Advice: Driveshaft or Gearbox

[smilerbatten]

Hi All,

my A4 1.8T started to make a griding / knocking noise whilst i was at low speeds and in neutral, the noise would occur faster as the car went faster, so i assumed it was a driveshaft bearing of some sort.

I took the car to the garage they took the driveshaft out and said they could feel play in both the inner driveshat and the gearbox and couldnt determine which was making the noise. They said the driveshafts only come from Audi costing about £300 (near side inner needing replacing) and a gearbox would be much more depending on what the problem is when found.

I told them to put it back together as i didnt want to fork out £400 for a fitted shaft and it turn out to be a gearbox issue, and vica versa.

Since they put it back together the noise has gone!!

So my questions are, is this common on the Audi's and can you really only buy the drive shatfs from Audi?
I would have just got them to replace it if it was £100 or something, was surprised it was £300.

Thanks
Jason