Propshaft Overhaul

[imster]

@ martinjs.....new covers....thats the one thing i didnt get.

did you replace the Universal Joint also - if so, was it really a mission.

imster

[martinjs]

No, didnt change the UJ.
Just took it to bits and re-packed it with grease.

[maRS2]

Sorry guy's can someone confirm if it's the CV joints I need for this?
Schould I order 2 Rh Or 2 LH

[Faheemo]

I've gone about the center bearing Replacement as per martins method, Using the BMW part number. Also redid the CV's.

My Propshaft doesnt appear to be aligned with each other longitudinaly.
Ther seems to be a slight anngle at the uneversal joint.
IS this normal and OK ???

[Audi Parts Guru]

The prop does need to be aligned properly otherwise you'll end up with premature wear in the joints

[Faheemo]

Back to the underneath of my car .....
The carrier bearing does seem to be the wrong way around ... i think.
Is this possible.
How does one go about aligning the Prop when replacing ? any method ?

[martinjs]

Back to the underneath of my car .....
The carrier bearing does seem to be the wrong way around ... i think.
Is this possible.
How does one go about aligning the Prop when replacing ? any method ?

can you take a pic of the part you think is the wrong way round.
As for alignment, you should be ok to use the same washers that the old carrier used so it should sit at the correct height, as for left and right alignment, i just moved it till it looked straight, lol.

[SR71]

Guys,

Can someone tell me what the symptoms would be of a knackered or misaligned prop-shaft?

Would it potentially explain my torque-related vibration that appears in high gears when on boost but goes away again once back in vacuum?

I also appear to get a particular slight vibration around 50-60mph coming through the steering wheel and accelerator. Normally I would expect this to be a wheel balance issue but they have all been balanced accurately when four-wheel aligned last week. Neither do I suspect any wheel bearings or top mounts as they were replaced at QRSport a few weeks ago.

Just gradually narrowing down possible sources...

[Jeffer]

Could very well be the propshaft. Mine does it aswell. When the bearing's gone then it jubbers, vibrates and what not. Very annoying. Just check it out....

HTH

Guys,

Can someone tell me what the symptoms would be of a knackered or misaligned prop-shaft?

Would it potentially explain my torque-related vibration that appears in high gears when on boost but goes away again once back in vacuum?

I also appear to get a particular slight vibration around 50-60mph coming through the steering wheel and accelerator. Normally I would expect this to be a wheel balance issue but they have all been balanced accurately when four-wheel aligned last week. Neither do I suspect any wheel bearings or top mounts as they were replaced at QRSport a few weeks ago.

Just gradually narrowing down possible sources...

[SR71]

Cheers Jeffer.

Yeah the centre bearing is completely fubar. I guess that must be the source of my vibration because it can obviously now flex significantly.

Its getting dropped next week and over-hauled as per the thread.

Nice one.

[S2central.net]

Dangit - I forgot that one - I have to add this to my list of winter overhaul tasks !

I also have a vibration issue that didn't go away with new wheels and tyres. This could be the root cause but other contributions are almost certainly coming from imperfect wheel alignment, worn bushes/joints and warped brake discs.

I'll need to take some counselling if I have to get a BMW part fitted to my car as part of the propshaft refurb. Brrrrrrr - perish the thought.

Paul

[SR71]

Yeah Paul,

I have been gradually trying to get to the bottom of this one.

Bearings all done, discs replaced, bushes replaced, new exhaust (rubbing on drive shafts at the rear - not really why I replaced it because it was corroded and needed a 3" for big power anyway), four wheel aligned (for third time in a year), new RS6 rims and balancing (they had become out of balance within 4 weeks of fitting)...

I must confess I am thoroughly pissed off with Audi as when it first surfaced I took the car to them and told them the problem.

I even got The Master Technician to come out with me in the car and listen to the noise it was making. They also looked under the car.

He said:

"Normal on a car with thiis mileage. Probably the turbo. Rear diff is a bit noisy though. We can change that for £5.5K"

What a t**t.

He didn't even spot the fact that the exhaust was rubbing on the drive-shaft. That was left to my local tinpot garage (now have more street cred than Audi Cardiff) who put the car on the ramp and within two minutes diagnosed that!

It was only last week that when the car was at Westec, me having suggest to them that it was probably the propshaft (kudos to all you gurus on the WWW site), that we saw the centre bearing is vapourised!

So thats bloody months of effort (of course not wasted) trying to track down a simple vibration.

Two days ago Audi phoned me for a telephone customer service survey. No surprises but they got a 0/10.

(*&%^*$*$*(%$!

[RustyNut]

@ SR71 - This vibration you were getting, did it sometimes sound like the car had dropped a cylinder and was missing? I know it isnt, but kind of sounds that way. It happens to mine under accelleration and whilst cruising at between 50&70. I initially thought it was my exhaust but that's been sorted and the vibration is still there. Getting my new calipers and disks fitted soon so will eliminate that possibility also.

Cheers

R

[SR71]

G'day mate,

Nope - didn't sound like that. You can find quite a few posts of my symptoms on the board.

Best suggestion to avoid all the pain in the ***, is get the car on a ramp, remove the protective cover that hides the prop and check it out.

Mine manifest itself only when torque was applied through the drive train. It had a canny correspondance with the turbo going into boost, vanishing again when it dropped back into vac.

Just a vibration that seemed to be coming from the back of the car.

I'll never know why it went away when I swapped a punctured tyre for the spare which was bald. Went away then but came back when replaced again.



Should be sorted next week.

[SR71]

Sorted.

I used the BMW part for the centre bearing (the holes out of interest did not need elongating on mine) and didn't bother with the CV joints. When we split the shaft from the car, they looked fine with none of the corrosion that Ben's had. The car has 170K miles on it and I believe that would be the first time the prop has come off the car.

Had to get the arc-welder on the UJ to split the bitch. The splines were tighter than a nuns.....