99.5 A4 Q V6 manual. Feeling some vibration from the front of the drive shaft at low speed when turning. Bentley says don't work on the drive shaft. Blau has quit selling drive shaft parts. ECS sells a new CV joint (without a new boot oddly enough).


If it really too ambitious to swap out a CV joint?

 

I've changed two outside CV joints on my 2000 1.8. Is your boot broken and slinging CV grease into the inside of the wheel? If it ain't broke , dont fix it. you can buy a boot kit at the dealership for not much. so, if you must, get the Joint from ECS and boot kit from dealer. you should be able to get the joint out of the hub by removing the lower rear control arm and turning the steering wheel. screw the old axle bolt back into the splines and the joint will push off. by the way, I leave the clamp on the little end of the boot off so that it can float. I've clamped the little end incorrectly and it has pulled the big end off. very dirty job using CV grease.

 

Thanks hartsoe, but I meant the drive shaft from the trans to the rear dif.

 

Advanced Automotion sells the boot and CV joint. I've been able to find the joint fairly easily by its GKN part number, but the boot is one seriously elusive bastard. Are you sure it's the driveshaft cv joint though?

 

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I've used these guys, and rockauto, and a few others before, most of them have had a "propshaft" for sale. Mine was still good when I dropped the trans, so I didn't mess with it.

 

Not positive yet. I'll get under it later tonight. It started as a noise and vibration right under the E-brake lever as I turn a corner as I'm starting out. Today it's gotten quite a bit worse. Slowing down at 20 - 10 mph, whether I'm in neutral or not, I get a pretty big vibration and noise. I even feel it under my seat. I'm hoping I can tell something without taking off the exhaust and heat shield.

 

Its not a CV joint. It's the center bearing support. If you put a light on one side of it, you can see the light coming through a cut in the rubber from the other side.

 

I replaced the bolts on the tailshaft of the prop with new grade 10 bolts. After the CV axle exploded on my DL side, I realized that reusing the bolts was a bad idea. Wear and stretching on those bolts can sometimes go un-noticed.

 

Wanted to update this for anyone who searches. I bought a used drive shaft for $100, talked him out of another $25 cause he beat up one of the CV joints getting it out. Swapped for one of my old CV joints and slapped it in. No vibrations at any speed now.


If you are looking at your drive shaft center bearing, it can look like the first picture when it's in the car. Looks happy and healthy. But in the second picture you can see how bad it was. So poke around on the rubber on those center bearings. You might be surprised what you see.

 

Did you mark the holes where the carrier bearing was mounted at all. I've heard horror stories of guys changing the carrier bearing and getting some nasty nvh...If you've got any more pics I'd love to see em....This is one of the things I need to do this spring.

Thanks for sharing.