Gearbox reseal time?

[brasiliangringo]

My experience is they give the impression of a severe loss when in fact plenty of fluid still exists inside. What your pic shows in a leaking flange seal on the transfer box / output shaft. It has its own filling blue plug at the top which may be accessible at a squeeze without lowering the subframe and gearbox but on 2nds thoughts probably not.

[notorious]

Thanks gringo,

This is exhaust out and propshaft out job well documented on audipages.com. I already purchased new seal and new flange and all bolts from Audi. Some hardware for exhaust too.

I'm only worried that my exhaust is relatively rusty and if disturbed it may be impossible to put it back together again, so I'm studying 'plan b' options for third party exhaust, but it seems Audi stock ones are the best even the price tag is very expensive.

[brasiliangringo]

Ive just done some work on my S8 which involved removing the front right pipe to change the flange seal on the final drive amongst other things, and i just cut the exhaust clamp off with a grinder as bolts too far gone, then replaced with a new sleeve clamp. No problems re disturbing the original exhaust etc. Car is on 160k, 2002.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by brasiliangringo

Ive just done some work on my S8 which involved removing the front right pipe to change the flange seal on the final drive amongst other things, and i just cut the exhaust clamp off with a grinder as bolts too far gone, then replaced with a new sleeve clamp. No problems re disturbing the original exhaust etc. Car is on 160k, 2002.

Yep, I already purchased two clamp sleeves and they come with bolts. I'm more worried about flanges towards front of the car. Those with metal gaskets in between. Bolts are gone on them and flanges themselves are not very healthy too. I'm worried about those flanges. Obviously, all old bolts are to be cut. We'll see.

I've got 2002 with 83000 miles.

[ainarssems]

I did my last summer. Replaced seal with with audi part but left the old flange. Also replaced propshaft front CV joint as the boot had failed, grease gone out and it's bee running dry for a while and broke when I was pulling it off to replace boot. I only removed cats and left rest of exhaust and propshaft in place.

[Adrian E]

The exhaust looks good underneath - I don't have a recent pic but can get one if you want.

Had a bad day with the car so don't particularly want to go near it tonight

[notorious]

Cheers Adrian. Picture is not necessary. Hope your car is all right.

Was very surprised that 3rd party exhaust companies including Milltek actually use lowest quality stainless steel material which is not approved for outdoor use in construction industry.

[Adrian E]

To 90% of the population stainless = stainless, which obviously 'sounds good' but as with anything the details are important.

I didn't pay for my exhaust so have no complaints about the quality. A bit of Autosol had the tailpipes gleaming and whenever I see the underside it looks pretty much as good as new, given I drive it all year round in almost all weathers.

Car is looking a little battered - bloody wing mirror glass on passenger side fell out on a dual carriageway this afternoon. It of course hung by the heated mirror wires until I could pull over (no hard shoulder) but all the damage it did was as I slowed down. Instead of hanging in the wind it then started to rotate and smack into the door of the car - lets just say I might as well not have bothered having the door painted after the old mirrors were stolen

What's specatularly annoying about it is that the mirrors are all of 2.5 years old, as is the glass, so finding that a significant number of the lugs to hold the glass to the mirror housing are missing suggests the glass was badly fitted (get it home on one side and smack it into place type fitting rather than applying even pressure in the middle). The glass has also swung up and taken chunks out of the alloy cap all down the outer edge

Will be going to see the bodyshop concerned this week to see if they'll do anything on goodwill......

[notorious]

Adrian, I'm shocked to hear the mirror story.

Painting door properly is not easy. It requires removal of upper rubber/chrome strip (you need to remove the upper door frame with glass), handle, rubbing strip and lower plastic strip. Basically, complete door should be stripped to be painted without compromises. This is how door should look like before painting:



I'd never allow others to disassemble the door as these people are time bound (which means no quality) and they genuinely don't care what will happen with your car in future as we learned with the mirror.

[Rant on]

Sometimes I hate this commercial capitalism paradigm, which is not aligned at all with my interest of car owner. People are **completely** not interested to deliver uncompromised highest quality. Cut corners everywhere and use cheapest stuff to maximise their margins.

There are 3 islands of dedication to quality on planet Earth where we can still find some remains of decent quality and long term approach: Switzerland, Germany and Japan. No UK in this list

[Rant off]

[briang9]

really sorry to hear about your mirror and the damage Adrian