Just bought a used 2004 2.7 BiTurbo Quattro last month. Washing the car yesterday I found all sorts of grease caked onto the inside of the front driver's side rim. Looks like axle grease to me. I just ordered the Bentley car repair manual but it won't ship until 4/12 and then another 5 business to arrive. I think I better get the boot fix before then. Are there any online procedures of repairing the boot? I imagine I have to get the always fun, hub bolt off and the steering knuckle. I always hate doing this on other cars that I've repaired. I've read onlinethat I may need a 14mm or a 17mm allen socket to get the hub bolt off.

Where is a good website to order the repair kit from?

 

You'll need a 17 mm allen wrench to get the axle bolt out. Use search as the write up is out there. An alternative to just replacing the boot is to replace the axle. Rebuilt axles run about $80 and are much less a pain to replace than the boot.

Bob

 

Audiof Dallas just quoted me $406.00 plus tax (8.25%) to replace the driver side outer CV boot. Labor is 2-1/2 hours at $130, part is $61.00, but $406 - $61 = $345 and $345 / 2.5 = $138.00. They told me the difference between the $130 per hour and what they would charge me $138 per hour is because they work on a "grid" (very complicated to understand I was told).

So I will definitely be doing this job myself. BTW Autoscope of Plano would not even quote me a price. They required me to come in so they could perform a diagnositics at $109 per hour and then and only then explain what repairs would be necessary. The diagnositics cost would not be applied towards the actually repair or the parts. So I'm in it for $109 + tax whether it gets repaired or not.

Bentley book $63.00, GNK CV boot kit $29.95 + $5.00 shipping = $35.45. I already owna KD Tools ball joint service kit, electric 1/2" impact gun, and CV clip pliers already, so it looks like I'll need the proper allen socket for the axle bolt.

Will post how it goes once all parts and tools arrive.

 

Repair went well. I had much trouble trying to get the upper control arms off with the KD ball joint service tools. I ended up needing to use one of the tools with varying lengths of bolts I cut with my cut-off wheel. The ball joint tool could not "reach" far enough into the control arm to push out the bolt. I would use one length bolt then a longer one and then a third longer one until it was out.

There was no way I could get any of my ball joint pullers (I own seven different styles) to pop the bottom control arm out of the upright. Anyone know how to do this as I need to change the struts soon?

I also needed a Triple Square driver for the axle to transmission bolts. Thankfully NAPA had the correct tool for under $15.00.

I bought the 17mm axle socket from Assenmacher direct for about $18.00, shipped in two days to my door.
http://www.asttool.com/detail_page.p...&category=spec

Make sure you get a long arm puller 5" or more to pop the CV joint apart. The two pullers (3" 2-ton and 5-ton) I bought were too short and I had to rent one from AutoZone.

 

AR,

Question for you about changing your struts. I drove older Audis before the 97 I have now. Don't even know on this on if it is the same.

My older ones had a screw top on the strut tube. You unscrewed that and removed the cylinder, dropped in a new one, recapped it, all without taking it off the car.

Does your Bentley manual show you that yours has a repaceable cartridge? You could also look at it to see if there is a collar that can be unscrewed.

Cheers,

George

 

The whole assembly has to come off the car then get disassembled. Lots of work.

You don't need to get the lower control arms out of the upright to do the strut, but you will to replace the control arms, which die a long time before the struts. Take your big hammer and hammer the upright (yes, the upright!) around the outside of the ball joint taper. This will either pop it out or loosen it up enough for the pickle fork to work.

Bob

 

I cring at using a pickle fork any where near those alumnium components.

 

Just replaced my passenger side CV boot this past weekend. I replaced the driver side boot several months ago. I still struggled with removing the upper rear control arm from the wheel bearing carrier, I have a KD tool Ball Joint Service Kit too. I had no problem getting the upper front joint out though.

The problem with ther rear joint is the only tool I own that fits does not have a forcing screw that contacts the stem of the ball joint. Instead in has a lever arm. What I have to do is cut several bolt to different lengths such that the bolt fits up inside the wheel bearing carrier and contacts the bottom (stem) of the ball joint. The other issue is if the ball joint tool closes too much then the lever arm contacts the wheel bearing carrier and digs into the aluminum. So I need to make longer and longer bolt lengths as the ball joint backs out of the wheel bearing carrier. I think I spent about two hours working on this one control arm.

Other than the upper rear control arm everything else went smoothly. Concerning removing the outboard CV joint from the axle I found an easy way. Just remove the entire axle from the car, thread the old axle bolt back in to the axle until it bottoms out, then run the bolt further with an impact wrench until the outboard joint pops off the axle. I rented a long jaw 5-ton puller to pop off the joint when I repaired the driver side boot. It worked fine but it took a while and muscle to pop the joint off. Not to mention needing to hold the axle still. The impact wrench took about 10 seconds with no effort, much nicer.

I found a very simple method to reinstall the outboard axle as well. When doing the driver side axle I followed the service manual and laid the axle on the ground and then drove the outboard joint on with a hammer. This took a while and I whack my hand once with my 5lb sledge, ouch. My new method is to thread the old axle bolt back into the axle to the point it just peeks out from inside the axle cup. I then place the joint on the axle and stand the whole assembly vertical with the axle bolt towards the ground. I then just drop the axle onto the ground guiding it with my hands (keep everything vertical). I did this about three times and the outboard joint snapped onto the axle via the circlip. Piece of cake.

Another problem I had with both of the CV boot kits is the dished washer was too small of a diameter to fit over the axle. I had to reuse the old dished washers. I don't know if you must hammer the new one on over the axle causing it to compress and fit. I didn't feel like messing with it so I just reused the old ones.

Good luck on your CV boot replacements. The kits cost me $33.00 each and the KD ball joint tool kit was about $87.00. I also needed to buy the axle bolt 1/2" drive allen bit as well as an XZN (triple square) bit for the inboard axle to transmission bolts. See my posts above for more information on the tools. The local and only Audi dealership within 40 miles wants $410 per axle to replace the CV boot. So I saved a bunch doing it myself and get to keep the original axle. I'm not had good luck with refurbed axles on other cars.

 

I live in the DFW area (Fort Worth) and I too just bought a 2004 2.7T. I am real excited about it. I have a CV boot that appears to be leaking as well. Covered under warranty, so I am going that route and I will just pay the small deductible. My A4 that I am selling needs both front CV Boots. Oh the joys of FWD/4WD. I don't have all the tools to do it myself, but it probably wouldn't be a bad investment as I had already replaced the A4 CV boots once before. They just don't seem to last that long. Hope our cars both turn out to be great buys for us. I have never been happier with a car purchase so far and I have made quite a few over the years.