Since I'm pretty experienced at car repair, I looked over a 98 Cabriolet for a friend before she bought it. It looked pretty good except that there was noise from the rear right wheel and there seemed to be quite a bit of play in both rear bearings. We pointed this out and she told the salesman that if those issues were cleared up, they had a sale.
They had it in the shop a few days what I heard secondhand was that they turned the rotors and then when they decided that didn't cure it, they repacked the bearings. Seems kinda backward to me, I would have made sure the bearings were OK before touching the brakes.
Anyway, she took delivery and brought it over for me to check. The left wheel now seems fine. Though the right wheel seems better since there is hardly any play when I apply slight sideways pressure on the front or back of the wheel, there is much more noticable play (I'd estimate .005") when I apply pressure on the top and bottom. So I think the bearing, cup or spindle is out of round from riding for a while with an improperly torqued bearing.
She has a five day, no questions asked return policy, but she'd rather not because she likes the car so much. But it would be foolish to keep the car if she's headed for a big repair bill. Since I'm not an Audi expert, I can't advise her. So I have a few questions before I even take anything apart to get a better idea of what is happening.
Is it possible that the play I'm seeing is within acceptable limits for a good bearing?
If I need to measure the play, can anyone tell me the max play I should see?
I've checked prices on bearings, and they are pretty cheap, but what if the spindle is out of round (I've seen it happen before)? Would we have to get a whole new back beam, or is the spindle a separate part?
If the spindle is a separate part, can anyone give me an idea of the cost?
Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Considering your talking about repacking bearings im going to assume you have a fwd as the awd's have sealed bearings in the rear. Most likely the rear bearings are bad and repacking them was a temporary help. There really shouldnt be any play in the rear wheel assembly, so you may be on the right track with the improperly torqued bearing. I dont think thered be any hub damage, but youd have to disassemble the rear brakes to be sure. Replaceing the rear bearings will probably take care of the problem and isnt much harder than replaceing the rear rotors as fwd would have a hub style rotor that has bearing seats in them.