"Do not apply grease to thread on drive shaft."

H

hdlo

Member
Service manual states "Do not apply grease to thread on drive shaft.". Edit: "Splines on outer joint and splines of wheel hub must be free of oil and grease." Is what I meant. Do you guys actually follow this advice? I had a big headache due to drive shaft splines was rusted to s**t, and even though it was loose, it got super stuck when trying the remove the drive shaft. I had to remove the drive shift with the hub and try a 20 ton press. Not enough! Then paid a workshop to use their very special 50 ton press to get it off. Because of Audis advice I now need a new outer drive shaft joint and a new wheel bearing.. and the special tool to actually change a front wheel bearing on an A2 :p So, great! I feel the drive shaft splines should be coated with grease.... what is the problem? I use a new nut and torque it correctly...
Thanks!
 

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Yeah lol!!
I grease almost everything and never have any issues with anything coming loose but I know others will disagree
 
I feel there is a bit of misunderstanding from my part, but it states “ do not apply grease to the threads”. You are mentioning the splines. So the manual is correct in my point of view. You never want grease on threads where you will use an nut to install, agreed? The splines is whole other story. I believe it is common practice to apply two strokes of loctite to prevent the shaft from juddering.
 
I like things to come apart when I need them to so grease all bolts but sparingly on wheel nut/bolt threads applied with my frying pan containing oil/grease
 
No other driveshaft I have ever removed has used any form of locking compound on the threads and don't recall any of the other VAG group cars that use the same wheel bearing therefore drive shaft spline do either. Mines been lubed for the last 24k and I am not aware of any issues from doing so. I will try and contact an Audi tech to see his thoughts on the matter as the same bearing has been used on recent cars if not still today.
 
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