Okay so I took the a4 (96 2.8q 5 spd) for a ride today for the first time in a couple days. After I got it jumped and running (not sure why the batt died). I went to the store and I did notice a slight grinding when I took off. I did not hear it again by the time I got to the store.

I left the store no noise, made one more stop. No noises when I left. Got to the traffic light and stopped. When the light turned green, I hear the grinding noise and the car will not move. Will not move forward or backwards. I will not be able to get to it until after the weekend.

Any ideas where I should start looking?

thanks all

 

Kinda sounds like you blew an axle. Pretty easy to diagnose and fix. Hopefully it's nothing too serious. Sucks.

 

would 1 axle cause it not to move at all being its awd? I thought maybe it would still move due to that.

 

Nope. All of the axles are tied together through the center diff, which is a torsen(only can do torque bias, not lock) so losing one axle renders the car immovable.

 

All the power is "distributed" to the broken axle if I'm not mistaken. Which is why AWD has awesome grip/traction and does well in the snow. 4WD is different in that it distributes power to all the wheels, so if one is off the ground or the axle breaks, you're still able to move.

 

Yep, I stripped a CV spline in the hub and it stopped. I think, though, that the speedometer showed speed as I gassed it and it didn't move, since the internals were still turning, just nothing getting to the ground.

 

i have done regular axles in fwd american cars plenty of times. Hopefully this will not be much different or much more difficult. I will get under it tomorrow in the daylight and see whats goin on. Is there one axle that has more of a tendency than the others to go?

thanks for all the input everyone.

 

Make sure you have triple-square bits. Axles are pretty basic and there are tons of DIYs on the subject, there's nothing that should make it more difficult than any other car.

 

Don't stiff on a Japanese rip-off though or you'll be doing the job again in a couple weeks

 

I picked up a pair of front axels (they are different lengths, so be careful) for about 100 bucks last year from an O'reiley's. Haven't had a problem with them at all.