rxpclb

I have a '99 A6 quattro with 117K miles on vehicle. So far I've replaced upper and lower control arms and tie rod ends trying to elimenate front end wobble and correct allignment.

After replacing the tie rod ends, the mechanic tells me he thinks the wheel bearings need to be replaced, but he can't do it because a "special" tool to take the original bearing off? Is this correct?

Also, after replacing the tie rod ends I had the steering alligned. But now the car pulls hard to the right, instead of going straight! Could the reason for this problem be the wheel bearing or something else?

rs4-380

the bearings (and hubs) are pressed into the hub carrier/spindle/knuckle. So the hub carrier needs to either come off the car so a regular shop press can be used, or a special on-car-press setup like a "hub shark" used. He probably means he does not have an on car setup.

4Driver4

Wheel bearing are noisy. If you have a bad bearing, it will be a loud whirring rumbly sound that changes pitch as you gently swerve back and forth to loud and unload in the inner and outer races. If pulling is the only symptom, it's not a bearing.

SloopJohnB@mac.com

FYI, on quattro vehicles it ain't necessarily so for wheel bearing noise. Our 2K 4.2A6 was experiencing noise that I attributed to snow tires and/or noisy summer tires. The noise did NOT change when cornering or accelerating...it DID change as the car went faster. There was no perceptible vibration other than the noise.

This is a picture of what the wheel bearing looked like when it came out...the tech probably cleaned it up but you can see how bad they were.