For a while now I thought I was experiencing some strange misfires that I just couldn’t put my finger on. Turns out, I was feeling a vibration from a bad passenger side front axle that was getting worse over time.
Question - Does the C6 A6 axle shaft assembly fit the C6 S6?
That’s the importance of Cv boots and cv wear monitoring. It might fit, I’ll do some research but someone here will probably beat me to the punch. My guess and it’s a guess is yes… can yu compare the P/N, that’s what I would do?
You are correct. Update - spoke to a friend that works service at a dealer in NJ. The S6 indeed has a different axle assembly. It comes down to OEM $$ vs aftermarket. That being said there are some OEM used on ebay, though you never know how much life is left in the part.
That’s the importance of Cv boots and cv wear monitoring.
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Case in point. Just this last weekend I pulled the driver side axle to replace the inner CV boot. It had just recently failed. I had to replace the passenger side inner boot about 2 years ago (at about 70k miles). I’m currently at 95k miles.
Rally. The axle itself won’t fail. It’s the CV joints that fail and start causing vibration. If you’re adventurous, you can pull the axle and replace both CV joints. You can probably source both of them for less than getting a full axle.
Another route is to contact Raxles. Before I pulled apart the axle, I inquired about a full axle replacement. It was about $300. That included brand new CV joints on a refurb axle.
Very similar fate for my driver’s side axle. boot broke at the small end, I’ll assume from heat that it failed early.
Will likely take out the other side and replace the boot as preventative maintenance. I’ll take some pics of the axle. I ended up getting a replacement axle from Wolf Auto Parts in Minneapolis for $150. It had 67,000 miles on it and the boot was showing signs of cracking. I’ve replaced the boot on that used axle as a preventative measure.
+1 on raxles. I ordered a set of those for my B6 S4 and was happy with the replacement.
meant to post this in this thread. : sorry, no pics…I get an error when I try to include them.
Finally getting around to putting my summer wheels/tires on this w/e (it is Michigan…it could snow in June).
Doing an inspection of the everything and what do I see–both L&R inner CV boots are shot. First (3) pics are of the LF, but can’t easily see where its cracked. Not much grease left by the looks of what I cleaned up. The last pic shows the RF with the small diameter portion completed separated around the entire circumference. Checked them in October. Not sure when it happened, but I guess I know what I’m doing next w/e.
I was going to buy the axle replacement hardware kit (8E0407643AKT; ~$35/ea) and the inner CV boot kit (4E0498301; ~$52/ea) from ECS to tackle this. Any other thoughts on this job? Any special tools required? I’m assuming it’s within my reach. Thankfully I just bought the Bentley CD, but haven’t had a chance to install on the ancient laptop I got from my dad running the old Windows.
While I’m at it I was going to replace both upper control arms on both L/R sides.
Good thinking doing the upper control arms at the same time. I know from experience I’ve only ever been able to change one half shaft without having to undo the upper control arms/tie rod ends. I’ve heard some people are able to do it while others couldn’t. Hit or miss, I suppose.
Be prepared… those pinch bolts at the top of the steering knuckle that are securing the upper control arms are a pain in the ass to deal with.
Make sure you have a torch handy for when you get started on the job and heat the knuckle up for several minutes around where the pinch bolt passes through it and then try and loosen / tap out the pinch bolt. You will most likely set fire to the rubber boots around the ball joints. Don’t panic. Just make sure you have some water handy in case it gets too out of control.
You are also going to have to drop the strut tower assembly and undo the sway bar link(I think… not a big deal to do it!) in order to be able to access the inner bolts holding the control arms to the brace. Reinstalling them you’re going to need a digital caliper and a torque wrench in order to make sure you are not over-loading the rubber bushings. I think ECS has a good PDF write up on this procedure. This isn’t that difficult just can be a pain in the ass given how seized everything is.
Oh, and you’re going to need a set of triple square bits for the inner bolts holding the half shafts to the diff.
Case in point. Just this last weekend I pulled the driver side axle to replace the inner CV boot. It had just recently failed. I had to replace the passenger side inner boot about 2 years ago (at about 70k miles). I’m currently at 95k miles.
Rally. The axle itself won’t fail. It’s the CV joints that fail and start causing vibration. If you’re adventurous, you can pull the axle and replace both CV joints. You can probably source both of them for less than getting a full axle.
Another route is to contact Raxles. Before I pulled apart the axle, I inquired about a full axle replacement. It was about $300. That included brand new CV joints on a refurb axle.
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Yikes!
Well I was able to get my hands on a full aftermarket assembly for a good price. As other have noted here, I’ve see some are able to remove the assembly whole without any control arm disassembly. I hope that’s the case. I really don’t want to get into CA work tomorrow!
In this video they removed the heat shield to allow them to move the inner CV joint aftward and upward. They then turned the hub so that the centerline of the outer CV joint was more in alignment with the inner CV joint. This allowed enough clearance to remove the axle without removing anything else.
My parts are still in transit, so it looks like you’ll get to try this before I will. Please let us know how it goes.
2008 S6, I had heard about this option, and looked in to doing it for my first axle removal (was worried about frozen CAs). The bolts for the heat shield were pretty difficult to access. You should definitely take a look before getting too far along in removal. I do know that this path would be easier if your CAs are frozen in the spindle, though. I would not want to go through the nightmare I’ve read some people have had with stuck upper CAs. I have a car that has always lived in California, so the CAs pop out of the spindle under the force of the bushing. I’ve also coated them with anti-seize ever since first pulling them apart.
On the flip side, removal of the axle is really easy if you remove the upper CAs, strut and the sway bar bracket. It allows the lower CAs to drop down an extra couple of inches which is a world of difference in getting the axle out. Oh and having the strut out of the way also reduces frustration levels for maneuvering the axle around.
You can remove the Upper Control arms by undoing the rear bolts they’re 16mm| 5/8" bolts that are accessible. Then you can avoid touching the pinch bolt if you’ve never taken it out.
I removed the lower control arm at the chassis for additional room.
sorry, no pics…I get an error when I try to include them.