DIY: front CV axle replacement

[shrike]

Used elyoung34 way did drivers side (first time) in 3h yesterday to remove all then 1 hour extra to put it back together .I am looking for torque specs for the heat shield now ,so in prob. 1 hour to torque it all back to spec.
Then other side removal and install , new one aswell got them axles from Raxles.(www.raxles.com).I'm sending oem axles back (150.000 miles) (4 broken/cracked boots ) so I don't get core charge extra (200+ $) . Came with prepaid ups everything.(boxes,labels,nearest ups station etc.). I made the mistake of not asking for 17 hex ,because I read somewhere Mary from raxles will ship tools aswell. I wound up looking in 6 stores before I found one or had to wait 3 days to get from Napa (partnr 615317),10mm triple bit (2305) i had and 6mm allen aswell for heatshield.I gave up install new one yesterday ,because I have only one functioning arm, had to ask my wife for help today.I did look at about 10 video's prior to my attempt and read a bunch of DIY"s. The car is 2004 allroad automatique 2.7 t. I guess I'm buying 2 lottery tickets tommorrow.

GLITCH: While removing axle I somehow broke 1 of the 2 wires going into the abs/brake wire combo, I looked at ecs from new one 267$ . I'm thinking,I should cut off connector entirely and connect 2 wires directly into the female part.Should work ,I just have figure out what is prong 1&2 because where the wires go in the plug, the male prongs are turned 90 deg but the wires inside the plug run clockwise or anti clockwise ?(does 1connect to right in female part of plug or 2)

[rollerton]

I have a brand new wire harness w/ ABS hall sensor for either of the front wheels. I bought a pair about a year ago for a problem that ended up being a bad ABS module. Pretty sure I paid nowhere near ECS's price. But yours for $40 shipped if it helps you fix your problem?

[mbagge01]

For those of you who have replaced the front axles on a automatic 2.7t A6, did your axles having the backing plates 1K0407357D (listed in ETKA) being used, which according to their purpose are to spread the torque on the bolts that connect the axle to the transmission. When I removed my axle, I did not see the plates there and they were not on the other side either. After looking at ETKA further, I am wondering if those plates are just used on the axles that are for manual transmissions. I believe that the manual transmission axles are 108mm and the automatic ones are 130mm. Please correct me if I am wrong.

[ChicagosPhantom]

For those of you who have replaced the front axles on a automatic 2.7t A6, did your axles having the backing plates 1K0407357D (listed in ETKA) being used, which according to their purpose are to spread the torque on the bolts that connect the axle to the transmission. When I removed my axle, I did not see the plates there and they were not on the other side either. After looking at ETKA further, I am wondering if those plates are just used on the axles that are for manual transmissions. I believe that the manual transmission axles are 108mm and the automatic ones are 130mm. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I don't know the exact dimensions, but they do not share the same flanges, so you're probably right.
You will need those plates for sure, all of my cars had them.

[mbagge01]

chicagosphantom, when you saw all your cars had them, are you talking manuals, automatics or both?

[02 A6 2.7T]

chicagosphantom, when you saw all your cars had them, are you talking manuals, automatics or both?

Automatic cars have the tripod style inner CV joints which use short bolts and do not require any backing plates. Manual allroads also have tripod inner joints.
All other manual A6 cars use the "pancake" style inner joint with long (around 2") bolts, which use the backing plates. The bolts pass through the metal inner CV boot flange on the "pancake style" joint and the backing plates prevent the flange from distorting when the bolts are torqued down. You don't need them.

[ChicagosPhantom]

chicagosphantom, when you saw all your cars had them, are you talking manuals, automatics or both?

Yes, both manual and automatic, even S6 had them.

[02 A6 2.7T]

Yes, both manual and automatic, even S6 had them.

Manual B5 S4 and C5 A6 had them as shown below:



... but only with this style CV joint :



Automatic A6's (as well as manual allroads) use this tripod style axle ...



... which does not use the plates :

[mbagge01]

Thanks, that is very helpful. I just got my raxle put on and everything is working fine so far.

[shrike]

I have a brand new wire harness w/ ABS hall sensor for either of the front wheels. I bought a pair about a year ago for a problem that ended up being a bad ABS module. Pretty sure I paid nowhere near ECS's price. But yours for $40 shipped if it helps you fix your problem?

Yes that cable would of fixed my glitch without a doubt .I took the long route and with the trial and error method got the right combination.ABS says OK :-).Then poured the whole thing in some epoxy resin and put it back into its clamp.So far so good,it's still working after 1000 plus miles.But big thanks for the offer it was the cleaner simpler solution replacing the whole harness.

[danspach]

Replaced my CV boot this weekend. What a mess.

Just wanted to reinforce that if you take off the shield that sits over the axle, you have plenty of room to get the axle out by turning the wheel to the off side and don't have to mess with the pinch bolt. (I did driver side boot so turned it to the right). This is on a 2003 S6.

Use the right length extension with a 6mm Allen head and taking the shield then axle out is a snap.

Taking apart and cleaning and reassembling a CV joint for the first time? Less so.

Thanks to all who contributed to this thread in the past and present.

[danspach]

So a quick follow-up question.

I'm pretty sure I marked the inner joint and the trans flange to make sure I put it back in in the same way I took it out but forgot to do so in my excitement to finally get it done.

Did I drop the ball on that?

[02 A6 2.7T]

So a quick follow-up question.

I'm pretty sure I marked the inner joint and the trans flange to make sure I put it back in in the same way I took it out but forgot to do so in my excitement to finally get it done.

Did I drop the ball on that?

Bolt pattern is completely symmetric and the flange is not indexed, so there is no need to reinstall in the same position as it was before.

[danspach]

Thanks. Good to know I don't need to take it apart again, though it'd be fun to see how much faster I could do it now.

I have a wobble at 20 mph that I didn't before. Will look for another cause.

[AllWorld]

Sooo... here's my 2 cents:

I had my air suspension at the highest height - only intended to do an oil change - then decided after having this axle for months without installing it - I'll do it! So - I was afraid to break my good ratchet so I went and got a breaker bar but foolishly used an extension... yeah - so the hardest part of this whole job for me was getting the piece of extension out of the 17mm hex socket. I used the top pipe from my floor jack and 2 long extensions for more leverage and the axle nut came off quite easily. (yeah - I tried my impact gun 1st - of course it didn't work) - axle nut loose - then jacked up the car and used jack stand - took the wheel off -(lug nuts tight as ever due to some foreign car specialists in NJ (thanks guys)) - had to use the breaker bar for that too! Anyway - wheel off -locked steering to left since I was doing passenger side - used the allen socket to get off the splash guard - not too hard - needed pipe for leverage to make it easier - then to get the axle flange nuts off only needed one long extension on the 10mm triple square (getting the plastic plug out of my new sockets was hard too by the way (thanks autozone)) - jacked the driver side to allow wheel to turn to position each next 2 bolts - used a bar between the seat and the brake to stop the wheel - (the screw driver in the brake rotor is probably easier when you're alone - which I was - but I didn't look at that video 1st!) - so once I removed all the bolts for the axle flange that side of the axle just slid down as I moved it! -

The thing I see people may have had issues with is just angle and positioning - I pushed the flange side up as far as it could go toward 1 o'clock - which gave enough room to slide it out of the hub - yes I had to compress a little on the flange side and it came right out.

to get the new one in -(used a Trakmotive Surtrack axle - hope I don't regret it) - I pushed it all the way in toward the one o'clock position - I am laying on the floor with my feet toward the back of the car - so that is easy - now when it's time to get the hub side in - it won't go past the brake wires and lines - go under that stuff and bring it up to the hub - it will still seem you don't have enough room but then you just make sure the flange side it as far as it can go toward one o'clock (my experience: the new axle won't compress nor bend at the joint as easily as the old one) - proceed to rotate the axle counter clockwise until you get the proper alignment to slide it into the hub!

It was a joy not to have to disconnect any pinch bolt though mine never gave me any problems before. So just line up the bolt holes and torque. I used blue Loctite only because it looked like it was used there before. Still up in the air 'cause I'm waiting on other parts for other stuff so I haven't driven it yet. Whoops - forgot to say I stripped one 10mm triple square when torqueing and the new axle came with a hex bolt - I want a new allen - not sure if the hex head gives me enough clearance for my stock center cap.

[4RingDiablo]

Good write up. But I do have a quick question, what are the torque specs for all the bolts ? Been looking around and can't find any answers. TIA

[danspach]

Dropping back in on this thread as now I’m doing the passenger-side front outer cv boot. Took part the cv and cleaned the pieces. Now time to put it back together and realize the outer cage is not symmetrical. Does anyone have a photo of the outer cv correctly assembled?

Thanks!

Dave

[Shaggykjb]

Anybody replace a CV axle and get bucking when put in reverse? Once I finished and put the tire on I started the car put it in reverse and heard a horrendous knocking that shook the car. I know their are abs markers on the cv shaft and some kind of plastic lever deal attached to the lower control arm.

[moyenecorniche]

BUMP ....

I've done this on my 04 B6, 04 B6 S4 nd the C5 05 llrod. You must elevte the front end so you cn jck up the front wheel with turning it full lock. Then you get the spce to pull the xle down nd out @ the trnsmission side ..

[royrogers]

Ok this comes from a thread I started elsewhere thought it would be better here.

2000 S6 4.2, car is very clean 50k kms so I didn't have to fight with anything. Followed everything found on this thread and have a couple of things to add.

To remove the axle, you do not need to remove anything on the suspension, everything fits just fine.

Wear gloves and long sleeves cause the whole thing gets to be a mess, have plenty of rags.
I used blue loctite on the bolts that go towards the engine.

The axle bolt that came on the kit is a 27mm I didn't have a socket that size, delayed me quite a bit.

Rebuilding, repacking, cleaning CV joint make sure you pay attention to the way things were in there, I had a problem and had to look up which way the pieces faced. Video link below.

Had to reuse the snap ring as the one in the kit was too small. You need a snap ring spreader tool will save aggravation.

The biggest problem I had is I hadn't hit the joint hard enough so it wasn't all the way in/down into the sprocket? So the axle was too long, could not get it back in, fight fight fight, and broke the boot. Probably 1 hour of jacking up the suspension turning the steering wheel... Finally broke the boot and when I took it all apart to fix it I realized what the problem was. Make sure you smack the cv joint all the way till it hits the plastic retainer/ring. You gotta hit it pretty hard, scary. There is a video that helped me with this link below, once I watched how you make sure you are aligned I was less scared of hitting it hard.

I assume this should take maybe 2 hours for the first side and maybe 1 for the second, you know once you jack up the car get your tools out, clean up....

Hope this helps, the quote to have it done was close to 500 bucks, parts shipped to my house, 25.

Good luck, I won't be reading this thread again ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S-ofMoWsr0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMl3CMm4Qkc

[milk]

I call user error there is plenty of room

No idea how many of these I've done and on my car it is nearly impossible to get it back in without removing the pinch bolt, simply not enough room, need another 1/8" to 1/4" on the drivers side. I've somehow managed each time but it always takes way too long. Doing it again right now and coming back to see if there are any helpful tips that I'm forgetting. I hate doing axles on this car.

[arjun90]

All you have to do is just disconnect the upper control arms (not from the spindle) but from the strut assembly hat itself using a ratchet / wrench, or wrench/wrench along with hands for feel, also disconnect the outer tie rods as well

[RyanB]

No idea how many of these I've done and on my car it is nearly impossible to get it back in without removing the pinch bolt, simply not enough room, need another 1/8" to 1/4" on the drivers side. I've somehow managed each time but it always takes way too long. Doing it again right now and coming back to see if there are any helpful tips that I'm forgetting. I hate doing axles on this car.

You turned the wheel your working on to full lock so you can pull it out of the rear of the spindle while having the inner joint up past the flange?

All you have to do is just disconnect the upper control arms (not from the spindle) but from the strut assembly hat itself using a ratchet / wrench, or wrench/wrench along with hands for feel, also disconnect the outer tie rods as well

I know people hate their rusted to hell pinch bolts, but my impression is that the body and spring get in the way of any control arm detachment from the hat. And good luck getting the correct arm angle when reinstalling it.