Lower control arm ball joints

WHITE05

Active member
Joined
Aug 1, 2005
Location
Voorhees,NJ
TDI
Passat 2005 white
I bought a control arm kit and I thought I was going to be done today but I guess I was wrong.

I removed the lower arms and the ball joints on the new ones were tapered but the old ones were straight. I was thinking I may have removed a tapered seat that was pressed into the spindle but I was not going to take the chance of heating and trying to press it off and possibly destroying any chance of me getting it back together at least to drive until I found out what the difference was.

Do I just have the wrong lower arms or am I missing something? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Rich
2005 Passat TDI
 
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WHITE05

Active member
Joined
Aug 1, 2005
Location
Voorhees,NJ
TDI
Passat 2005 white
I hope this helps someone else if they are planning to replace the lower control arms.

Some Passats have a sleeve that is pressed into the spindle. If it gets seized onto the ball joint it will come out when trying to remove the ball joints. Mine were sized on there tight. I was able to get one off with heat but it took a bunch. Another one would not come off. I took a cut off wheel and cut a slot into the sleeve and it came off. The material is pretty tough. I put them back into the spindle and then installed the control arms. I tried to get new sleeves but they are not available. Just trying to help keep someone from getting into a jam.
 
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tmaxcy

Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2008
Location
Arizona
TDI
2006 Jetta, 2005 Passat, 2002 Jetta
I just experienced this same issue. Thought I had the wrong lower rear arms, but just had the sleeve that came out of the hub with the ball joint/control arm. This certainly wasn’t obvious since the sleeve didn’t easily come off of the shaft. I had to cut the ball joint shaft off, heat it and beat it out of the sleeve with a sledge hammer. The sleeve is cylindrical vs. the ball joint shaft which is tapered.

Best deal on the complete control arm & TRE set was from Bora parts. No more clunking when hitting holes or speed bumps. Everything tightened up nicely. 120K miles on the original ones.
 

Nash_TDI

Veteran Member -TDIClub Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 3, 2002
Location
Louisville, ky
TDI
2000 Silver Jetta TDI
I bought S4 aluminum spindles to do the S4 brake upgrade at the same time I do control arms. Ran into the same issue and had to get the control arms sent to me as well cause that sleeve stayed on them.

From what I found sleeve isn't available separately.
 

sirpuddingfoot

Veteran Member
Joined
May 14, 2010
Location
Seattle, WA
TDI
05 Passat, 05 Jetta
I recently did the complete control arm replacement on ours. I was shipped a set of lower fronts with ball joints that were too big to fit. World Impex replaced with correct arms. Apparently there is a part split somewhere in the B5.5 run.

One of my sleeves for the lower rears came out of the spindle, but I was able to pop it off with a ball joint separator and press it back in with some beefy washers, a long bolt, and an impact wrench in a similar fashion to pressing a wheel bearing in.

All in all, I would not do this job again unless forced at gun point or with a lift. I spent hours doing everything to knock the pinch bolts loose (Air hammer, punch with 3lb hammer, etc.). Salty MN Winters suck. Everything went back together with a healthy slathering of anti-sieze.
 
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