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Richard
Inexperienced



Joined: Feb 05, 2003
Posts: 34
Location: Aberdeenshire, Scotland

PostPosted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 11:17 am Reply with quote Back to top

There's been some comment about the lack of posts in this forum, so I thought I'd share a minor nightmare I had recently, just to get a little more content here!

It all started when I spotted a split CV joint gaiter. OK, not big problem, get a new gaiter from my local dealer (£15-ish), and set aside a morning to fit it.

Problem one - I need to completely remove the driveshaft to fit it. Go to town and buy a new socket to fit the driveshaft nut (£2-ish). The discover that the inner joint is held on with some socket-head bolts with a 12-point splined hole. Manage to jam an inch-size Allen key into the hole, which works for 5 out of 6 bolts, but slips on the sixth. Bugger. Go back into town to spend £4-ish on a special spline key to fit the bolt. CV joint off.*

Next step - remove the CV joint from the shaft. Try to open up the circlip that holds the CV joint on the shaft. One of the fingers that protrudes so you can operate the circlip snaps off, so I have no way of removing the circlip. CV joint now irretrievably attached to driveshaft. Double bugger.

Head off to my local scrappy, who sells me a used driveshaft for £53. CV joint gaiter old but OK, can't be bothered to swap it round, so just fit it to the car. Job over - or so I thought.

Two problems - a slight clunking noise, and the ABS no longer works on that wheel (which results in the whole ABS system shutting itself off after about 30 secs driving). No luck with diagnosis (and fed up with the whole job), so take to my local indepencant specialist.

They spend (they claim) 2 hours on the car - most of which is telling me things I already know and didn't ask them about (autocheck system warns of blown indicator light bulb, although bulb OK; rear discs badly need replacing) - the only useful thing they do is tighten the driveshaft bolt to specified torque (my puny torque wrench only goes up to about half the required value!), which solves the clunk. They return the car to me, apparently fixed. 30 seconds down the road I see that the ABS is no better than before. £82.

Take the car back to the independant specialist. This time they check the driveshaft (which I'd told them I'd got from a scrappy, so they should have thought of this the first time), and spot that it was from a non-ABS car, and doesn't have the ring of teeth required by the ABS sensor. They try to re-fit my original driveshaft, but it seems the thread for the driveshaft bolt is knackered (I had given it some abuse when trying to remove the shaft in the first place). They put the shaft from the scrappy back on so the car is still driveable, but at least manage to separate my original CV joint from the shaft. They claim to take a couple of hours, but only charge for an hour. £41.

The specialists then order me a brand new CV joint to fit to the end of my old shaft - £82, which is no more pricey than if I'd got it myself from German & Swedish.

Finally, I fit the brand new CV joint to the original driveshaft, with new gaiter, and swap back onto the car. Job done. As a bonus, I took the other shaft back to the scrappy who gave me a credit note for the full amount (something I won't have a problem spending).

The whole job should have cost about: £15
The whole job should have taken: 1 morning

The whole job did cost about: £226 (ignoring the scrap driveshaft I returned for the credit note)
The whole job did take: about 4 weeks (much of that awaiting slow delivery of new CV joint)

There are times when I wonder why I bother trying to fix things myself...

Richard


* By the way, Haynes says you need to remove the exhaust shield and exhaust down-pipe to access the inner CV joint. Nonsense. I managed to reach it fine reaching down from above - OK it was a little awkward, but much less hassle than removing the exhaust pipe!
 
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Locomotion
UltraUser



Joined: Jan 21, 2003
Posts: 4230

PostPosted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 9:40 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Moral of the story mate, be prepared and have the right tools. Just for future reference you could have knocked the CV joint off with a copper mallet once you broke the clip. Evil or Very Mad
 
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Clive
Inexperienced



Joined: Jan 22, 2003
Posts: 35
Location: Dorset, UK

PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2003 11:07 am Reply with quote Back to top

>Just for future reference you could have knocked the CV joint off with a copper mallet once you broke the clip.

He probably didn't want to hear that Embarassed
 
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LeeM
Audi Nut



Joined: Feb 09, 2003
Posts: 64
Location: Kent & Suffolk

PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2003 8:45 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Phew!

I think we have all had encounters like that, but it doesn't make it any more bearable.

I assume you were replacing the inner gaiter, (to start with), in which case the shaft has to be removed.

It's worth mentioning, in case anyone else needs to replace an outer gaiter, that the driveshaft can stay in situ for this job, which saves the need of the special, splined key, (which, incidentally, is a larger size on the V6 models, just to further complicate things!).

You can knock the outher cv off the shaft if you have a heavy enough, soft-faced hammer, but here is a cunning plan my Dad devised when I had to remove the outher cv from my car, (with his help).

Having removed the cv / shaft assy from the hub, screw the OLD bolt back in as far as it will go, (you cannot re-use it after this), and it will bottom out on the end of the shaft.

Ensure the other front wheel is on the ground to lock the diff, and then tighten the bolt so that it acts as a puller, to pull the cv off the shaft. An occational tap with the aforesaid knocking-stick will help things along, and avoid the need for almighty, (and dangerous) hammer-swinging hooliganism in such a confined area.

Hope that helps someone.

Lee
 
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Mikes2
Site Moderator
Site Moderator



Joined: Jan 31, 2003
Posts: 9144

PostPosted: Fri Mar 14, 2003 3:36 am Reply with quote Back to top

This only works with cars which have a bolt instead of the nut. you can buy a draper tool which allows the new boot to be stretched over the joint without having to remove it. You just cut the old one off and clean up the grease.
 
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Richard
Inexperienced



Joined: Feb 05, 2003
Posts: 34
Location: Aberdeenshire, Scotland

PostPosted: Fri Mar 14, 2003 8:41 am Reply with quote Back to top

Too many good ideas here - God I wish I'd asked you lot before I started on this job!!! Crying or Very sad
 
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Locomotion
UltraUser



Joined: Jan 21, 2003
Posts: 4230

PostPosted: Fri Mar 14, 2003 2:13 pm Reply with quote Back to top

Thats one of the reasons that this is one of the best......no the best Audi site around.

Can I have that £10 you promised me now Andy Evil or Very Mad
 
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