Hello,

New member to the forum and the audi lifestyle, I love it so far

2 months ago i bought a 1997 audi a4 2.8 2WD with 174000 miles

It had a new battery, fuel pump, belts, and misc other minor new parts.

The alignment was off, I just paid an alignment shop 500 bux for new control arms and tie rods to fix the dangerous freeway wobble and pull to the left. now it drives great, but was told by the mechanic i need a cv joints, as it makes a clicking sound with turns at low speeds, but said ill be good for maybe a yr, as its not bad off yet.

been reading in my haynes manual on how to, i have limited mechanical knowledge but would like to do some preventitave maintence. learned there is outter and inner cv's. the outters seem simple enough to swap for new ones. my question is will this fix the problem? can anyone reccomend the best beginner guide on this site? are there any other parts i should change while im at it along with the outter cv's, as the inners seemed hard to get to for a newbie. Is this a good repair for a beginner? or am i better off paying the guy another 500 for parts and labor, which ill have to wait a few months to save the money. any suggestions on the best parts or what to do would be great. thanks

 

Hi there. I used to have an Audi 80 which in needed to change the cv boot on.
I remember it being pretty easy. Take the wheel, brake disk, hub of and you can just pull the whole cv joint and drive axle unit out. A4 could be different though.
From what I have read on these forums it is about the same price to get the cv's and drive shaft assembly together and replace it all.
I just looked on fcgroton.com and it is $61 for a cv joint and boot or it's $80 to $125 for the whole shaft/ joint assembly.
Hope this helps.

 

Just looked on eBay and the same brand as what fcgroton are selling (EMPI) are $78 and change delivered.