Replace CV boot

[guv.c]

Hi all.

Went for an M.O.T in my 2003 audi A6 Quattro 2.5 TDI SE auto TIP. And it failed on the outer cv boots (they were in two pieces). Looked at various forums and asked around and decided to save a few bob and do it myself. I'm just posting this incase anyone else is thinking of doing the same thing.

I did the steering test and the CV joints seemed ok. Started by loosening the axle bolt on the passenger front wheel, required a huge lever. Then put the car onto ramps, loosened the wheel bolts, jacked the car a bit more and put it onto axle stands. Then I proceeded to remove the wheel, and then the axle bolts.

I decided that I would remove the lower two ball joints, it looked as though once they were off, I would have enough room to take the joint out. The ball joint with the nut at the bottom was easy to remove using the a hammer! The other joint was removed using a ball joint remover. Then by combination of turning the steering and jiggling things about, the shaft and joint came out. Now the fun part, removing the joint (to remove the boot).

I decided to use a three arm puller, that worked like a charm. The joint came off with a loud bang. The joint itself seemed fine, couldnt see any contamination, grease looked nice and tasty! Yanked the boot off (cutting the clips). Then replaced the boot with a new one (purchased for about £10 from gsf). Packed it full of grease, replaced the C clip on the spline, and the two washers. Used a hammer to smack the joint back in place, put everything back, put the clips on, job done!

Now for the other side, everything was normal until I got to taking the CV joint off. Used the puller, and it just did not want to come out. I managed to put so much force on the whole thing, I bent the puller. Tried another more heavy duty puller, and I bent that too! Then, I ground down the end of the original axle bolt, and started to tighten that into the shaft. Used a pipe wrench to secure the driveshaft, and a snap on breaker bar for some more force, and managed to get the damn thing off. Have a look at the attached photos too see what happened. The C clip did not compress into the void in the spline for some reason, so I ended up taking the metal off the clip. Then, cleaned the whole joint up, more than the other side because I wanted to make sure that there were no metal bits in the grease (very important). Put the new boot in, washers, clips, smacked the packed joint into place, secured everything back, (make sure you use new axle bolts). Job done. Didnt take more than 7hrs. saved a few bob but boy what a pain!

Just got back from M.O.T place and it sailed through.

So if you are struggling removing a joint, it will come off, but make sure your tools are man enough for the job. Anyone who needs to change boots, its not a technically challenging job, but it requires a big hammer, and maybe a ball joint remover! the rest of the tools should be standard in your garage. point to note, the axle bolt is on quite tight, make sure it goes back on just as tight. I used 70ftlbs of torque and an extra half turn or so.

hopes this helps anyone do the job, or have a good time reading!

[Niall76]

Nice one - thanks for the tips.

:-)