ajg617

Put a Chinese new RF drive shaft about 1 month back due to outer boot split. Felt very tight in that the car pulled to the right after install. Thought it might be just break in but not so. Happened to be at Audi today and they said the shaft had excessive play. LF is now also leaking so I'm going to replace both. Neither were Audi originals and had over 100K on them. That said, anyone have a source for rebuilt Audi drive shafts? All the local stores sell OEM rebuilts but not Audi. Maybe just a fluke, but this was new OEM and not rebuilt.
Thanks,
AJG

Just Me

You have two good options:

1. Buy OEM lobro joints, pack them, and install them on the shaft
2. buy shafts from raxles.com (which more or less does that)

The best answer would have been to catch the boot failure early and repack your original.

Grant

ajg617

Yeah, hindsight...Bad decision 5-6 years back. I called raxles and the price isn't bad for factory shafts and lobro joints - $199 with core. The rub is the core has to be factory shafts or it's an extra $100. Used ones are $100 so that doesn't add anything. I got 100K out of this set of Chinese axles - guess their quality has gone down

Moncho

What I did was check in with one of the reputable Audi shops in town and ask who they outsourced the axle repairs to. They had no problems giving me this information, figured if they use them why shouldn't I. All you have to do is pull out the axles and have them rebuild them. This way you are ensured you wind up with the same genuine Audi axle. They turned them around the same day. Each side cost me $67 dollars for a fully rebuilt axle with a lifetime warranty.

This doesn't exactly match your scenario but wanted to share what I did.

Good Luck.

ajg617

Hey Grant,
Thanks. Just ordered a pair from raxles. Put an ad on craigslist for two old Audi axles and was able to pick up a pair from an allroad for $80. Saved me 120 in core charges and Marty at Raxles said he didn't care if they came my 3.0 or the allroad.

In the process, found another Audi indy too, though his specialty is putting 6-speeds into allroad automatics.

Just Me

happy ending. Nice.