CV Joint/Axle Questions

Well I believe my inner CV joint on the drivers side is bad. When driving straight I hear a loud clicking sound and can feel it through the floor board. Haven't had time to jack the car up yet and make sure, but that is what I am suspecting. Questions are 1. Should I replace the joint or whole axle? 2. If so should I go with GSP North America or GKN? I know GKN is good, but haven't heard anything on GSP, and yes I will keep my OEM axles as spares for now, since I have 3 other MK4 TDIs. 3. Or should I swap right and left cv joint sides out and reboot them?

It doesn't click in reverse just going forward. Again I need to get under the car and see if any boots are split and ensure its the inner CV joint.

Thanks

Rebuild it. It's not that hard. It's also the easiest side to work with as the axle is short so you don't have to actually get under the car very much.


Here is a kit from idparts.

Thanks, I will probably just rebuild it and do the inner and outer joints while I have it out. Thanks

ahldailydriver02 said:

Thanks, I will probably just rebuild it and do the inner and outer joints while I have it out. Thanks

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It will cost you more in parts to rebuild both sides of the axle, but it will be waaay better than even the best gold/platinum, etc. axle from a local box store.

Yeah I am sure it will cost more, but if I am going to have it out I might as well do both side, and I know it will be better than a box store axle. I was just curious to see if I could get a quality axle with the joints already installed to cut down on time.

Pick a set up from someone parting out a car here, this way you can swap it out and build it at your leisure plus you have spares......just my .02.

For the inner CV joints, you will want a pair of these. Ignore KC Tools price; Lowes and Home Despot have them for $37...
cheers,
Douglas
https://www.kctoolco.com/knipex-45-...ng-ring-pliers-for-retaining-rings-on-shafts/

csstevej said:

Pick a set up from someone parting out a car here, this way you can swap it out and build it at your leisure plus you have spares......just my .02.

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That's a great idea, I have been wanting a parts car for a while now anyways

PakProtector said:

For the inner CV joints, you will want a pair of these. Ignore KC Tools price; Lowes and Home Despot have them for $37...
cheers,
Douglas
https://www.kctoolco.com/knipex-45-...ng-ring-pliers-for-retaining-rings-on-shafts/

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Thanks for the heads up. What would I use this for on the inner CV joint? I was thinking I would need a pair of snap ring pliers.

ahldailydriver02 said:

Thanks for the heads up. What would I use this for on the inner CV joint? I was thinking I would need a pair of snap ring pliers.

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The clips have no holes for snap ring pliers to enter. There is a clip holding the inner driver star to the axle( it is also pre-loaded by a washer spring). Those are the pliers to attack that clip with. You can fight it with a screw driver, but there is a risk of launching the ring across the shop past some event horizon.
cheers,
Douglas

PakProtector said:

The clips have no holes for snap ring pliers to enter. There is a clip holding the inner driver star to the axle( it is also pre-loaded by a washer spring). Those are the pliers to attack that clip with. You can fight it with a screw driver, but there is a risk of launching the ring across the shop past some event horizon.
cheers,
Douglas

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Good to know!! Thanks

Just got to looking these up, do I need the straight ones or ones with an angle?

FWIW the inners don't seem to fail as commonly as the outers. I've dealt with this issue before, and tried to do it the cheap way, doesn't work.
What I DID find, however, is that if you get a reman unit from NAPA or whatever it is they sell, you'll find that the outer CV joints are not swappable. You can put a new OEM inner CV joint on a NAPA axle, but you can't do it with an outer CV joint; the outer ends are larger than OEM and it's just not physically possible.

Outer CV joints click in turns when they're failing, the inners cause steering wheel shimmy on acceleration when they're leaving for vacation.

Replacing inners is a piece of cake. Swapping them is easy as well. To me, getting the outers off the blinkin' halfshaft is a major PIA. Installation is a breeze in comparison.

Good luck with this.

Cheers,

PH

sisyphus said:

FWIW the inners don't seem to fail as commonly as the outers. I've dealt with this issue before, and tried to do it the cheap way, doesn't work.
What I DID find, however, is that if you get a reman unit from NAPA or whatever it is they sell, you'll find that the outer CV joints are not swappable. You can put a new OEM inner CV joint on a NAPA axle, but you can't do it with an outer CV joint; the outer ends are larger than OEM and it's just not physically possible.

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This is good information. I usually do most of my own work, but there have been times I have taken it to a shop due to time constraint and or having surgery a few times. I can't remember if they every changed the axle but know they put a new boot on the passenger side before. I will have to look and see.

Powder Hound said:

Outer CV joints click in turns when they're failing, the inners cause steering wheel shimmy on acceleration when they're leaving for vacation.

Replacing inners is a piece of cake. Swapping them is easy as well. To me, getting the outers off the blinkin' halfshaft is a major PIA. Installation is a breeze in comparison.

Good luck with this.

Cheers,

PH

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So last night I had time and got the car on jack stands. No boots are torn, no funny sound when in gear. Let the car down and it drives fine. So I thought back on what happened. I did a tight U-Turn and that's when the sound and feeling was in the floor board. So I did another tight U-Turn last night and it started up again, back on the jack stands and nothing. Took for another test drive and its gone again. I must be the outer joint on the driver side. I wonder if the U-turns are creating one of the balls to slightly pop out and cause that noise and vibration and when up in the air it pushes back into place?

It could be a strut bearing acting up or broken.

Possibly, but it really seems to be coming from the left front tire area.

Hm. I had one that gave little indication it was failing until I was driving home one day and the steering wheel gave a jerk to one side--alarmingly so, because the car followed suit--and I drove it to the mechanic I used at the time, since I only had a dirt driveway and it was winter.
The next day as he was moving it into his shop it failed completely, he had to push it in the last 20 feet.

All that being said, the strut bearings make that same clunking noise. I've been through a few of them because I had a tendency to over-tighten them.

To tell the difference, as the car is rolling you'd hear a bad CV joint clicking away. If you're just turning the steering wheel and the car isn't rolling and you hear it, it's likely the strut bearing, if you've narrowed it down to these two culprits.

Yeah I am confident it is the CV joint. Consensus is leaning towards outer CV joint. I drove it today and no noise, but I know it will probably come back. As I was digging around in my list of repairs it does appear that the axle was replaced way back when I had strange noise that was not able to be diagnosed, which was not the axle by the way, it was the dog bone mount. I still have that factory axle, I might just put that back in depending on the boots.

ahldailydriver02 said:

Yeah I am confident it is the CV joint. Consensus is leaning towards outer CV joint. I drove it today and no noise, but I know it will probably come back. As I was digging around in my list of repairs it does appear that the axle was replaced way back when I had strange noise that was not able to be diagnosed, which was not the axle by the way, it was the dog bone mount. I still have that factory axle, I might just put that back in depending on the boots.

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If it were me, I would order new boot kits and refurb it before you reinstall.

Yep, when I get back home I am going to look for the axle and go from there. I am probably going to just reuse the bolts, unless someone thinks that is a bad idea?

Torque to Yield or Stretch bolts should not be re-used. Not sure, but I think they are. Wish they would mark the damn things, but they don't, often they are green. Apparently the way you tell is if torque spec says x lbs + y turns. But someone will know.

The manual trans drive axle bolts are not TTY that I know of. ccording to Bentley, it's done in 2 stages... first tighten them diagonally to 10 NM (7.4 Ft*Lbs), then tighten them diagonally to 40 NM (29.5 Ft*Lbs)

And the other end:
I like to torque the axle nut to about 100ft lbs so there is something there to hold the axle to the hub, then I set the car weight down on the tire and go with the Bentley method.

12-point nut for drive axle to wheel hub
-- 200 Nm (148 ft-lb)
-- loosen 1/2 turn (180*)
-- turn wheel 1/2 turn (180*) Since car is on the ground I just roll it forward or backward enough to get the 180 turn.
-- then tighten to 50 Nm (37 ft-lb) plus 1/6 turn (60*) Use a sharpie to make a tic mark to help you see how much the nut has moved.

Thanks Bob and Jokila. I was going to research the axle nut next but you beat me to it. I had to leave town for work so I haven't had time to get back to this. I am hoping to tackle this in the next week. I will keep everyone posted on how it goes or if I have any issues or questions. Thanks again!

jokila has provided the proper procedure. But be sure you understand and perform the install correctly. Only saying this because I've noticed a lot of folks fail to get this right.