Help needed

2006 TD6 so far anti roll bar bushes off, drop links removed - But how the hell do you get the anti roll bar out. So far it looks like I need a magician

Plan at the moment is carry on with other job on front right - renew front right knuckle, hub, bearing, both suspension arms and and probably drive shaft.Hence disconnect strut. Rust is not helping, for instance ABS sensor is completely stuck,this will be renewed as fitting new knuckle.

Once I have that lot off is it possible to pull out the anti-roll bar Feels like I am missing something, getting to the point where I cannot see the wood for the trees HELP

Daft question Merchy but why do you have to get it out?

Not a daft question....

A previous owner had only done the left bush, both bushes are now kaput and the area of the anti roll bar where the drivers side bush sits is very badly corroded, same as some other areas of the roll bar.

To give you an idea, car looks ok.... but.... when you investigate properly.... put it this way, it is impossible to remove the front offside drive shaft from the hub, hub also seems stuck in the bearing. So basically I am going to renew the drive shaft / knuckle / hub / bearing / brake caliper / all suspension and steering arms.

Then do the other side - Petrol and a box of swan vesta seems very appealing right now

Anyone ????? Has anyone done this without a ramp / lift, car is on drive way on axle stands.

Still trying to work out how to remove anti roll bar, due to the shape of the bar. Which ever way I turn it, it will not come out.

Offside drive shaft now free in hub, so tomorrow will remove hub / knuckle and all suspension arms in one, that should give me more room, ( By then it will be easy to drop out the air bag / strut ) but wondering if I need to do same to near side bits to get enough wiggle room to remove the anti roll bar, or maybe even remove the drive shaft from the transfer box to the front diff?

Note to self - Have a beer and wonder.... what the bleedin hell I was thinking when I bought an old fatty It's not been a good day

Ah right, if it’s that bad I’d be having a good look at the rest of it, I.E all around the rear end and jacking points before you invest your time in the front to ensure its not not knackered, as they’re really prone to corrosion at the rear, even to the point of removing the plastic sill covers the get a good idea. If all good and you can’t get the roll bar out with the suspension stripped then I suspect you may have to lower the rear of the front subframe to get it out, Ive never had to take one out due to corrosion and I’ve seen a lot of the underneath of them. The good the bad and the ugly.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Had a good clean of the anti roll bar, it is not as bad as I initially thought, rust on body / jacking points is not serious. I have some good quality plastic steel which I will build up on the roll bar,where the off side bush fits on, have used this stuff at sea, it is stronger than the metal as far as wear, and fit new bushes.
Plastic steel I will use is the same as others like Belzona or Devcon etc

The saga continues............................ Boring so maybe avoid if you are busy or do not do your own work, photos may interest some, especially track rod removal for non engineers

Started out as changing a wheel bearing, so I thought, initially I could not bet the drive shaft to move in the hub, although once off, there is no corrosion on the splines.
In the end I decided to take off the whole knuckle unit in one go, as I was already panning to change all the suspension arms / steering ( track rod ) arm at the same time.
This obviously entails disconnecting the knuckle from the strut, that's where it got even worse.

At this point I got under the car and removed loads of covers etc to check the overall condition to see it it was worth spending money on, or if it was a basket case, turns out it's not too bad, but.......

When trying to remove the knuckle, heat, sledge hammer etc would not remove the lower bolt, got the nut off thanks to buying a 950 Nm impact wrench. As for the lower bolt, A 3/4 socket set and beaker bar with scaffold pole added failed. The nut was completely rusted inside the aperture in the cast knuckle. I had my new impact wrench on it with the socket tight against the bolt flange, it just rounded the bolt head.

So I dropped the complete strut / knuckle combo out, only disconnecting the subframe ends of the suspension bushes, those bolts were not too bad to remove.

Used a sledge hammer to remove the bottom bolt, then on starting to strip the assembly down.... or rather try, I found the following.... ABS speed sensor was impossible to remove, the reluctor ring for the ABS sensor was seized inside the knuckle, not fixed to the drive shaft. Attempts with huge bearing puller / fitting set failed to remove the hub from the bearing, obviously I need a hydraulic press, and now the car is in bits on my drive way!!!

So ordered extra parts, so now got new airbag struts, more on that later, new knuckles, hubs, bearings, dust shields, a brake disc backing plate, all new suspension arms and track rod ends, a right hand drive shaft, and ALL new nuts and bolts.

Pulled the drive shaft out after draining the diff, got 0.65 litre out, brown colour and the smell was horrendous.
Removed the oil seal checked the bearing, this is in good nick, I suspect that it had a new drive shaft and bearing at some point. No bits / detritus found in drained oil. only a very thin deposit on the magnetic drain plug. Drain plug and filler plug were quite easy to remove using a 14mm allen key and small piece of pipe with a little shock from a hammer to break the tension.

Whilst all this was off / out. I cleaned up most of the engine subframe and treated it to two coats of black Hammerite, the nearside bits I missed will be done when I do the same job on that side.
Funny thing is. whilst the corrosion was not too deep, the nearside of the frame was in much better condition than the offside, have no idea why that is!!!!

One strange thing was trying to undo the track rod end, almost no corrosion noted on the rod / thread, but after slackening the locknut, it was only possible to move the rod after using a LOT of heat from a propane burner.

Still to complete building up the new knuckle / hub unit and fit with new suspension arms. New drive shaft and strut are in place as well as new track rod end, new anti toll bar bushed and drop links, all fitted loosely until all bits are in place. New drive shaft / oil seal fitted, oil in diff replenished, no leaks, so far.
So far with the knuckle, put the knuckle in boiling water for ages, took bearing from freezer, fitted bearing with a little persuasion, no big hammers. To fit dust shield and hub to knuckle tomorrow.

This job has been a real pain, with lots of other things getting in the way, thus extending the bloody time spent on the fatty.

Below are some pics so far -

As for the new air bag / strut, some people do not like the Dunlop version.

Got this one as from the my above post you will realise that costs were spiralling, thought, as I was going this far, might as well fit a new strut, bottom of old one was not too good after using the sledge hammer !!!!

Markings indicate that the old Dunlop air bag that came off is seven years old. I stripped this down only to find that the air bag condition was excellent. The other side ( near side )as far as I can tell is a Dunlop unit that is about 10 years old, and still in very good nick. This will be replaced next leave, whilst I am away the car will only be test driven on a monthly basis.

Since I started the job, I have not lost any air from the air system, and the battery is still holding full voltage, woohoo That's 12 days now, lots of crap has got in the way of working on the car, hopefully things have now settled down.

One mistake was thinking a BIG sliding hammer would remove the hub from the wheel bearing, no chance on that score, but a De-walt 950 Nm torque impact wrench has been the best buy ever. That has save me a lot of pain.