Are MKIV TDI and Gas axles the same ?

I have a 99.5 TDI manual with a broken CV. I have a 00 gas automatic parts car. Will the gas axle fit my TDI Manual ? Also, now that I have the passenger wheel off, it's not clear which axle is actually broken. when I grab all 4 CVs by hand, I can't tell which is clearly the broken one. Any simple suggestions ?

How to veryify which axle is broken

I think I've figured out that I'm out of luck using my 00 gas automatic axle on my 99.5 manual TDI. (The parts places differentiate between manual and auto.) Now after feeling all 4 joints by hand on the jackstands, I can't really tell any difference in terms of free play etc. There is a rip in my drivers side axle boot, so I would guess that is the CV joint that is broken. Is there a simple test to confirm which one is spinning ? Should I put my phone on video under the car watching the axle with the wheels back on the car on the ground and just try moving the car in 1st to record which axle starts to free spin (ie showing which CV is gone ? Any simpler diagnostic suggestion ?

If there is no play in your joints, just a tore boot, then remove it. Clean the joint completely, re-grease and put a new boot on it. Replace and use a new nut on the axle and drive on.

Broken Joint

Thanks for the reply. No, the joint has broken as the car won't drive, joint was making clicking sounds and on a long right hand corner stopped driving the car at all. Feels like neutral no matter which gear it was in.

Don't buy cheap china axles! Spend the money for new one or used OEM! China axles vibrate and will eat your wheel bearings, I speak from experience. I knew the risks, tried anyway and recently purchased 2 new OEM axles a long with 2 wheel bearing kits.

With the engine off and the car in gear, jack up one front wheel and try to turn the wheel by hand. You should know very quickly if that is the bad one because the good one will not turn.

JDSwan87 said:

Don't buy cheap china axles! Spend the money for new one or used OEM! China axles vibrate and will eat your wheel bearings, I speak from experience. I knew the risks, tried anyway and recently purchased 2 new OEM axles a long with 2 wheel bearing kits.

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This is nonsense, I brought 2 non OEM axles years ago and never had any issues with either of them going on 40k miles one car and 75k on the other. Both Passenger side, Both from O’Reillys auto parts.
Btw, both my tdi’s are lower which add more stress on axles.

Bajan

My opinion- if you plan on driving the car for years, buy an oem axle. If you want to just get a little more time out of the vehicle before getting a different vehicle, get whatever parts store axle you can find for the cheapest. My son's '01 gas Jetta, both sides have torn boots, but still no noise. They were replacement axles before my son bought car,so they have between 70-80k miles on them. Not sure what his plan is right now, but there is now a coolant leak somewhere(looks like possibly water pump), along with axles, not sure if he wants to do a tb and water pump along with axles and spend the money on this car or get a different vehicle....

I put a O'Reilly axle on my 2003 Jetta several months ago and it is working perfect, no issues.

red16vdub said:

This is nonsense, I brought 2 non OEM axles years ago and never had any issues with either of them going on 40k miles one car and 75k on the other. Both Passenger side, Both from O’Reillys auto parts.
Btw, both my tdi’s are lower which add more stress on axles.

Bajan

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Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I have stated mine and you have stated yours. I respectfully agree to disagree with you.

I bought a brand new NAPA axle for the passenger side of my 2005 BEW 09a. It immediately had a vibration around 20mph. Once you got above that, it "went away." I pulled that one after a week, got another NAPA axle and it too vibrated. I decided to roll with it. I had to then replace the other side axle, again went with NAPA. That install went great, no added vibration. I put 15k-20k miles on the first installed axle and now the wheel bearing on that side is junk. The vibration was an in/out vibration, not rotational. My thought process is bearings are not meant to see lateral loads like that, therefore the bearing failed. I spoke with IDPARTS about this and they agreed it was likely the axle that killed the wheel bearing.

I'm happy others have had good luck with Chinese axles, my experience was not a good one.

I have heard of aftermarket axles blowing out the differential bearings too. That cheap axle got expensive really quick.

It is also possible to replace the worn out joint on your axle. https://roselandtech.ca/outer-cv-joint-kit-mk3-mk4-b4.html