley jack
Pry bars or suitable implement for prying out rear springs
Breaker bar
Wobble bar set (125mm and 250mm useful)
G clamp
Ball joint remover
Rubber mallet
Lump hammer (possible)
Various sockets and spanners - 8mm, 13mm, 15mm, 16mm, 18mm, 19mm, 21mm (two 16mm spanners required)
Hex key set
19mm deep offset spanner
Needle nose pliers
Long bent nose pliers
Penetrative fluid
Copper grease
Philips screwdriver

*Replacement bolts with part numbers for 8E Audi A4*

It is worthwhile ordering a full replacement set of bolts, in reality I only needed to replace the pinch bolt/nut on the front and the lower damper bolt/nut on the front and rear.

Front parts

2 - N 105 768 01 - bolt M10 - Pinch bolt
2 - N 104 061 03 - washer M10 - Pinch bolt washer
6 - N 102 861 02 - nut M10 - Nuts for upper arm bolts, Nut for pinch bolt
2 - N 105 729 01 - M12, 5 x 75 bolt - Lower shock absorber bolt
2 - N 101 064 02 - M12, 1.5 nut - Lower shock absorber mount nut
6 - N 102 006 01 - M10 x 30 bolt - Shock tower housing bolt in engine bay
6 - 8DO 412 145 B - washer - Shock tower housing washer in engine bay
4 - N 104 253 01 - Hex bolt M10 - Bolts for upper arms

Rear parts

2 - N 105 494 01 - M14 x 1, 5 x 120 Bolt - Bolt for lower shock absorber
2 - N 909 750 01 - washer - Washer for lower shock
2 - N 104 018 01 - Hex nut M14 - Nut for lower shock
4 - N 907 583 01 - Hex bolt M8 - Bolt for upper shock mount

*Rear Installation*

1. Jack up the rear of the car and place it on axle stands, removing both wheels as you go. Both sides should be on axle stands to ensure no pressure is on the rear sway bar.










2. Remove rear spring with coil spring compressor.

Note that you must compress 4 coils with the spring compressor (this can be very tricky to get the compressor into place) to get enough room to free the spring.










Even with 4 coils compressed you will need to pry the spring out.










Note: the trolley jack was under the subframe just incase, but in reality it wasn't needed.

3. Remove the two 13mm bolts holding the damper to the chassis.










Note a 125mm extension will be required, the arch liners did not need to be removed.










4. Remove the lower bolt on the damper with a breaker bar and 21mm socket + spanner to hold the nut. Penetrative fluid may be required here.

5. Remove the damper










6. Remove the damper from the mount.

Note a suitable spanner should be used to hold the piston, not the grips used in the photo (I used the grips as the correct size of spanner wasn't to hand and the nut didn't require much pressure to remove the damper from the tower)










7. Mount the new damper in the tower and tighten it right down as far as it will go.










8. Install the damper into the car.










9. Before mounting your new spring into the car, make sure you grease your mount, some copper grease is good for this job. With the KW Variant 2 coilovers, the rear top mount is replaced with the pictured mount. The bottom rubber OEM mount stays in place and is used with the new spring.










10. Look at the position of the OEM rubber mount on the subframe and position your spring in the compressor in the right position so that the spring will sit correctly when the spring is uncompressed. Compress the new spring.










11. Decompress the spring so that it sits correctly. Note that the nearside was fine, the offside was a pain and I could not get the right angle so in the end I compressed the spring in the wrong position and had to move the spring around slowly to get it to sit in the correct position by compressing, moving slightly and then decompressing the spring a few times.










12. Now the rear is done, put the tyres back on and remove the car from the axle stands.










*Front Installation*

1. Jack up the front of the car and place it on axle stands, removing both wheels as you go. Both sides should be on axle stands to ensure no pressure is on the front sway bar.










2. Soak the pinch bolt and lower damper bolts in penetrative fluid.










3. Remove the battery cover in the engine bay.










4. Place a trolley jack under the front suspension, you will need this later as when the unit is removed it will require support as not to put any undue strain on the brake lines and caliper etc.

5. Now the fun that is the pinch bolt. This was a REAL pain on my car. Get out your breaker bar with 16mm socket and a 16mm spanner.










Attempt to undo the nut on the end of the pinch bolt. If your pinch bolt turns this is good news as it hasn't completely siezed.

If you cannot get the bolt to turn then you will need to continue soaking it in penetrative fluid until such a time as you can get it to turn. If this fails then I would advise you search audiworld.com forums for other solutions.

The problem I faced was that whilst the bolt would turn, I could not get it to withdraw, even with many blows with a lump hammer.

My solution to the pinch bolt was to apply pressure to the bolt and as I turned the bolt I could see it pushing out very slightly as I went. You will need to continuously tighten the G clamp every 1/4 of a turn, so this is very slow work and took a good few hours per bolt, patience is required.










Firstly make sure the nut is on the end of the pinch bolt and then compress this with a G clamp and turn the bolt until it is virtually flush with the suspension mount (i.e. you have pushed the bolt out).










Now you will require various implements to continue compressing the bolt.










Take the small screw bit and use the G clamp to compress this against the end of the pinch bolt.










Turn the bolt until you have pushed it out more.

Now take the next implement and compress this and turn the bolt and this should eventually come a good deal of the way out of the suspension mount.










When this is fully compressed you should be able to wiggle the bolt free. If not compress the longer bolt until it pops right out.










6. With the pinch bolt out, the next fun is to try and remove the control arms from the top mount. Like the pinch bolt, the arms were frozen. You should use plenty of penetrative fluid to aid you here. (Note the pictures look a little odd as I removed the suspension tower before doing this (by removing the control arm bolts into the top of the suspension tower), but for ease, remove the control arms at this point to make your life easier)

I again opted for a compression technique with a ball joint remover to get the control arm out of the mount.

I found a nut which would fit in the hole and compressed this which moved the joint upwards.










Now a little screwdriver bit is compressed to push the arm upwards and out.










This compression wasn't too difficult because the angle was good. The other arm has a poor angle so I couldn't compress it out of the top of the suspension. I decided to leave this and unscrew the bolt which holds it to the very top of the suspension where the top of the damper is secured. Fortunately you have enough room to do this and withdraw the bolt. (two 16mm spanners required)










7. Now another pain in the ass job, a little retaining clip is installed near the top suspension mount. This needs to be removed and will take plenty of pulling back and forth. I used a screwdriver, various pliers to this job and eventually you can work it out. Note plenty of swearing required for this job!



















8. Unscrew the lower damper bolt with a breaker bar and 21mm socket, with a 21mm spanner to hold the bolt.










9. Unscrew the three 16mm bolts holding the top suspension mount to the car.

Note one of the screws on each side is under a black plastic cover which can be removed with a pair of needle nose pliers.










Note that on the offside the coolant chamber is in the way, unscrew the chamber screw and move it slightly or use a 16mm spanner to undo the bolt and not a socket wrench.










Note that on the near side, the ECU is in the way for one of the bolts, you will need a 125mm and possibly a 250mm extension bar to get at it. When it is undone I used a long set of pliers to retrieve the bolt.



















10. Withdraw the suspension unit from the car, taking extra care not to touch the paintwork as you go.










11. Compress the spring (4 coils) so that you can comfortably remove the top suspension mount under no pressure from the spring.










12. Remove the damper from the mount, note a deep 19mm offset spanner is required with a 6mm hex key. This is a bugger so plenty of pressure is required to remove this nut.










13. Mount new coilover unit into the top suspension mount. With the KW V2 coilover unit a 19mm deep offset spanner and 8mm spanner are required.

MAKE SURE that you screw the mount right down as far as it will go (dialing the suspension right down to the lowest it can go will give you enough room to do this.



















14. Mount the unit back into the car. I put the unit back in and then used a trolley jack to push the suspension unit so I could put the screws in via the engine bay. Replace plastic black cap when bolts are reinstalled in engine bay.

15. Connect top suspension arms back into the pinch point and use a new pinch bolt to retain the arms. Note, use plenty of copper grease on the arms and bolt to save any future removal problems.

16. Place new lower suspension bolt through the bottom of the unit and screw the nut up finger tight. In order to do this you are going to need to jack the suspension up to meet with the mounting hole.










The Audi manual says that this bolt should only be done up when the car is under full load. I decided to jack up the suspension with the trolley jack to ride height and then do up the bolt and nut. Replicating full load, but without the problem of having a tyre in the way.










17. Put wheels back on car and remove axle stands.

18. Put battery cover back on in engine bay.

19. Stand back and admire a job well done.



















After a few hundred miles/days when the suspension has settled you should go and get a 4 wheel alignment check carried out.


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## Skodaw (Mar 19, 2006)

That's a brilliant guide, suitably detailed where required. A credit to you sir.

And as I've said before, the results are definately worth the hard work - car looks great.


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

Thanks mate, Daffy asked originally and I was intending to do it and post it up on some of the Audi sites as the UK people don't seem to write as much as the US people who have done some superb guides, so thought I should make an effort.


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## sharpie (Apr 9, 2007)

great write up there but the one thing i will ask is why did you use the compressors on the rear springs?

when i did my mk4 golf (same idea set up) all i did was jack both wheels off the ground then remove the bottom bolts on each side. if you then jack it a little higher the springs will come out in your hand 

then slip the new ones in and slowly lower the car till you can bolt the shocks back in place


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## Daffy (Dec 15, 2005)

Awesome guide. Excellent write up and a real credit to do bearing in mind the time you took over the job itself, taking time to stop and photo each stage is true dedication. If I had had your hurdles I would have lost my rag and probably thrown the camera.
Will stick this permenantly for those that may wish to follow.


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## L200 Steve (Oct 25, 2005)

:thumb: A cracking guide mate.

I know when I googled 'audi pinch bolt', trying to find you some assistance to your struggles, that none of the other online guides were anything as good as this one:thumb:


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

sharpie said:


> great write up there but the one thing i will ask is why did you use the compressors on the rear springs?
> 
> when i did my mk4 golf (same idea set up) all i did was jack both wheels off the ground then remove the bottom bolts on each side. if you then jack it a little higher the springs will come out in your hand
> 
> then slip the new ones in and slowly lower the car till you can bolt the shocks back in place


That is one way to do it, but officially you are advised not to lower the subframe bolts because you can totally screw alignment.

I suppose that could be fixed, but I didn't want to mess about with any of that so got the proper tool.


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

Thanks chaps!


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## Ade R (Mar 12, 2007)

Good write up. Looking very good now it has been lowered a little.
Don't think i could do it without a little help.


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## Ducky (Mar 19, 2007)

Nice one matey, now I'd like a guide for.....

:thumb:


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## GlynRS2 (Jan 21, 2006)

A top guide - well done mate :thumb:


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

Thanks chaps, was worth the blood (some), sweat and tears afterall!


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