She is driving funny

B6/7 S4/RS4
#1

I think i may have broken the CV joint or axle. Here are my symptoms

I thought the steering wheel felt a bit wobbly on the way home from work last friday. I didnt drive again until this morning. On the way to work after a decent right hand turn i noticed the steering wheel shaking. It wasnt shaking so much as pulsing. With each rotation of the wheel i felt the steering wheel pulse very hard toward the right (the car would also drift toward the right) and the wheel would pulse hard and pop toward the right. It felt like a flat tire almost. I pulled over and checked and the tire looks fine.

I turned the steering wheel to the left and right. Then got back on highway. The feeling went away for a minute then came back but wasnt nearly as bad. Its almost like the feeling goes away and comes back. Its hard to hear anything over the exhaust but i may have heard a click or tick sound as well.

Not sure what it is. My thinking is CV Joint or axle. Feel free to comment. Taking it by my buddies shop probably tomorrow.

#2

Well the good news is its not a broken Axel. If that was the case the car wouldn’t drive (you need all axels working for the car to drive) could be the CV binding up but if you hit a pot hole is could be a damaged control arm. Let us know what you find.

#3

Is it possible the wheel became unbalanced? I had vibration issues at specific speeds with an unbalanced wheel before.

#4

x2, if the axle is snapped you’d be pushing the car

#5

Glad to hear its not the axle then. I dont think its the wheel unbalanced as i literally just had it done last month AND it doesnt always happen at the same speed. Also see below,

So on the way home from work and to work (yesterday and this morning) it did not happen again. I thought i felt it was going to and i feel like something is off but it could also just be me overthinking it. However, pulling into my work parking lot i did a somewhat hard right and heard a boom sound from the front end. Something is off. Im bringing it in after work and we are gonna pull stuff and look around. Ill update tomorrow with what we find.

#6

My B5 did that when the lower control arm went out. It was fine most of the time until I would take a hard turn into a parking lot and it would clunk really loud. Not sure if thats what you’re hearing but it’s worth a look since you’ll be in there. If the bushings went out and are binding up I could see how it might give you similar symptoms.

#7

Check and make sure your lugs are tight. Sounds more like a lower control arm issue but never hurts to check

#8

Update. The clamp on the outer boot fell off the axle and the grease was mostly gone and dried up. Luckily i noticed it quickly (i think) and we took the axle out and the cv joint and bearing and what not. Cleaned everything, and the cv joint had VERY MINIMAL wear on it. Very light scratches (almost non existant) and i could probably go awhile with it. We did replace the boot (even though there was no tear) and driving last night on the way home and to work the car felt alot better. Gonna be making road trip (18 hours round trip) this weekend so crossing my fingers that was the only thing.

I am however going to be proactive and order another outside CV joint and get it in within the next two months.

For those suggest LCA’s, they looked ok. Next year ill probably replace them all with 034 stuff.

#9

Did I win a prize.

It would be a good idea to think about getting it fully serviced. The poping noise and feel I’m the steering is never good and can cause small cracks.

#10

Lol you get Karma prize! Im going to be swapping it soon. Im traveling this weekend and needed the car. Its more a simple quick fix. When i put the headers on next month ill probably switch it out.

#11

Just be careful. Once they get bound up the always end up being a little flakey.

#12

Well the outside clamp popped off again. May be changing the axle tomorrow morning before I leave. we can get a remanufactured OEM one for 350.

#13

Too bad you don’t have more time to get an axle or I would suggest calling raxles

#14

Put the new axle in this morning. Went with a remanufactured one. It was an OEM axle (saw the stamps) and the boot on it actually seemed better than the one we put on two days ago from meyle.