I admit I haven't searched yet but I'm in kind of a bad spot and need some help FAST! I just replaced my axle about a week ago and today I go out to my car and its acting like it did right before the cv joint blew. I crawl under and the axle is fine, but I see that the plate that the axle bolts to (kind of a bowl shaped thing) is hanging out of its place next to the gearbox. The other plate is nice and neatly tucked into the tranny, but the other is clearly hanging off or loose or something. What is this? Why did this happen? and what do I do about it?

 

Bump!

Here is a pic of exactly what the loose thing is

 

I didn't notice anything like that when I changed mine. Is it possible that there was a problem with the output shaft as well as the axle when you changed it? I didn't think to check that when I had mine apart.

I'm not even sure how they're retained in an Audi transmission. When I had the front drivetrain out of my Dakota, which has an IFS with half shafts, the output shafts were held in the center differential with C-clips, so all it would take for the axle to come out would be for one of the clips to fail. The rear axles on my Mustang are the same way, so maybe Audi uses something similar. I wish I had more helpful information. Good luck.

 

I don't know what I'm going to do about it yet, I've been doing all the research I can at work and haven't found anything for this on the internet. When I get off today I'm going to pull the axle and check it out, PITA but I just want my car to run

 

Through further research I have learned that the part is calle the drive flange and is splined onto the transaxle. After browsing through some VW forums this is a somewhat common part that gets addressed for wear and weakness. Also is a common source for tranny fluid leakage when the seal goes. I don't know what I did to mess it up, but my best guess is that I disturbed the c clip when installing the axle. In the future, I recommend that people check this part when doing axle changes.

 

I fixed the problem today. Turns out that a drive flange is held onto the drive axle by a single allen head bolt. Somehow this bolt had worked itself loose and thus the flange was hanging out. Pulled the axle, cleaned the flange, reinserted it and tightened it down, axle back on, good as new. When doing axles its not a bad idea to go ahead and torque this bolt down just in case.

 

I'm wondering if this was the reason to immobilize your car at the first place and not the cv shaft you replaced?

A single loose bolt makes the very g. engineered car a driveway decoration?

 

It definitely was not the first reason, When I pulled the axle the bearings looked very fubar and the drive flange was not loose. I think the control arm job broke them somehow. Its running great right now, I'm still keeping my eye on the other side, I might replace that axle when I decide to do the wheel bearings.

 

I just replaced both axles myself, and shortly afterwards I got a terrible shudder from the car when accelerating. When I took it to the dealership to re-align it (I removed and replaced the pinch bolts during the axle swap) they said the RH axle flange had some 'play'. Their recommandation? replace the transmission Fugeddaboutit.

I have been on the phone with a few good ZF transmission shops and I'm trying to sort through all the 'advice'

I did not see the single allen-head bolt you mentioned above. I only loosened the 6 star bolts to remove the axle from the trans. side of the car, and the replacement was re-connected with the same bolts.

When you say the flange is connected to the drive axle, do you mean output shaft? The flange is connected to the CV axle assy. with 6 star bolts.

I'll gladly remove the axle again to have a look if it will resolve the issue.
I have a 2.7T w/ a 5-speed TIP.