So,
Start off by lifting off your bonnet and put the car in neutrual
look down on the right hand side (when looking into the engine bay) and you'll see your shifter tower and shifter weight and cables.
remove the small cross brace above the shifter tower to gain better access, one nut, one bolt.
remove the rain cup also for access, one bolt.
release the shifter cables from there spring style clamps.
you'll see the tower in held in place by two spline drive bolts, but to gain access i had to remove the shifter weight (this probably wont be needed if you have hex head bolts)
the shifter weight in held in place by one nut and a tight fit on a spline shaft, i wiggled for ages but in the end used a puller to get it off.
once thats out the way, removing the two bolts is easy but be careful not to strip them.
the shifter now is now free to be removed, but its stuck down by sealant and takes alot of prying and levering to break free!
once free carefully lift it out and cover the hole left behind.
take this inside and clean it up so its nicer to handle, remove the central column (mine came away while remove the shifter tower so be careful) i then removed the shift slider arm (for lack of a better term) to get better access. Look how the column is orientated, for easy refitment!
now flip it upside down and you should see this bearing looking rather dry and tired
this is the part you want to try and press out.
you need to remove the oil seal on top first, at which point you will notice the lip that gets in the way of this being an easy job!
you need to grind two slots out of that so you can get a drift in on the bearing. i used a peice of flat bar.
when pressing this out be sure to use a socket on the underside to take the strain, i've read about that whole middle part snapping off! so take care here.
once the bearing is down about 5mm you can slip a washer down through the slots and ontop of the bearing, which will then let you use another socket to press it out. USE THE TWO SOCKET method!
the washer and bearing mix looks like this (thats one of those washers you find in drum brake fitting kits but anything that fits will do)
then its a simple task of pressing the new bearing back in carefully as its not very study. i then used a moly CV grease in here, not the expensive VW grease... this may be wrong or right but i thought a wet grease was better then a graphite grease maybe? maybe not?
either way i didnt want to buy the tube of expensive grease for a once use thing
that was in there from the factory and it had completely dissapeared but it was 140k miles old!
the oil seal will press in by hand.
use sealant on the shifter tower to gearbox joint.
reset the shifter cables.
test for all gears and test drive and hope this £9 fix works! Audi dont seem to sell the bearing and seal separately i found, but VW do....
hope this helps!
