A6Gary

Recently, the right front wheel bearing on my 2006 A6 Avant started whining and required replacement. The bearing "failure" occurred at ~75,900 miles. The car has never been tracked or abused, so I was surprised that a wheel bearing would fail at such a low mileage point. And this is the first VW/Audi vehicle of the seven I have owned since 1976 that a wheel bearing has failed. I asked the non-dealer shop who R&R the bearing assembly if this was a common failure on the C6 A6, and the tech said that this A6 was the first one that they have replaced.

I searched this A6 site to see what other owners have experienced for a wheel bearing failure. Some posts have stated they have replaced the front bearings as early as ~50K miles. To get a better measure if wheel bearing failures are really a problem or not, I thought I would ask other C6 A6 owners if they have had the same problem or not. If you have had a wheel bearing failure, please post whether it was front or rear, left or right, and at what mileage. Thanks.

Eric5412

My drivers side front started making noise at about 75k. The dealer replaced it along with the all control arm bushings and alignment for a cost of about $2200! A few months later the passenger side went at around 80k. I changed that one myself for around $200.

Eric5412

2006 A6 4.2 No track,no abuse. I thought that was way too soon for wheel bearings.

A6Gary

I agree that your bearings went too soon also. Question: When you changed your wheel bearing yourself, did you follow the procedure listed in the Bentley Repair Manual, i.e., disconnect axle inside & outer, remove axle, and then remove pinch bolt and control arms? Or did you use a different procedure, such as remove axle bolt, remove the four torx bolts holding the wheel bearing assembly, and pull bear/hub assembly from strut housing? I only ask because it would appear you could pull that bearing/hub assembly from housing if you can access and remove the four torx bolts securing it to the strut housing. If my driver's side bearing goes, I would like to DIY so I am hoping to benefit from other owner's experience, Thanks.

ajg617

119k on the 06 and 62k on the 09 and nothing yet though the 06 has a significant high speed vibration that Audi can't seem to pinpoint.

perlfather

I had both front wheel bearings replaced at 39K miles on our '06 A6 Avant. I was not happy! (I paid for one and they paid for the other.) No issues since then, now at 93k miles.

stuffinder

Just checked my records & the PO of my '06 A6 Avant replaced Front Wheel Bearings at 156 & 171K. It's at 217K and they seem fine.

Eric5412

I did NOT remove axle or separate control arms. I just removed axle bolt and pushed the axle out enough to get to the 4 triple square bolts that hold the bearing assembly into the knuckle. It was a little tight, but definitely possible. Please note, hub is pressed into bearing and you will need a shop to separate and press them .

fe342185

Had front driver side replaced at 60k. Car is not abused at all.

A6Gary

From the threads I posted on two sites, there were (11) car owners that replied. Of these 11, 2 cars reported no bearing failures as of 75K and 154K miles, respectively. Of the other 9 cars, there were 13 front wheel bearing failures that occurred as early as 39K miles (both sides) to a high of 160-180K miles. The average mileage for a reported bearing failure including all 11 cars was 104.4K miles. If the low mileage failures (39K) are excluded as an anomaly, then the average mileage for a bearing failure increases to 114.4K miles. If the two cars with no failures and the low mileage failures are excluded, then the average mileage for a bearing failure drops to 96.8K miles. Given these stats, it would appear that the front wheel bearings on the C6 A6 can be expected to fail around the 100K mileage point.