Bearing is shot in my diff. Picked up a used one with 60K on it for 400 bucks. Wondering if anyone has the Bentley for it (01 a6 4.2) or maybe even done it themselves. How many hours labour etc. Thanks.

 

Make damn sure it's the same gear ratio. especially if it's quattro
If not, your fooked! (braveheart)
Trusting a junk yard isn't a good idea.

Simply disconnect your drive shaft, put a mark on the input flange and corresponding mark on the diff. hold one tire stationary and turn the other while counting the revolutions of the input flange. for example 4.11,3.78, or what ever it is. It must be identical to the one you picked up. If not you will be geared all messed up and if it's quattro you'll destroy both diffs and the trany because the front and rear will be turning at two separate velocities. I have also heard they are matched sets, meaning 1 dude makes both parts so they match correctly. I'm not so sure what to say about that but match them up your self, If they match closely I'd put them in without hestiation. If they do not and you have quattro don't put it in.

Installation should be straight forward. only thing back there that can get tricky is the CVjoints and frozen corroded bolts. The other pita is removal of the drive shaft itself. Download a copy of the bentley from bentleypublishers.com you can't expect somebody to paste all that info up for you it's a few hours of bs to make that happen and you'll need to read through everything first. It's best to have your own copy.

Replace the rear output seal on your transmission final drive while your there. They sag and egg out over time and all of the seals on the diff. Replace the diff fluid with mobil-1 gear oil 75wt. Easy to do with it out on the floor.
Make sure you grease your CV joints with CV joint lube and replace the boots if needed.

 

[quote=Jackmup;1291200]Make damn sure it's the same gear ratio. especially if it's quattro
If not, your fooked! (braveheart)
Trusting a junk yard isn't a good idea.
quote]


Very important. There were several different diffs for man trans, auto, trans. V6s and V8s.

You need to be sure you have got the right one

 

Thanks guys. The diff came out from the same model/motor vehicle as my own, so one would hope they don't come with different gear ratios as "options". I will check though to make sure.

 

I let my mechanic throw it in for 150 bucks at his house. He didn't have any issues. Great success. Now to start saving for the next part that's gonna blow up

 

I have a PDF of the procedure from AllDataPro I can email you. PM me.