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Audi A4 B5 Generation – 2.8L V6 Exhaust Removal and Installation

Applies To:

1996 – 2001 Audi A4 2.8L V6

Vehicle In This Guide:

1998 Audi A4 2.8L V6 / 5 speed manual / 104,000 miles

Removing The Exhaust

There are several way of doing this. If you can remove the oxygen sensors then you have just saved yourself a lot of frustration. After that all you have to do is remove the exhaust pipe to manifold nuts and the exhaust hangers and slide the exhaust out. Because this is a Minnesota car, I was not so lucky and had to remove the exhaust with the oxygen sensors still attached. audi a4 exhaust

1. Remove the exhaust pipe to manifold nuts. No problems with the left side, 13mm nuts. Use a socket wrench on the visible nuts and use a wrench on the hidden one. audi a4 exhaust pipe

Completely different story with the right side. Visible nuts are easy to get out but the hidden nut is in a really bad place. Very little room to fit a wrench in there (unless you removed the oxygen sensor). Good luck. Use a 1/4 inch socket to turn it a couple of turns to loosen it up. Then use a wrench to slowly get it out the rest of the way. I’m sure some PB Blaster would have helped. audi a4 exhaust system

2. Undo the oxygen sensor connectors inside the engine bay and feed them back under the car. You will need to take off the air duct to get #1, #2, and #3. To get #4, remove the screws holding the coolant tank and move it aside. If you took out the oxygen sensors from the exhaust then leave them connected and set them aside. audi a4 oxygen sensor connector

audi a4 oxygen sensor connector

3. Remove all the bolts from the exhaust hangers and remove the whole exhaust system.

The flex sections on my exhaust system broke. They were cracked to begin with so it’s not a huge loss. Be prepared for this when you begin removing you exhaust. audi flex section exhaust

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4 Comments
  • OK.. so, you say .. no problem getting the exhaust pipe to manifold nuts off.. really? I don’t mean to sound rude, but I have just spent over two hours under my 3.0L 2003 A4 and I have been able to break loose ONE nut on either side..

    Hints? How did you do it that made you think it was so easy? Should I be buying some tool I don’t have?

    Thanks,

  • Great write-up. I found the front fasteners came off like a breeze. I used PB Blaster the day before on all of them and then used a gear wrench ratcheting flexible wrench which allowed me to get at all 4 fasteners. The issues came when I removed the back exhaust hangers. The bolts on the rear differential snapped. Still working on getting the exhaust out though – Thinking I’ll have to cut the 2nd flex pipe (first is broken already) so that I have room to remove the upper exhaust pipes.

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