This job was awful! Along the way I learned a few things that can make it MUCH less awful for you!
1)
"Normal" struts have studs on the top for going through the body. These use bolts and have "captured" nuts in the struts. They're not captured very well!!! The back bolt seems to rust badly. I've never had a problem removing top fasteners on a strut before so I just hit them with my little impact. The rust and corrosion on the bolts bound up in the nut and got the nut spinning. It does not take much on these! The nut is too close to the body of the strut. I couldn't get a socket on it to hold it. No way of getting a wrench back there! I tried jamming it with a pry bar. That didn't work either. So I decided to grind the head of the bolt off with my 90degree die grinder and a 50grit sanding disc. Safer than the torch and much easier to grab and put away. Only took a couple minutes.
With hindsight, I cleaned and lubed the bottoms of the bolts on the other strut and they came out. Just make sure you can get your impact on the bolt straight and, once you get it moving, don't stop!
2)
The head of the pinch bolts are triple square but if you're working on VW/Audi then you'll already have a set of them as they are required VAG tools. Both sides had pinch bolts that were corroded beyond salvation. They're not expensive so make sure you have replacements before starting the job!
3)
VW/Audi use a 12pt 24mm bolt to secure the CV axle shaft to the hub. I use a 12pt 15/16" socket which works just fine. This is a Torque to Yield (TTY)/stretch fit bolt. Service information says replace it with a new bolt.
4)
As with most struts, don't count on getting those sway bar links out without damaging them. I spent 30 seconds trying to remove one before just cutting them off. If you're replacing struts on a vehicle with sway bar links attached to them then count on replacing the links!
5)
Normally on these style struts you can get the strut started in the knuckle without much difficulty. Just remove the tie rod end and make sure you have enough slack on the brake/ABS lines. On this vehicle that axle was hanging up on the sway bar and preventing me from getting the angle I needed to get the knuckle into the new strut. I was left holding everything in a super awkward position and it was getting really heavy really fast!
For the other side, I decided to leave the old strut attached to the knuckle and remove the strut and knuckle as one assembly. I then removed the old strut and installed the new one on the bench. Then installed the whole assembly. On this vehicle that was a MUCH easier method. I would HIGHLY recommend anyone doing this in their driveway to go with this method rather than fighting with everything in the vehicle!
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