Replaced my center driveshaft support bearing yesterday. Should I do a write-up?
05-18-2009, 02:05 PM
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Replaced my center driveshaft support bearing yesterday. Should I do a write-up?
Took about 4 hours total. I bought the one from 034.
If enough folks are interested I'll take the time. Unfortunately, no pics. It's a greasy job so no way I was touching any electronics.
If enough folks are interested I'll take the time. Unfortunately, no pics. It's a greasy job so no way I was touching any electronics.
05-18-2009, 05:24 PM
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05-18-2009, 05:27 PM
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Blauparts has a decent checklist to see what is what.
My symptoms were than when I turned left and got on it, I would feel a bad vibration under the center console. It then got worse to the point I felt a similar vibration going up long hills. Then, in my parking garage, going up in circles, it sounded like a hamster on its wheel. Squeeked badly.
Check the bottom of this page:
http://www.blauparts.com/audi/audi_d....shtml#trouble
My symptoms were than when I turned left and got on it, I would feel a bad vibration under the center console. It then got worse to the point I felt a similar vibration going up long hills. Then, in my parking garage, going up in circles, it sounded like a hamster on its wheel. Squeeked badly.
Check the bottom of this page:
http://www.blauparts.com/audi/audi_d....shtml#trouble
05-18-2009, 06:22 PM
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Driveshaft support bearing using 034 Motorsports part.
I am providing this write up for informational purposes only. PLEASE NOTE: AUDI SAYS THAT THIS IS A NON-SERVICEABLE PART. By undertaking any projects on your own, you assume the risk of bodily injury and/or damage to your car.
I don’t think this can be done with just 1 person. In fact, I wouldn’t even try it. You can easily get the driveshaft out with one person, but I fail to see how you would ever get it back in.
By far, the most difficult step is separating the driveshaft. If you don’t have a way to do that, do not even bother reading the rest. I will let you know what we did to separate it, but it was an ad hoc procedure.
1. Jack up all 4 corners and put car on jack stands. Be sure to have it high since there will be two of you under there at times.
2. Remove exhaust. If you need a how-to on this, stop right now and go to a shop. Basically, there are just a few hangers and some clamps that hold it to the DPs.
3. Remove heat shield. I believe there are 4 10mm nuts holding it on. This is the heat shield that covers the driveshaft.
4. Now, you’re looking at the driveshaft and the bearing bracket. Take your time here getting a sense for how the bracket is aligned on the car. It may make sense to mark how the bearing is situated. I didn’t since it was covered in grease and goop. Where the shims were placed between the bracket and the car was the only clean spot, so it was clearly marked anyway. As it turns out, my new bearing didn’t have holes, it had slots, so I didn’t really use the marks anyway.
5. Get your allen set out and begin removing the 8 allen bolts that attach the drive shaft at each end. I recommend using power tools to speed things up a bit here. For one, you will want the ebrake on when loosening the bolts. On the rear, I think you can get two or 3 at a time. At the front it’s one at a time. So, loosen bolt, ask friend to release e brake, rotate driveshaft, ask friend to engage e brake, loosen bolt, repeat until all 8 are done. The thing are not too long, but getting enough room to turn the socket around the downpipes was difficult, thus my recommendation for considering power tools.
6. Now that your hands are greasy (and they will be since there is a ton of grease in the driveshaft ends, remove the 2 bolts that hold the support bearing. Caution: the driveshaft is a bit heavy and will hurt if you let it fall on your head.
7. Get driveshaft out from under car and IMMEDIATELY put some kind of protecting cover on each end. I used big ziplock bags and some tape. You may notice a gasket has fallen out or not (mine did). No biggie. It’s easy to put back in when you’re getting the thing back on your car.
8. Now, you will notice there is a bolt (18mm I believe) in the middle of driveshaft under the u joint. That will be coming out.
Before you do that, though, take a breath and gather your wits.
9. with your wits gathered, remove the bolt. A big washer will come out with it. Now you are looking at the driveshaft connection. This is where you will have the most difficulty. I took one look at mine and said “no freaking way.” The driveshaft appears to be pressed together, and you can’t press it apart with the ujoint in the way. But, the ujoint is machined together (this is how Audi made this part “unserviceable”).
So, how are you going to separate these two things? Spray PBlaster on the teeth right now. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Then, spray some more. Do not get any in or on the ujoint. There is grease in there and Pblaster would likely ruin the grease.
What we ended up doing is this: tapping it with a sledge hammer. Nope. Inserting an iron rod between the ujoint and the shaft connection and pounding that. Nope. Pulling on each end. Yeah, right. Finally, my friend says “I have an idea.” He walks around his garage, and comes back with a simple piece of steel in the shape of a right triangle. We’re going to use the thing as a wedge. We put the bolt back in the hole of the driveshaft about halfway. We then put the flat side of our wedge against the ujoint and began hitting it with a hammer. After a few whacks, we looked and saw we were making progress. When we estimated we were halfway there, we decided this was the time to mark the teeth so when we go to put the 2 pieces back together it would be lined up properly.
NOTE: THE DRIVESHAFT IS BALANCED SO MISALIGNING THE TEETH WHEN YOU PUT IT BACK TOGETHER WILL MAKE VIBRATIONS WORSE. TAKE YOUR TIME HERE TO GET A GOOD MARK ON 1 TOOTH AND GROOVE, PREFERABLY 2. We used a Sharpie and only marked one groove and one tooth.
A few more whacks, then we removed the 18mm bolt, and some light taps, and BINGO, driveshaft was separated.
Now, to get the bearing off. I used a large screwdriver and whacked it 3 or 4 times, and it popped off. Be sure to hit the correct spot on the bearing. There seems to be a piece of steel that is coated in rubber. That’s where I hit. Be sure you’re not hitting the driveshaft.
Make note of the orientation of the bearing. Note that it does go on a specific way. Now, tap it on. You could probably use a piece of wood to cushion the blows. It does not take that much force.
To get the driveshaft back into one piece, grab the other end, find your marks on the teeth and grooves, line them up, and push the two sides together a bit. Now, insert the washer and 18mm bolt and begin tightening. By doing this, the bolt and washer will press them back together.
Reinstall is basically steps in reverse. I had my friend hold the driveshaft while I put back the 2 bolts that hold the bearing to the car. I did this to hold the driveshaft, but I did not tighten them yet.
Now, begin putting the driveshaft bolts back in I’d recommend power tools here once again, but don’t go too crazy with them, you don’t want to strip out a bolt at this point.
Once those are in and tightened, line up the bearing bracket as best you can, and tighten the bolts down.
Put on heat shield, put on exhaust (again difficult with just one person) and crack a beer. You just spent about $100 and 3-4 hours (max) on a repair that Audi wants you to spend $400 on parts and another $100+ per hour of labor.
So, once we got everything buttoned back up, the car was still off the ground, so I had my friend get in a start the car, put in gear, and shift a bit. He took it up to 30 mph and we noticed no problems.
“You won’t notice anything until the driveshaft is under load” he tells me. OK.
Driving home, let’s just say I put the thing under load a few times, and not a singe vibration was felt.
I’d have to conclude that my “unserviceable part” had in fact been serviced by me.
The driveshaft is now my bitch, and I feel about $700 richer.
Questions?
I am providing this write up for informational purposes only. PLEASE NOTE: AUDI SAYS THAT THIS IS A NON-SERVICEABLE PART. By undertaking any projects on your own, you assume the risk of bodily injury and/or damage to your car.
I don’t think this can be done with just 1 person. In fact, I wouldn’t even try it. You can easily get the driveshaft out with one person, but I fail to see how you would ever get it back in.
By far, the most difficult step is separating the driveshaft. If you don’t have a way to do that, do not even bother reading the rest. I will let you know what we did to separate it, but it was an ad hoc procedure.
1. Jack up all 4 corners and put car on jack stands. Be sure to have it high since there will be two of you under there at times.
2. Remove exhaust. If you need a how-to on this, stop right now and go to a shop. Basically, there are just a few hangers and some clamps that hold it to the DPs.
3. Remove heat shield. I believe there are 4 10mm nuts holding it on. This is the heat shield that covers the driveshaft.
4. Now, you’re looking at the driveshaft and the bearing bracket. Take your time here getting a sense for how the bracket is aligned on the car. It may make sense to mark how the bearing is situated. I didn’t since it was covered in grease and goop. Where the shims were placed between the bracket and the car was the only clean spot, so it was clearly marked anyway. As it turns out, my new bearing didn’t have holes, it had slots, so I didn’t really use the marks anyway.
5. Get your allen set out and begin removing the 8 allen bolts that attach the drive shaft at each end. I recommend using power tools to speed things up a bit here. For one, you will want the ebrake on when loosening the bolts. On the rear, I think you can get two or 3 at a time. At the front it’s one at a time. So, loosen bolt, ask friend to release e brake, rotate driveshaft, ask friend to engage e brake, loosen bolt, repeat until all 8 are done. The thing are not too long, but getting enough room to turn the socket around the downpipes was difficult, thus my recommendation for considering power tools.
6. Now that your hands are greasy (and they will be since there is a ton of grease in the driveshaft ends, remove the 2 bolts that hold the support bearing. Caution: the driveshaft is a bit heavy and will hurt if you let it fall on your head.
7. Get driveshaft out from under car and IMMEDIATELY put some kind of protecting cover on each end. I used big ziplock bags and some tape. You may notice a gasket has fallen out or not (mine did). No biggie. It’s easy to put back in when you’re getting the thing back on your car.
8. Now, you will notice there is a bolt (18mm I believe) in the middle of driveshaft under the u joint. That will be coming out.
Before you do that, though, take a breath and gather your wits.
9. with your wits gathered, remove the bolt. A big washer will come out with it. Now you are looking at the driveshaft connection. This is where you will have the most difficulty. I took one look at mine and said “no freaking way.” The driveshaft appears to be pressed together, and you can’t press it apart with the ujoint in the way. But, the ujoint is machined together (this is how Audi made this part “unserviceable”).
So, how are you going to separate these two things? Spray PBlaster on the teeth right now. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Then, spray some more. Do not get any in or on the ujoint. There is grease in there and Pblaster would likely ruin the grease.
What we ended up doing is this: tapping it with a sledge hammer. Nope. Inserting an iron rod between the ujoint and the shaft connection and pounding that. Nope. Pulling on each end. Yeah, right. Finally, my friend says “I have an idea.” He walks around his garage, and comes back with a simple piece of steel in the shape of a right triangle. We’re going to use the thing as a wedge. We put the bolt back in the hole of the driveshaft about halfway. We then put the flat side of our wedge against the ujoint and began hitting it with a hammer. After a few whacks, we looked and saw we were making progress. When we estimated we were halfway there, we decided this was the time to mark the teeth so when we go to put the 2 pieces back together it would be lined up properly.
NOTE: THE DRIVESHAFT IS BALANCED SO MISALIGNING THE TEETH WHEN YOU PUT IT BACK TOGETHER WILL MAKE VIBRATIONS WORSE. TAKE YOUR TIME HERE TO GET A GOOD MARK ON 1 TOOTH AND GROOVE, PREFERABLY 2. We used a Sharpie and only marked one groove and one tooth.
A few more whacks, then we removed the 18mm bolt, and some light taps, and BINGO, driveshaft was separated.
Now, to get the bearing off. I used a large screwdriver and whacked it 3 or 4 times, and it popped off. Be sure to hit the correct spot on the bearing. There seems to be a piece of steel that is coated in rubber. That’s where I hit. Be sure you’re not hitting the driveshaft.
Make note of the orientation of the bearing. Note that it does go on a specific way. Now, tap it on. You could probably use a piece of wood to cushion the blows. It does not take that much force.
To get the driveshaft back into one piece, grab the other end, find your marks on the teeth and grooves, line them up, and push the two sides together a bit. Now, insert the washer and 18mm bolt and begin tightening. By doing this, the bolt and washer will press them back together.
Reinstall is basically steps in reverse. I had my friend hold the driveshaft while I put back the 2 bolts that hold the bearing to the car. I did this to hold the driveshaft, but I did not tighten them yet.
Now, begin putting the driveshaft bolts back in I’d recommend power tools here once again, but don’t go too crazy with them, you don’t want to strip out a bolt at this point.
Once those are in and tightened, line up the bearing bracket as best you can, and tighten the bolts down.
Put on heat shield, put on exhaust (again difficult with just one person) and crack a beer. You just spent about $100 and 3-4 hours (max) on a repair that Audi wants you to spend $400 on parts and another $100+ per hour of labor.
So, once we got everything buttoned back up, the car was still off the ground, so I had my friend get in a start the car, put in gear, and shift a bit. He took it up to 30 mph and we noticed no problems.
“You won’t notice anything until the driveshaft is under load” he tells me. OK.
Driving home, let’s just say I put the thing under load a few times, and not a singe vibration was felt.
I’d have to conclude that my “unserviceable part” had in fact been serviced by me.
The driveshaft is now my bitch, and I feel about $700 richer.
Questions?
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05-26-2009, 07:12 PM
#9
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I live in the Fairwood area of Renton.
I'd be happy to help, but there's no way I'm doing it all again.
When I did it, my friend mostly supervised to make sure I didn't have to get up and out from under the car every 5 minutes. He handed me tools and such, and he helped line up the drivshaft bolts into their proper fitting while I held the shaft itself.
We also did my snub mount, and that was easy. I'd gladly do that again.
I'd be happy to help, but there's no way I'm doing it all again.
When I did it, my friend mostly supervised to make sure I didn't have to get up and out from under the car every 5 minutes. He handed me tools and such, and he helped line up the drivshaft bolts into their proper fitting while I held the shaft itself.
We also did my snub mount, and that was easy. I'd gladly do that again.
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