Audi A4 CV Joint.

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eeks2006

Registered User
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I have a few questions really, reagarding my 2002 Audi A4 Diesel Avant.

1. Is it unlucky to have CV joints go on these cars during their lifetime, or any cars for that matter that are not driven crazy and with normal 12,000 a year milage on them, and if one does go and is replaced how long should that replacement last before it goes again, provided the work is carried out correctly.Im currently between jobs so the car is not driven or used that much at all, maybe 5000 miles a year at most.

2.The timing belt replacement on this car is, ive been told is labour intensive, meaning the front of the car needs to be taken off for access to the belts housing etc which takes most of the time rather than the actual replacing. Is it normal practice while the the front of the car is off to also replace the fan belts too? if you dont ask the mechanic to do this (replace the fan belts, as you wouldnt really know yourself about this), should he advise you of the handiness and ease of doing this at this time? or is it something thats not done at all?eg you just wait till the fan belt goes and the front of the car needs to come off again and hey presto another big labour intensive bill.

I have had this car now just over 2 years, and I have spent upwards of €2000 with repairs, on some jobs you would just not believe, put quite simply,this car is a pile of ****e, and I have had more bad news regarding it today and im blowing off a little steam here as well as needing this info.

Im due to battle with a mechanic regarding the CV joint he replaced 12 months ago next week, so if anybody could answer question 1 for me it would be great and question 2 for extra ammunition it would just be dandy.

Many thanks in advance, and im planning to have "buyer beware of Audi's with full service histories" written on my gravestone when this car puts me in an early grave.

Regards, Dave.
 
i had a 95 1.8 A4 petrol and CV joints had to be replaced every few months. they would eventually squeek and squeel that bad it was embarrassing! great cars but the pre 96 models all had this prob

i wouldnt challenge your mechanic as they go every few months anad are around 200 per quater
 
Can't help on the Cv joint, sorry, but I would expect any part to last longer than that if it was genuine and fitted correctly.

The water pump is normally replaced at the same time as the timing belt. All the parts will be in the "cambelt kit" you will get from the dealer. Most of the other belts should be easy enough to change as needed I think with no need to take the front off.

I assume for a 2002 car you're not going near main dealers for servicing, makes no economic sense on a car of that age. If you're anywhere near the SSE I can give you the details of a local specialist here.

There's a couple of other "known faults" with these cars too as they are aging - blocked plenum drains causing water ingress and rusting brake master cylinders, brake light switch failing "on" causing battery drain.

SSE
 
marti18 said:
i had a 95 1.8 A4 petrol and CV joints had to be replaced every few months.
Click to expand...

Lifespan of CV joint is around 10years..so i would talk to mechanic as to why it needs changing after 12 months. Did he put in a second hand part, or unsuitable part?
 
def not in a pre 96 A4. this applies to all A4s during this period- just google it and youl realise it was a common fault in the car
 
CV JOINT:
As with any part, you have 12 months warranty. This should not happen after this short time. The mechanic may not have fitted it it correctly or the housing in which the cv joint fits is worn. CVs should last a few years or 30,000 miles.

Timing belt:
Your right, all the labour is tied up in getting at and putting back together the parts. The water pump is only about 90 euro so its recommended to get it done the same time as as all the striping has already been done. It will cost nearly the same to just get this part replaced later...

The fan belts should be checked for cracking at this this time too. Again they only cost about 20 euro each. your mechanic should have checked their condition and suggested you change them. if you dont want to change them, then its your fault if something goes wrong later.

i am only new to this forum so i am not sure if i can suggest garages to go to... but it sounds like you mechanic is not too good or too cheap...
 
Regarding the CV, this just has me so angry. The CV joint was replaced on 4/12/2009 by this garage and my NCT was on 11/02/2010. I failed the NCT cause the boot was off the CV joint which was replaced. The NCT tester was cool and told me to go straight to the garage now and tell him you want a new joint put on because you could have been driving round since that was replaced with the boot off and the function of the boot is to stop dirt and grit getting in and now as a result of the boot being off the joint has been compromised and you wont get a long life out of it.

Went down straight away and the garage refused to replace the joint and refuted the claims that the joint would not last its expected life time. He said he would put back on the boot and throw in some more oil and grease into it. Told him i wasnt happy with this service and he said well thats whats gonna happy basically and said he would give me a good price if the joint goes in the next 2 years.
Sure enough few days ago i heard the clicking and got a mechanic friend to have a look and he said yep the cv joint is gone, he said there is no grease on the joint so its probably gone a good while, which means I probably didnt even get a year out of it. So im going back down to the garage next week after the Xmas break. If this was your car would you expect a replacement for free? Do i have any come back here? Or should i be happy with the good price to replace it again he offered me? I dont want to let this garage repair or replace this CV joint again as I dont trust them anymore.

Regarding question 2, the mechanic i now go too just took €300 off me last month to replace the fan belts which went, and also did something to the alternator too when they broke, an incident he said could have been avoided if the garage in question had of done the regular thing and replaced the fan belts when they were doing the timing belt. Monkeys it seems could do a better job at fixing cars then these lot.

@SSE, thanks again for the advice. No i go to a regular mechanic to get services done etc.. cant afford the main dealer rip off prices for regular services with an extra little stamp in a book.

Yes I had that blocked plenum drains incident at the start of this year.Went to the dealer who wanted €1300 off me to repair it, a known fault in the car which the previous owner had followed all instructions to repair by Audi. The car was recalled so a bigger drain could be formed in the well, the previous owner brought the car in immediately and the work was carried out. I asked the monkey in the main dealer how come if the maintenance was carried out did this problem still occur, to which he said, sometimes these systems fail on cars and need to be replaced. He said you have a prestige car you should be prepared to pay prestige prices for repairs.
In my opinion I paid a prestige price for a car so I wouldnt have to be repairing it every month and paying crazy money just to keep it on the road.

My mechanic came up trumps and managed to save me a fortune. He said its unlikely that the master cylinder or chamber for the breaks need to be replaced as Audi claim, he said probably just the Servo valve, which he did, and it all works fine. cost me €600 or there abouts to have this done, so fingers crossed the master cylinder or chamber is not damaged.

Audi make dud cars in my opinion, this is my 2nd, I know I shouldnt have bought a 2nd one but stupidly though the first one was just a dud. had some major issues with that too.

What really bites is the sheer arrogance of the Dealers when you bring a problem to them. I had an issue, again with drainage, with the central locking pump in my previous Audi, basically the well the pump sits in in the boot had filled up with water, again because the drain was blocked, not sure why it filled up with water or where it came from in the first place if a pump is in there, but I took the car to an Audi dealer on the Northside of Dublin, they said I need a new pump blah blah here is the extortionate amount of money we want to do repair this. You cant even fill the car with petrol unless this pump is working as it can lock the fuel cap door if it sticks, so its essential to have it done. I did some research on the net and found where the pump was in the car etc, took it out, dried it, emptied the well, fixed the drain and put it back in, bloody thing worked fine, never broke again. The dealer had just taken the protective cover off the pump housing cut it in half and threw it back into the water.No attempt of look at it, try to repair etc, sheer arrogance in my opinion.

Apologies for going on. Blood is well and truely boiling at this point so will sign off.

Here is info regarding the plenum drains :http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=81642

@SSE: That breaking light problem you said may happen with these cars will sure as Sh1t will happen to me in the future, is there any fix in advance so it can be avoided?
Many thanks again for advice, and stay clear of Audi folks.
Happy New year to you all.
Regards, Dave.
 
hi, a bit of a tale of woe there.

The issue is that the brake lights on these cars come on with the key out of the ignition. The brake light switch is located behind the brake pedal and age such that the switch fails closed either permanently or intermittently, particularly in cold weather. Hence the brake lights are lit and hence your battery drains down.

There is nothing preventative as far as I know, apart from maybe buying a switch in advance and getting the garage to replace it anyway at the next service. The switch itself should be less than a tenner.

I think the latest TSB on the plenum drains is to remove the rubber "bung" in the central one and add some silicon when changing the pollen filter.

While I'm here there is another "commonish" problem which my car suffered and which could have worked out expensive - there is hose in the braking system which perishes and cracks as the kinks in it are very sharp - have a look at the back of the engine bay and you'll see a black pipe doubled back on itself. Before you go replacing servos etc. have a look at that for any little tiny holes - the symptoms of a brake problem are a "hard" pedal after a second heavy application within a few seconds - find a quiet road to test. The backup electrical system works once only and needs a while to reset.

SSE
 
Cars don't go on luck. That cv joint was doomed from the day the boot came off and should have been replaced without question. When you replace this cv joint every now and again turn the steering to full lock and check that the boot hasn't come off the cv joint. When you bring the car out of the garage also check that the boot is held on with a metal band NOT a cheapo cable tie. A cv joint is designed to work in a sealed clean and greased environment and if this enviroment is maintained it should last for years and many thousand miles.
P.S. Get a different Mechanic.....
 
eeks2006 said:
Regarding the CV, this just has me so angry. The CV joint was replaced on 4/12/2009 by this garage and my NCT was on 11/02/2010. I failed the NCT cause the boot was off the CV joint which was replaced. The NCT tester was cool and told me to go straight to the garage now and tell him you want a new joint put on because you could have been driving round since that was replaced with the boot off and the function of the boot is to stop dirt and grit getting in and now as a result of the boot being off the joint has been compromised and you wont get a long life out of it.

Went down straight away and the garage refused to replace the joint and refuted the claims that the joint would not last its expected life time. He said he would put back on the boot and throw in some more oil and grease into it. Told him i wasnt happy with this service and he said well thats whats gonna happy basically and said he would give me a good price if the joint goes in the next 2 years.
Sure enough few days ago i heard the clicking and got a mechanic friend to have a look and he said yep the cv joint is gone, he said there is no grease on the joint so its probably gone a good while, which means I probably didnt even get a year out of it. So im going back down to the garage next week after the Xmas break. If this was your car would you expect a replacement for free? Do i have any come back here? Or should i be happy with the good price to replace it again he offered me? I dont want to let this garage repair or replace this CV joint again as I dont trust them anymore.
Click to expand...

Went to the garage today.
Think I got a good result.
Went in and the guy I was dealing with last time (the owner) was there, reminded him of the story last year with the CV joint,and the shenanighans, and I finished off by saying Im here cause the joint is gone and I want it replaced.I was calm collect precise and polite.
He said oh yeah I remember you, and your back to me after a year wanting it replaced, get out of it your a messer, I said its not a year its 11 months, and my mechanic who looked at the car 2 weeks ago and confirmed that the CV joint was gone said there was no grease inside the knackered boot at all which indicates its probably been broken for a couple of months now, so the thing probably only lasted for 7-8 months. He said sure thats all they last, I said 3 mechanics I have talked to have said different, so odds are your lying. At this stage he started to get very flustered, started cursing and slightly aggressive. He wouldnt even look at me let alone talk with me. My girlfriend was there also, and he would only talk to her,(she, by the way is a master at these sort f situations). He said look best thing you can do is just get out Im not dealing with you anymore, thats it, I said no way thats unacceptable, Ill give you €60 for the part and then go, still refused, he walked out of the room saying get out im not dealing with you. We stood our ground till he came back 3 mins later, my girlfriend tried to reason with him, again he said no go away, it was my fault that, meaning I brought the car to him telling him the CV joint in question was damaged, I had this wrong, I thought the joint was gone when in fact it wasnt, hold my hands up and it was my mistake, but i still paid the guy to change the joint, I expected to be done properly. He was waving his hands again saying it was my fault, and that we should get out and leaving the room again. Again stood our ground and I was f**ked with his attitude now as if i was gonna back down. In again he said look Ill give you €80 and just go, and he pulled out €100 and said look here just get out. We took the 100 and just cut our losses.
THink it was a good result.


Cheers all.
 
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