A6 C7.5 Allroad Wheel bearing

[KevTrem]

Good afternoon all,

Hope all is well. I'm going to be changing my drivers side front wheel bearing this weekend after hearing it starting to make a noise yesterday. Ordered the SKF bearing kit that comes with the required bolts, does anyone happen to know the torque settings for the bolts please?

Its a 2015 A6 Allroad, CRTE, first of the facelifts, TR03 EMS.

Many thanks in advance.
@Crasher

[Crasher]

I can't look it up, my offline ETKA won't work and the new one that came today won't install. Anyway, worry about the torque once you have the old wheel bearing out! This one required removal from the car and with heat, releasing agent and in the press at 10 tonnes with copper drift and 3ilb copper hammer from behind it eventually came out with a bang. The top bolt was solid as usual so that was induction heat and two new top arms. We had one in a week or two back and were dreading it but the bearing nearly fell out on its own.

[KevTrem]

Thanks crasher, I'm hoping it's not going to be too bad as it's being done on my driveway. But if I fail I'll get it booked in at my local indi who I use for gearbox servicing etc.
I saw a trick using an air chisel on a YouTube channel I subscribe too, an ex audi tech, crack bolts off, undo couple of turns then use air chisel on bolt heads to drive the bearing out of the carrier.
Will see how that works on a 7ish year old car with 120k miles.

[mickeybo]

early wheel bearings were always tapered then one needed to be careful but we just tighten these with the air gun just tighten as much pressure as you can get on

[KevTrem]

So, I was all set up for an all day saga, 2 hours it's taken me from wheel off to wheel on. I'm not complaining though, especially for working on my driveway.
Must say it was a lot easier than doing the wife's 2008 Ford Focus wheel bearing.
Thanks for your help lads, oh BTW the drive shaft bolt is feckin tight lol, good job I have my 950mm breaker bar.

[bluezie]

So, I was all set up for an all day saga, 2 hours it's taken me from wheel off to wheel on. I'm not complaining though, especially for working on my driveway.
Must say it was a lot easier than doing the wife's 2008 Ford Focus wheel bearing.
Thanks for your help lads, oh BTW the drive shaft bolt is feckin tight lol, good job I have my 950mm breaker bar.

Nice one! If the top double pinch bolt comes out, and the bearing hasn't seized solid in the strut due to all the road salt, it's actually an easy job!

One way I've managed to remove the pinch bolts on C5's, was, I turned the bolt head end backwards and forwards until eventually it sheared off about 1/3 of the way inside the strut. I then used 2 nuts and a load of washers and spacers to gradually draw the bolt out the wrong way whilst smashing the wotsit out of the sheared end with a 4lb lump hammer and a punch. It came out fairly easily, it just took a long time to keep re stacking the washers.
Then drilled out the strut bolt hole to remove all the corroded aluminium, and packed a new bolt in with as much copperslip as possible. ��

[KevTrem]

Nice one! If the top double pinch bolt comes out, and the bearing hasn't seized solid in the strut due to all the road salt, it's actually an easy job!

One way I've managed to remove the pinch bolts on C5's, was, I turned the bolt head end backwards and forwards until eventually it sheared off about 1/3 of the way inside the strut. I then used 2 nuts and a load of washers and spacers to gradually draw the bolt out the wrong way whilst smashing the wotsit out of the sheared end with a 4lb lump hammer and a punch. It came out fairly easily, it just took a long time to keep re stacking the washers.
Then drilled out the strut bolt hole to remove all the corroded aluminium, and packed a new bolt in with as much copperslip as possible. ��

I didn't remove the strut at all, I left it all in place and worked around it. I used a hilti on hammer only mode, cracked off the 4 x M12 splines, wound them out half way then used the point chisel in the bolts head and hammered them from behind with the hilti, driving the carrier out. I also had a bit of 10mm round bar about 400mm long that I could place in the bolt heads and strike with a hammer if needed. I had read about the top pinch bolt so decided to stay clear of that headache all together.

[jbmercapple]

Hi Kev,

I was going to post but didn't get round to it before you'd completed the job! But thought I'd pass on my tale as it may help someone.

Just to say I used the exact same method to replace both my front wheel bearings, SDS drill in hammer only mode on the back of the bearing carrier bolts. Worked a treat.

Trouble is the elusive droning / howling intermittent noise I was trying to sort out was still there!!

I even had it in to a gearbox specialist thinking it may have been the front diff, but that was given a clean bill of health. At this time I was getting fed up with the car and thinking of selling it.

But the lesson to be learnt is, always check the simple things first. I eventually sorted it for £4.50 by replacing the front brake calliper slide pins and rubber bushes. One of the right front was sticking as someone had used copper grease on it which attacks certain plastics. This meant that the pads were not releasing from the disks properly. Hence on some motorway journeys the pads got hot, expanded and made the horrendous howling noise!!

Cheers

John

[KevTrem]

My noise started on Tuesday and was purely speed related, didn't matter what gear I was in etc but got progressively worse from Tuesday to Saturday when I did the job.

As you say a hilti or similar on hammer only mode really helps do the job.
Pleased you found your issue and sorted it, I'm happy to report changing the bearing fixed my noise. Not complaining when it's cost £48 for the SKF bearing kit plus shipping.