Whew! What a maintance day! Special thanks to Old School Audi! Inner CV boot, Neuspeed bushings, etc

[HACK THS]

First and for most, a HUGE thanks to Old School Audi for helping me with a few questions when I was stuck as well as giving me an overall idea of what to expect when replacing the CV boot!

For those replacing the inner front CV boot here are a few tips.

1.) Follow OldSchools CV post by removing the 30mm hub nut, tie rod nut, front sway bar nut, and 3 nuts attaching the control arm to the suspension tower. Once you have all that out, you can down the control arm down and allow the brake, etc to hang free.

Old Schools post: http://forums.audiworld.com/tt/msgs/1351227.phtml

2.) Remove the 6x triple square bolts holding the inner CV joint to the transmission. Size is 10mm, available at Napa parts.

3.) Pull the whole brake assembly and suspension tower away from the car enough to pull the inner CV boot/joint out from inside the engine area, it can lay resting against the control arm.

4.) Cut open the boot and be sure to catch any grease that comes out- it is thin grease, so watch out for splatter. Then cut off the one time use clamp holding onto the boot

5.) Remove the boot, and the gold colored end cap on the other side of the joint.

6.) Clean up as much grease as you can, and you will see a small round clip that goes around the spline that that joint sits on. I removed it by filing down a very thin pair of needle nose plires- we are talking small. Put the files down ends in the small holes and spread apart. Thickness of the tips of the pliers should be half that of a ball point pen tip- ie very thin.

7.) Once the clip is gone, yank the joint straight away from the spline toward the engine. Clean with brake cleaner.

8.) Install new boot and regrease joint after cleaning and checking for damage- slight scoring is normal since it is a wear type part.

9.) Push joint back into spline and fill boot with extra grease- about 2/3 of the grease bag goes on the joint, and 1/3 goes into the boot.

10.) Replace clip with new one and install new end cap. I used 3 large pliers to squeeze end cap on uniformly, has a tenancy to become misaligned when pushing on- MAKE SURE holes line up with joint!

11.) Install new Audi one use clamp, I am using a screw type clamp, but it is a little too wide and I am afraid it will rub- plus the screw part needs to be BETWEEN holes for bolts- bolts will not fit over screwing device.

12.) Reposition inner joint into transmission housing and install bolts again. Replace everything in reverse order.

Tip: an impact wrench was a LIFE saver for both the 30mm bolt in the beginning and the tie rod nut. Honestly if you are have a dealership do this for $150-$200 with parts you are better off. It cost $35 in parts, and $40 in tools, plus about 5 hours of labor- but it was my first time. Most shops have done this a ton of times and could do it in an hour or 2. My new one will be an outer boot on the passenger side- which I found a slight tear in :-(

Hope that help!


Beyond this I installed NEW Neuspeed rear bushing for my rear 19mm sway bar, they have about 20+ thin little groves on them to hopefully keep more grease then before.

Also replaced my dog bone mound screws with new stretch bolts.

Overall a successful day. Thanks again to CheeseheadCubsfan and OldSchool

[CheeseHead Cubs Fan]

[OldSchool AG]

I did upper control arms on an A6 after we hung up the last time. 2 upper links on each side, and the strut has to come partially out. Stealer charges 3.5 hour PER SIDE... I finished up both sides in just under 3 hours total. Feel like I was run over by a truck today, though. =)