Julep1

I have a 2004 A6 Quattro 3.0 and I recently had the driver side inner and outer tie rod ends replaces and had an all wheel alignment done. Two days later I had a cv joint failure as I was turning into a parking space. Could either of these repairs have affected the cv joints? If a cv joint was bad, is it noticeable when replacing tie rod ends or doing an alignment?

Ry the car guy

Bad is a relative term. If by bad you mean clicking when turning then no, its not noticeable when doing those jobs. The only thing you would really see during that job is if the protective boots that cover the CV joint its ripped. in that case unless you had just ripped it, you would want to redo the CV joint anyway. Since its been contaminated.

Harleyguy

What Ry said. This is a job you can easily do at home in the garage without a bunch of special tools. A good CV kit can be bought after-market for around $14 and a couple of hours labor at most. There are several YouTube videos showing the procedure with only the tedious parts edited out. If you have ever done a CV before it's a piece of cake. If you have moderate mechanical ability it is still easy even if you haven't done one before. Keep us posted!