Hi everyone,
My 2003 Passat GLS wagon has had various suspension-related problems that I am going to try and address. It has 155k miles on it, and has never had any replacement of control arms, ball joints, tie rods, struts, etc. I have replaced drive axles on both sides several times.
The current symptoms are wheel bearing noise, vibration (99% sure its a ball LBJ) and wear on the inside of the front left tire. I figure at this point everything is ready for a refresh, so I went ahead and purchased the following:
FCP Euro's Control Arm/LBJ kit: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/vw...ol-arm-kit-s4-a6-a8-passat-economy-4d0498998m
2 Wheel bearings
Bilsteen touring Struts (plan to keep existing springs, what other parts should I replace)
Was going to follow the instructions on myturbodiesel.com Control arm replacement and steering knuckle removal -B5 Passat and Audi | VW TDI forum, Audi, Porsche, and Chevy Cruze diesel forum and then probably pull the steering knuckles as well to press out the bearings.
This is the first time I've tried this, so I'm learning as I go. A few questions that I have before I start are:
1) is there anything else I should look to replace while I'm there?
2) once its all apart, I need to re-align, but is there a way to ball park that? Since I'm removing the LBJ I figured there was no way to preserve it, but would try to get it close
3) order of operations?
Thanks in advance for helping walk me through this. I plan to keep the car for several more years so figured this was worth doing.
thanks!
My 2003 Passat GLS wagon has had various suspension-related problems that I am going to try and address. It has 155k miles on it, and has never had any replacement of control arms, ball joints, tie rods, struts, etc. I have replaced drive axles on both sides several times.
The current symptoms are wheel bearing noise, vibration (99% sure its a ball LBJ) and wear on the inside of the front left tire. I figure at this point everything is ready for a refresh, so I went ahead and purchased the following:
FCP Euro's Control Arm/LBJ kit: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/vw...ol-arm-kit-s4-a6-a8-passat-economy-4d0498998m
2 Wheel bearings
Bilsteen touring Struts (plan to keep existing springs, what other parts should I replace)
Was going to follow the instructions on myturbodiesel.com Control arm replacement and steering knuckle removal -B5 Passat and Audi | VW TDI forum, Audi, Porsche, and Chevy Cruze diesel forum and then probably pull the steering knuckles as well to press out the bearings.
This is the first time I've tried this, so I'm learning as I go. A few questions that I have before I start are:
1) is there anything else I should look to replace while I'm there?
2) once its all apart, I need to re-align, but is there a way to ball park that? Since I'm removing the LBJ I figured there was no way to preserve it, but would try to get it close
3) order of operations?
Thanks in advance for helping walk me through this. I plan to keep the car for several more years so figured this was worth doing.
thanks!