statgator

The reason the caliper carrier is difficult is because the rear bolt only has access from 3:00 to 5:00 underneath the body of the car before you run into something. On a hoist it would be easy.

I'll take your recommendation into consideration on paying. But if I pay I have to be able to watch the job being done. Kind of wish there was teacher mechanics out there. Where you pay a little extra but you get a lesson in addition to the labor.

Thanks for the tip on the 3/4-in I hadn't even seen that yet. Thought half inch was as high as it goes.

Andrew12

The amount of energy you can deliver when you step up a drive size is amazing. The cost of tools and supplies will equal or be less than labor costs for a pro.
However, there is a learning curve. I have shed a lot of blood and tears over the years. If you are willing to be patient and put forth the effort there is not much you cannot do yourself. Build your tools and your knowledge over the years. Spend a little more on your tools so they will last you a lifetime plus.

MP4.2+6.0

Yes, ¾" drive might be advisable. Not too hard to find those. Would find use in heavy suspension or bigger vehicles. FWIW, in 45 years of Audi wrenching, ½" has gotten through, This is the highest torque job on an Audi AFAIK. For $30 or $40, I just replace the breaker bar if it fails, especially if it has a warranty. Fail point is the swivel end as I cautioned. I don't try these torques with a ratchet one in ½". A newer Craftsman breaker bar as an example I have used in ½" also has too tapered a bar (for style and weight?) and tends to bend at these loads. Thus, best to put pipe sleeve fully over the bar length, not just near its grip end.

statgator

FCP is on their game and the hub and bearing arrived today.

Still debating and wishing I had somebody who had the time to hang out for something like this. But with kids and a job and my help having kids and jobs it's tough.

I got one buddy I'm about to talk to to see if he has the ability to shadow me for this job.

Thanks for clarifying on the ratchet versus breaker bar 3/4 or 1 in. Yeah I would have put a ratcheted 3/4 on there to try to break that bolt loose. Smh

The scary part of any job like this is not knowing what you don't know. It would be much easier to start a job knowing what you didn't know you needed to know. Lol

snapdragon

I have only done the front bearing as I had to replace the whole knuckle casting and transfer the bearing over.
The center bolt was the easiest part using a 1 metre long breaker bar and 1/2 square drive M19 hex socket despite being in a salty wet country and 10 years/ 320,000 miles old.
I did this with the wife pressing the brake pedal and an adjustable axle stand under the short extension on the breaker bar such that when I push down on the breaker bar, the socket rests on the axle stand and is less likely to skew.
The first hex socket was US Pro brand one from ebay snapped like toffee, the next one from a local shop was fine, still only 1/2" drive but they had no 3/4" drive in stock.

Getting the 4x multispline bolts for the bearing assembly out was difficult as they are quite shallow, best to leave them half out and then tap them each in turn with a hammer to loosen the bearing and pop it out.
The bearing/hub assembly came off quite easily with a few taps of the backed out bolts.

One more thing of note is to clean the mounting surface with a spiining wire brush on a drill. Protect the spines of the driveshaft with a sandwich bag or similar to keep out dust and then clean and grease the splines of the drive shaft before refitting.

Also, I don't think it is so important about the torque of the center bolt - this bolt is just clamping the inner race to the drive shaft, it is not like the old roller pin and cone bearings where you were pretensioning the free play. I see that the audi documentation seems to have been copying and pasting this same warning section about this for decades but it no longer applies in my humble opinion.

statgator

I think I've pretty much decided to tackle it. I just need to do all of the research and as the weather just turned cold here it's perfect for it.

Thanks to everyone who's helped I appreciate it very much.

Andrew12

Let us know how it goes!

statgator

I'll take pictures

statgator

Thankfully I decided not to tackle this job. Thank goodness.

I'm pretty sure I would never have gotten past the four bolts on the hub. The guy used plenty of heat and still it was tough.

The part that surprised me the most about the job was that after the four bolts were out of the hub he had to beat the s*** out of that thing with a 5 lb sledgehammer and an air hammer and it took the air hammer and another guy hitting it with a 5 lb sledgehammer for it to come off.

Keep in mind it was completely disconnected from the car but fused in the place. I would never have gotten past that because I don't have an air compressor with that much air and recovery rate and I would have never beaten on that thing that hard because I would have been afraid to.

I would say this is not for a novice mechanic. I would say if you don't have heat you probably should not do this job.