The last thing which was highlighted by the MOT tester for my last MOT was that the ball joints were failing and wouldn’t pass the MOT as they were starting to deteriorate.
I recently purchaed some new TRW Ball Joints from Eurocarparts, so that I could replace the ball joints on my Audi A3 in time for the next MOT.
I was actually going to write this as a “How to replace ball joints on Audi A3” article, and take pictures that I usually do for my website. However, it proved to be an awkward job for me to do so that I just took a few quick pics, and thought I’d write this blog post instead, and add data where needed.
I have written a brief section on How to replace your ball joints in Audi A3 as a guide post, but this isn’t an exact how to, it’s just something to help people who are stuck along the way
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Parts needed to replace Audi A3 ball Joints
Pretty obvious, but ball joints. As they’re Axle parts it’s recommended to replace in pairs.
My car is a 2007 Audi A3 Sportback (8PA variant), the 8PA and 8P1 are just code names for 3-door and 5-door iirc, so this should fit either, as always I recommend checking them out yourself to see if they fit yours too.
The code for the TRW ball joints was JBJ751 and JBJ752, it cost around £60 for them both from ECP. They come with new nuts for fitment
Tools I used to replace my Audi A3 Ball Joints
The below pic is all of the tools that I used when working on my car. I have highlighted in bold the tools that you don’t really need and can be used manually to replace your ball joints. They just speed things up. I’ve also denoted with comments something which I think would make it better
- Vehicle Trolley Jack
- Clarke Axle Stand
- TRW Ball Joints
- 18″ Breaker Bar
- 1/2″ Impact Gun
- Drill with Wire Brush attachment (a manual brush is fine, probably better even as better access)
- Brick for putting suspension under load (not needed as noted later)
- 1/2″ Ratchet
- 1/2″ Torque Wrench
- Hammer
- Lubrication / Penetrating Oil
- Locking Wheel Nut
- 18mm Spanner *** (I actually think this combined with an 18mm crows feet spanner on the torque wrench would be better)
- Ball Joint Splitter
- 1/2 Sockets (16mm – low profile, 16mm, 18mm, 19mm, 24mm Multispline – can use 1″ Multipoint in a pinch)
- 10mm Hex Shank Allen Socket (6mm Head)
- 1/2″ Extension Bar (4″ is fine)
- Hammer
- Screwdriver / Pry Bar
How I replaced my Audi A3 ball joints
I loosened the wheel nuts and popped off the centre cap and loosened the driveshaft nut
With the vehicle jacked up, I put the Axle stand under the lower control arm bushing. It doesn’t need to be flush up against it really, it just needs to be there to catch the car if it falls. Normally when I put the Axle stands under them, I tend to lower the car slightly anyway so that it sits on the Axle stands rather than the trolley jack.
I always prefer to opt for extra safety when working on my car, if an Axle stand, or Vehicle Jack should fail, I prefer the car falling on my alloy and damaging it, than falling on myself, or my legs and risking my life or limbs. So whenever a wheel comes off on my car now, it gets put to one side under the sill. Alloys facing up to prevent scratching the face
This is the old ball joint, you can see the general condition of it here.
Soak the ball joint in penetrating fluid to help loosen up the nuts
After covering the ball joint in penetrating fluid, I went through removing the nuts. It’s probably best using a wire brush before you cover them in fluid, so that it removes all the surface crap first. The last thing you want is spanner slipping off and rounding off the nut when trying to remove it. Luckily mine loosened up easily. I’ve heard of people using O2 sockets over these to get access to the 6mm Allen retaining screw if needed, but unless these sockets are made smaller by cutting. I fail to see how this is possible without removing the driveshaft.
I removed the driveshaft to get better access to the top nut. This can be removed with a 24mm Multispline IIRC, unfortunately I couldn’t find mine. So had to use a 1″ multipoint socket (25mm), it slipped slightly but gripped enough to remove it
After removing the driveshaft, it was easy to get access to the top nut. I just whacked it with a hammer to dislodge it since I had easy access. You can see what the old ball joint looks like after being removed and how bad the condition was. As you can see how far the boot has moved down the housing as it’s been leaking out. All covered in rust and grease. It hadn’t failed yet, as there was no knocking over bumps, although it probably affected the handling, and would have definately failed the MOT. It didn’t look as bad as this, so sometimes the damage it covered up when fitted to the car.
With the ball joint removed, I wanted to make sure the area was nice and clean before fitting the new ball joint and keeping any crap away from the hole. I used a wire brush attachment on a drill to do this. A simple wire brush will suffice however
Here you can see the comparisons between the old and new ball joints for both sides of the car. You can see the amount of rust and crap that came off the car when trying to remove them. The boots collapsed sand perished removing them. It’s nice to have better quality ball joints now fitted to the car.
I fitted the RH side ball joint to the car and added the top nut. If you have problems aligning it, just make sure the middle leg is at a 90′ angle with the hub. You don’t really need to tighten it properly yet anyway
The new ball joint test fitted to the lower control arm, each one was individually marked as L/R to prevent confusion when it came to fitting to the vehicle. I only made sure that I fotted one at a time to prevent any mistakes too.
When I was doing the passenger side I had to improvise. The 3 lower nuts on the ball joint snapped off (not really an issue), and I couldn’t get the ball joint splitter in between the driveshaft and the ball joint to pop it out. In the end I dismantle my ball joint splitter by removing the split pin, and basically juse used it as a traditional pickle fork type splitter. This was enough to shock and release the ball joint from the hub
After fitting the new lower ball joint to the passenger side, I tightend up all the nuts to the respective chosen torque with the Torque Wrench
I do this just as a visual record to see how many miles my car was on when carrying out the repair. If these were the factory ball joints, it was impressive to have liasted almost 147k miles. I doubt they are, but wishful thinking
Quick “how-to” on replacing Ball Joints on Audi A3 (no pics)
This isn’t an exact guide, but I’ve added some points where needed, this is working on the basis you won’t need to remove your driveshaft, if you think you’ll need to remove the driveshaft. It is best doing it with the wheels still on the ground. They’re quite tight. In order to manipulate the hubs, the car keys will need to be in the ignition and the steering wheel lock off. I normally put the keys in the ignition, remove the lock and then put a window down. As a note, if you do this approach you will need both front wheels off the ground because it rotates them both as they’re connected to the steering rack.
- Loosen wheel nuts and jack up car
- Remove wheel, support vehicle on Axle stand(s)
- Put wheel to one side (or under sill for extra protection)
- Spray penetrating oil on the lower 3 ball joint nuts, and the one attaching under the driveshaft to the hub
- Use wire brush to clean all nuts after
- Loosen the 3 lower ball joint nuts with 16mm socket
- Loosen the upper ball joint nut with 18mm spanner
- Insert the ball joint splitter, and pop the joint to free it
- When the joint is free, loosen 3 lower nuts and remove
- Push the lower arm down (you can wedge a breaker bar in the hole, and lock it under the tie rod to hold in place)
- Remove the upper ball joint nut (if you run out of room, just lower it more and loosen again until it comes off
- Clean up the holes and surrounding area with wire brush
- Insert the ball joint into hub loosely, add the nut at the top to hold it
- Insert the 3 lower ball joint legs into the lower control arm, and put into place
- Tighten the upper nut to pull the ball joint into the tapered hole (do not fully tighten just snug it)
- Tighten the lower ball joint nuts at the base of the control arm (do not fully tighten just snug it)
- Remove the axle stand, and reattach wheel
- Lower the car onto the wheel
- Using the Torque wrench / Low 16mm socket (and suggested 18mm crows feet), tighten the ball joint nut and 3 lower nuts
- I don’t know the exact torque here, I’ve seen 55nm – 75nm, and 30lb with a 90′ or 180′ turn. In the end I did 65nm for all of them. Over tightening can cause premature failure, but as I needed this for MOT, it will do for now, and I’ll just monitor them and when tightened, this felt roughly the right amount as they were snug but tight.
- Repeat the replacement procedure for the other side of the car
