Hi,

I have a 2007 audi a4 2.0T fwd auto with the cvt and I just replaced my passenger side axle today and when I went for a test drive there was a pretty serious vibration and low speeds, plus the abs and esp light came on. Any ideas?

 

Sorry to hear that. Can you elaborate a little more? How many times have you done this if any? Did you use new OE axles? Torque wrench during assembly? Where you careful not effect alignment? Brakes working Ok?

 

This is the first time I have replaced the axles. I bought new axles, but i'm not sure what you mean buy if I bought them from the dealer or from and aftermarket company that are meant as factory replacements, but I bought new aftermarket from carquest $86 apiece I think. Torque wrench only went up to 100lbs so I did that then went a little farther with a breaker bar. Brakes work great, I don't think I did anything to effect the alignment, I did have to un bolt the pinch bolts from the knuckle(?) on the passenger side but not the driver side. I have reason to believe this has something to do with the passenger side, because I did that side, then drove it and that's when the problems came up, so I replaced the left to see if that was it and it didn't fix it

 

It would appear to me the problems lies on the side you did first. If you still have the axles you pulled off, put the side you did first back on and test drive. If the vibration goes away, your problem is that new axle (new parts fail out of box sometimes). After you drove the first test drive you should not have put the other side on because it wasn't affecting the vibration to begin with (process of elimination). Not sure what the torque spec is supposed to be but you should probably get the right torque value on it, and whatever else you take apart that needs torqued. You can rent a torque wrench from auto parts stores. Now for an Audi, I'm not a huge fan of buying cheap parts from places like CarQuest. Some cheaper parts are fine, but some parts should be OEM. I'd go ahead and get an OEM Audi part vs an aftermarket cheaper part. Yes it'll likely be more expensive but it'll be better quality. But it's your money. Keep us updated.

 

I think the reason I did the second one was because there was a serious vibration before replacing either of the axles so I thought (and now realize I was wrong) that it was from the driver side axle still being bad.

Would it be smarter to rebuild the oem ones I pulled off or return the ones I bought and get some from audi?

 

In my experience with my dodge pickup and a Honda I had, by the time you rebuild OEM ones you'll likely pay the same if not more vs buying a whole new one. What lead you to believe it was the axles were causing the vibration? Not saying the vibration isn't those, but there could be other issues going on if the vibration was there before and after you put the new ones in (even though they are cheaper new ones it should of helped the vibration). And to clarify, I'm not saying you can't use the cheaper CARQUEST stuff, just OEM is likely to be better quality that will last longer vs carquest, napa etc.

That said, how's your tire wear? wearing evenly? No cupping issues? Have you checked suspension and steering components under the front? Is the vibration in the steering wheel, seats, whole car? Does it do it at certain speeds?