craigspeed77

I just did my s.a.i.p. 'cept I didn't pull the bearings, I sprayed the hell out of them with chain lube, spun all the old grease out (12v off the battery), shoved a bunch of new bearing grease in with my thumb, and spun it again till the new grease worked its way in. I just repeated the thumb-packing-spinning-in till the noise went away. I'm sure the bearing change is a more long term solution, but things have been fine for a while now and it didn't cost me a darn thing except about 40 minutes of my time.
I'm definately not knockin you other guys' work....good job! I was just glad to see that other people had taken it on for themselves, rather than forkin out 4 benjis plus. Kudos!!

allroaddave

There are a couple of issues with what you did.....if your bearings are noisey (mine cost $16 for the pair BTW) that means there is damage to the ***** and/or the races. Repacking them as you did means they're probably not rolling anymore as you have too much grease in there now - masking the noise. At some point they'll work this grease out and and you will have the noise back, but considering how little this thing runs, it might take a while for it to reappear. My thinking was, replace the bearings now and I probably won't have to fuss with it again as long as I own the car. And I agree, $500 for this little fan motor is just silly......

craigspeed77

Those issues did go through my head when i was doing the work. The other thought was that it might not have been bearing noise at all. I'm not sure if they are all this way but mine is a brush motor. My whine may have been coming from uneven brushes and the fact that the motor only runs for like 30 seconds makes me thing think that winding it out like i was may have evened out the brush wear. Either way, I am planning a major take apart-put back together project in the near future so i will prolly change the bearings and brushes in that lil sucker while i'm at it just to shut it up for good. I am new to Audis and want to give myself a crash course in audi surgery. Good chance to freshen up my gaskets,nuts and bolts,torque specs,detail parts,etc..... and acclimate myself with this beast!!.......btw, vag-com cable coming in the mail tomorrow......can't wait!!

adrefs

Hello Dave,

Thanks so much for this detailed write-up! My wife's A4 is having the same issue and I just spent $350 with my mechanic who inaccurately replaced an idler wheel and belts to (not) solve this squeal. We're now moving on to this pump and I'm wondering if you can give me an idea of how long this type of rebuild ought to take? I realize that you did this write up almost 7 years ago but if you can give me a ballpark estimate that'd be great!

Tim Hines

I'm getting a whining sound that's pretty loud at first startup on our 2015 Q5, seems like it might be this pump? It goes away after the car is been running for a bit.

Where is this pump located in the engine? Is it in the air filter housing?

I found one on amazon for $110 Is that right?

John535is

On the allroad 2.7t V6 it’s at the rear of the engine at the top, just slightly off centre. Has a very large cable connector as it pulls some battery power.

Tim Hines

Thanks John!

allroaddave

I'm sorry, I didn't see this post before now. I assume he's taken care of it by now.....no idea if the A4 and Allroad use the same pump or not.