B5 S4 CV joint gaiters

[Dippy]

My car just failed it's MOT on the exhaust, but also had a few "advice" comments. One was that the front CV joint gaiters are showing signs of wear and will need replacing sometime in the future.

Since my car has to go back to the dealer to finish the MOT plus some other work, I thought I might as well get the gaiters replaced now rather than have to after they have split.

Is this a sensible move? What sort of cost am I looking at?

[SimonS4MTM]

Probably about 1 hours labour per corner, and about £15 for the gaiter. I would and have left them until they split, though bear in mind once they split is would be a good idea to get them changed straight away.

[ChipHazzard]

I had both of mine done just over a year ago as one split and splattered grease all over the inside of the wheel, I had it done by a local independant garage and IIRC it cost me about £120 and the gaiters are audi only parts

[shineydave]

they're not hard to change, loosen the bolt in the centre of the wheel hub, remove wheel, remove bolt in centre of wheel and also long bolt that holds the upper ball joints in place, you should now be able to wiggle the wheel to remove the CV joint from the back of the hub. pop the bolt back in the end of the hub and wind it all the way in, as you put more pressure on it it should pop the CV off the shaft allowing you to remove and replace the boot.

[MarkB]

My car just failed it's MOT on the exhaust, but also had a few "advice" comments. One was that the front CV joint gaiters are showing signs of wear and will need replacing sometime in the future.

Since my car has to go back to the dealer to finish the MOT plus some other work, I thought I might as well get the gaiters replaced now rather than have to after they have split.

Is this a sensible move? What sort of cost am I looking at?

I'd get them changed. I didn't and then had to spend ages cleaning the inside of a wheel and suspension when one split. Changed the other after that experience.

What's up with your exhaust?

[GrahamS4]

How did it fail on the exhaust?

[Dippy]

Thanks for the replies. I have inspected the gaiters myself and I can clearly see loads of 'cracks' in the material. Definitely just a matter of time before one of them splits. Then what if I don't notice it? I think I'll play safe and change them, although after careful thought I have decided not to do them myself: With my luck I'd run into big problems and it'd turn into a weekend project.

As for the exhaust, I think the grounding out over speed-bumps finally took its toll on my centre box. One of the brackets sheared right off, leaving a hole - so two MOT failures. I went to Dialynx on Saturday, and they were doubtful that it could be repaired (to a satisfactory level). I thought about the sense of trying to replace just the centre-box of a 4-ish year old cat-back, and considering that I hope to have a turbo upgrade maybe next year, I am going ahead with replacing the whole cat-back with the twin-pipe system (I got mine when Miltek only offered the single-pipe system).

This month is going to be expensive for my car. But to be fair it has not cost me much over the last 6 years, and I plan to keep it for a few more years at least, so it is worth the investment.