...so I got the new front right axle on today, after the inn CV fell off and I had to clean the bearings/repack with grase and reattach. Anywasy, I was on my way home when a rather serious front end shudder appeared that oscillated proportionate to the speed of the car and really only took place while I was giving gas. Well, after about 5 minutes of driving with my hazards on at 25 mph, it just went away. Do new axles need to break in? What the hell was it, and will it come back?

 

Theres no break in with axles. That shouldnt happen. I would double check that you got everything tight.

 

I just checked... everything is. The only thing I can think of is that I jacked up the spindle as far as it would go to chage out the axle because the control arm bolt was a motherf**ker and I couldn't get it off. Would excessive stress on thre suspension do this?

 

i would never do this without removing the control arm bolt, i dont care what anyone say, you may have mashed something up, but before you shoot yourself, did you make sure and get each bolt through the c-clips on the inside cv to the trans? i imagine it would have some play or uneveness if you didnt. i think there are 8 bolts so there should be 4 clips. also, on some models, (as far as the dealership states) the halfshafts are side specific. if you put the wrong sides on, im not sure of the consequence, but could be possible.

 

yes, the c-clips are on. Actually, after some hefy research on Audiworld, this type of shudder is very common with worn or bad inner CV joints having too much play. Seeing as the inner joint fell off and we had to put it back together, I'm pretty sure we just f**ked up theinner CV and thus the axle.

 

**UPDATE** So I came to find out that the axle I bought was slightly bent... cheap axle = problems. So, I went dumpster diving for my original axle, bought a boot kit, cleaned/re-greased my outer CV joint, put on the original axle, and VOILA- like butta. For those trying to decide whether to buy a boot kit or a new axle, BUY A BOOT KIT AND REUSE YOUR ORIGINAL AXLEas Auditech has advised.Cheap axles will get you nowhere but pissed off fast... got a buddy who's been an ASC tech for over 10 years... he says he sees more of these cheap axlesbent and out of tolerance than any anything these days. Just thought I'd share.