porshapower

Hello I just finished replacing the driver side cv axle and did not have to remove any suspension to install the new one. The passenger side I am having a difficult time putting the new one in. Do I have to remove the control arm or should the axle go in without removing anything? My venicle is a 2004 a6 3.0 front wheel drive. Thanks

tester123

It took some time to find this. In future, include Engine code and Transmission code (it helps to look up info specific to your car - helps people like me who knows little on navigating these wacky manuals ).

As per manual, you'd have to loosen bolt/remove it at the top of wheel bearing housing (one side goes to tie-rod -don't loosen that as you'd need alignment) The top two control arms should be pushed upward and out. Then swing the wheel bearing housing to right/(use your angle here) enough to remove the driveshaft.

How did you do the other side without removing any control arms? Did you loosen/remove lower ball joints?

georgeb944

Beware the dreaded pinch bolt at the top of the steering knuckle. It is notably difficult to remove. VAG even specifies a $$$ expensive tool for just that bolt. Search on VAS6085.

You may be better off removing the lower ball joints from the steering knuckle in order to move it out far enough to remove the half-shaft.

SloopJohnB@mac.com

I'm not saying it can't be a problem, but in 14 years and two audi v8s I've never had a problem removing that pinch bolt. I use an Ingersoll-Rand ½" air wrench and it spins right out. I have reused them once, but use antiseize on the bolt. I have aluminum carriers so YMMV with salt environments and steel carriers. BTW, the real OEM bolts have an anti-corrosion coating on them to minimize galvanic corrosion between steel and aluminum.

Don't worry about the pinch bolt, just take it out. Popping the lower suspension bj or even the inner bushing bolt seems to me to be worse.

porshapower

Thanks for the replies guys I did a lot of reading on this before I started and some people can do them without removing the "pinch bolt" for the upper suspension. I was able to remove both sides on an "allroad" I did a few years ago without removing the "pinch bolt" and literally had both installed in about 1 1/2 hours. Now on my 3.0 a6 2004 the driver side was a piece of cake and did not have to remove the upper suspension there was enough room for the cv axle to make the angle and for the spline to ender the wheel housing. Now for the passenger side I spent hours trying different things and it is impossible to put in without removing the pinch bolt and knocking the upper suspension out. What happens is there are 2 metal lines next to the exhaust that do not allow enough space to make the cv axle make the turn to get installed. Hopefully this helps someone out in the future....Thanks again!!

jseklund

Sloop, I have been cursing you all weekend. I read your statement above on Saturday, before I started in on a wheel bearing job on my gf's A4. I have done this job around 8 times now. The first time I ever did it, I had a heck of a time with getting the upper control arms to pop out, but the pinch bolt came right out. It was on an A6. On my A6 I have done it a few times and the pinch bolt was not an issue.

On a buddy's VW Jetta, the pinch bolt was in so tight that I spun the head right off of it. On my gf's first front wheel bearing, I spun the head off of it and broke the threads. I just did the same this weekend on her other front bearing job.

I spun the head off, so I tried cranking the nut on and pulling it through that way. I snapped the threads. I then used an air hammer on it and it would not budge. I finally sprayed it down on Saturday night and went back yesterday and worked on it for 4 hours with a sledge hammer, air hammer, and finally a blow torch. I kept spraying the snot out of of it and nothing.

I went back tonight and worked on it for 3 hours, this time I used the MAP gas and got the knuckle literally red hot and used the hammer while it was hot and let it cool down and tried again. Nothing. No budging.

Finally, I realized that a piece of the bolt had split and wedged into the first slot where one of the upper control arms goes in...so I used a screw driver like a chisel and chiseled it out a little and tried to take some of the flare off. It moved about 1 mm. I hammered it the other way and it moved about 1 mm. I kept going back and forth, spraying with liquid wrench before I'd go in each direction with the air hammer. I started getting more and more distance each time...and then finally it just popped out like it was never any problem at all.

It took me a good 9 hours to get this bolt out. The entire time I was thinking of your "I've never had an issue". It seems the VW and A4 have more issues with this bolt than the A6's in my experience....

SloopJohnB@mac.com

Sorry about the Jetta….never worked on one. Probably never will after this!

tester123

And I thought same engineers work on Audi & VW...

lucio_liu

not sure about 3.0 but on my 2.8 I don't need to remove any control arm bolts to replace the axles(both dr and pass side)

there are write up and turtial on youtube, basically you remove the six bolts on the transmission side first then take the inner side off first then you can take it off without removing suspension parts.

SloopJohnB@mac.com

That's probably likely, they at least have access to the parts bin and more technical information than we do. Oh to have FULL access to the technical specifications (if not purchase/supplier information) of all VW/AUDI/Porsche bits!! We KNOW that identical parts with Audi and VW p/n have different prices….what's up wit dat? Bosch bits are Bosch bits….whether on Porsche, Audi, VW, Saab, or Volvo…yet prices are all over the map. Even in the same geo area using the same warehouse.

As far as the Jetta…was it a steel carrier vice the aluminum carrier on many 2.7T or 4.2 C5 cars…the aluminum carrier doesn't bite on the pinch bolt (softer than pinch bolt) so that's one reason the pb comes out easier…another reason could be the coating on the audi pb that's supposed to hinder galvanic corrosion from dissimilar metals. The last guy that put the pb in on the Jetta might not have used antiseize, either.

All we tend to see on the bb is horror stories…Occasionally I post WTF on stuff like pinch bolts that I've never had problems with. Now watch…karma will bite me in the **** and I'll have a horror story to tell. LOL.