AudiB7Q05

Thanks. The car is worth <£2k and a refurb rack is +£450 so quickly I can see myself upto £1000 in total if it went well.So £1150 seems a reasonable quote. But I think that you are right. It's a heck of a job.

My rack has died and is going to cost as much to repair as the car is worth almost! Has anybody got experience of doing this job on the drive with this specific engine. I know the smaller engines it is easy but it appears almost impossible for me to get to the middle bolt of the rack from under the car without removing the inter cooler pipe, the starter cat converter and a heat shield. The intercooler pipe seems impossible to remove due to a torx bolt fitted in an impossible to access place. The bolt is the one in the captive nut. Not the two obvious torx bolts in the pic.

Looking at my own pic I have realised it is captive and having looked again at the there is a inaccessible torx screw in it!

Hi,

i am trying to remove the intercooler pipe on a 3L TDI B7 that runs along side of the engine on the UK drivers side. I am facing two problems.
1) The pipe is secured to a bracket towards rear of the engine. It is an 11mm nut with difficult access. I have managed to get a ratchet ring spanner on it and an open ended spanner on it but both are starting to round off the nut. It is not rusted in anyway. Any ideas
2) The pipe splits in two and goes in to two rubber hoses with jubilee clips. With both clips undone the upper hose came off easily but the lower hose will not budge at all. Any ideas?
The reason that I am doing this is that I am replacing the steering rack and  the intercooler pipe and starter cat converter below it both need to be removed before I can access the 3rd rack bolt.