So while I was doing a gearbox service and all of the diffs etc. I decided to change all the front suspension arms for no reason other than a very minor knock when going over speed bumps. I changed all of then with surprising ease... until it came to the wishbone style top arms that is..

I would like a sanity check if possible gents... are the nuts for the bolts really half way down the inside of the engine bay!! If they are then it would take a full day to strip out the FBH and all the piping, along with the dynamic steering reservoir and associated pipe work... seems a real ball ache for what I thought would be the easy part

Any diagrams or experience would be fantastic?

I haven't seen them but would expect that the nuts would be accessible using a socket etc without removing anything much.

Sadly not Graeme... the bolts for the arms go through the body and into the engine bay. I was able to see one nut on the passenger side under the air box on the wheel arch but could not see the others.

The parts diagram shows the panel section that the arms bolt to which confirms that the nuts will be inside the engine bay but doesn't show anything else. It is very strange that so much work would be required to replace a suspension arm.

The top arms are available in 3 different lengths for camber adjustment and during vehicle assembly the arms may need to be swapped with the longer or shorter version but I suppose that might be done before anything much is fitted inside.

Do you know what length / part number your arms are? Left and right can be different lengths so don't assume that they will both be short/std/long.

oops wrong thread

Presume you have done the job by now ? but for reference this is the official way to do it . Looks like many hours work as well.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=14oLkLaYO...odNV0sImTG

Relieved that both sides were replaced on mine together with new shock absorbers in 2017, although at times I do wonder why

I have not yet tackled this job no. I was secretly changing every other arm and track rod end first and hoping my knocking would go away

Track rod ends next and then I will leave the big job till last. Cam belt is next on the Audi A8 before i have time to do the RR.