Front Axle repair advice (clicking, a thud, and slight vibration under lock)

[Kem]

So my front axles have a pretty regular clicking sound when turning the wheel, and when stationary sometimes turning the wheel all the way in one direction will result in a thud right before the steering stops. Also when making a slow and hard right turn I feel a slight vibration. Not sure if the thud is CV related but everything else points to a CV on it's way out.

Not a lot of info on the S4 forum about replacing them or other options. Just people identifying what the noise is. Given the car has 75k, I'm not sure it's worth repacking the CV's with grease and putting on new boots. That sounds like just as much labor as replacing the whole assembly. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Assemblies are only $137 from ECS and $160 from JHM, but both look to be non-oem.

What advice would those of you who have gone through this give me? Are the aftermarket assemblies mentioned above ok, and do you agree just replace the ailing one (or both, need to check)?

Thanks!

[Lefthook]

So my front axles have a pretty regular clicking sound when turning the wheel, and when stationary sometimes turning the wheel all the way in one direction will result in a thud right before the steering stops. Also when making a slow and hard right turn I feel a slight vibration. Not sure if the thud is CV related but everything else points to a CV on it's way out.

Not a lot of info on the S4 forum about replacing them or other options. Just people identifying what the noise is. Given the car has 75k, I'm not sure it's worth repacking the CV's with grease and putting on new boots. That sounds like just as much labor as replacing the whole assembly. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Assemblies are only $137 from ECS and $160 from JHM, but both look to be non-oem.

What advice would those of you who have gone through this give me? Are the aftermarket assemblies mentioned above ok, and do you agree just replace the ailing one (or both, need to check)?

Thanks!

If it's making noise, it's already too late. I noticed one of my boots had torn on mine but there was no NVH symptoms at all.. but with the assembly being that cheap, it was dumb to take a chance that no debris had gotten into the CV.

Just replace them.

[Kem]

Which brands are good? Seems like there are many options.

[Lefthook]

Which brands are good? Seems like there are many options.

I've become a big believer in JHM stuff through my own personal experience, so I'd feel like anything JHM is selling is up to snuff.

[Kem]

Yeah, I emailed them. I figured with the cars they build they must sell quality axles.

[BCsniper]

They sell the aftermarket axles but I'd say that they're fine to use unless you're just really anal about your parts. In all honesty I doubt they last quite as long as the OEM ones (which can go 100k+ miles) but for the difference in price the longevity of them is really not that big of a deal. Just to let you know buying OEM axles are I believe $400 plus. I believe the price was even more absurd if you need to axles for a TIP car.


Your other option is contacting Marty @ Raxles.com. He rebuilds axles but uses brand new oem cv joints.
He really saved my ass and sold me just the joint when I was stuck after getting the wrong part from ECS. My only other option was to buy a new oem one for $622 since nobody sold any TIP axles at that time.

[Lefthook]

Yeah, I emailed them. I figured with the cars they build they must sell quality axles.

Did you buy your 04 Avant in the Bay Area? I almost went and looked at a DG S4 Avant when I bought my brilliant black 6MT Avant in SF in 2010.

[Kem]

I bought it 3 weeks ago, so it probably wasn't the same one.

[AvantinUSP]

+1 for Raxles
just buy the whole assembly...it's a lot easier to do.

[nicotino15]

another vote for raxles, they are very high quality. When I had my 98 Nissan maxima the axles went bad and it was my first front drive vehicle so I didn't know much about them, and I looked at autozone. I didn't buy them there after reading the forums about raxles, and I ordered the raxles instead. The build quality is night and day and I fully believe if I didn't sell my car that those axles would've outlived it.

[JimmyBones]

I would get axles from FCPGroton and they are cheap, $89 each.

http://www.fcpeuro.com/2004-audi-s4/axles/?e=2532&m=20

[B6JoeS4]

The cheap ones are fine. I used a $65 EMPI one from Autoanything on my A4 and it was still good after 20k when I sold the car. Some auto parts stores sell them with lifetime warranties