Articus

Yesterday I replaced the outer CV boot on the front right of an '01 S8.
During that i had to take the outer joint off of the shaft, replace the boot, replace the grease, hit it back together etc and reinstalled. I've done it before on another Audi of similar vintage.

As soon as I went to drive it, I did a u-turn out of my parking space, and then lost FWD drive. Engine just revved but no movement. It was a making an awful mechanical banging together sound at some point, and the right front brake started dragging as well.

My thought right now is that the cv joint outer separated from the shaft as making the u-turn has extended the shaft and pulled it right off the shaft.
I'm 100% sure I put the spacers back in and the crimped snap ring on the end of the shaft before hitting the joint back on. I haven't gone in to look again because I was pretty tired and it was late last night. I figure with the shaft separated, it probably tore the new boot to pieces and sprayed new grease everywhere...so just lacking the will to want to do this again...Only upside would be that the pinch bolt is fresh and new.

In hindsight, maybe I hadn't gotten the joint all the way over the snap ring and onto the shaft. My technique for getting the joint back on is to thread the old axle bolt into the joint, stand up, and pile drive the entire shaft into the ground...

How do I know that the joint is on all of the way? Extremely deflating seeing the S8 down for the count...

Articus

Just went and looked at everything. Outer joint separated from the shaft, spacer and washer and retaining clip still on the shaft. One of the ***** popped out into the boot. Boot suprisingly was not torn, but rather just mangled, twisted, and wrapped around the shaft. I cut it open to inspect.

The shaft is just pushing on the inside of the outer joint. I didn't want to drop the car back to the ground like that....I turned the wheel all the way to the right, and just pulled the shaft completely out and let it off to the side before letting the car back down. I don't have any replacement parts until next weekend....I may consider just buying a oem axle or finding used oem

MikkiJayne

That sucks It does sound like the outer wasn't fully seated.

Assuming nothing is mangled, you ought to be able to pop the ball back in the cage and then fit another boot and put it back together.

Good luck!