2" lift = split axle???!

Hi all,

so yesterday I had my drivers side CV axle break off on the transmission side. it unbolted it's self from the tranny, and broke the few remaining bolts. I called my mechanic who had replaced it a month prior, and he wondered if it was my 2" lift that stretched the axle to breaking point? i told him that i had never heard of that happening before and that they sell 2" kits for the mk4, so i didn't think that was the problem. Is this even possible for the lift to cause that to happen? He's looking at it today than is supposed to get back to me about what he finds, but i just want to know for certain that my lift didn't cause the issue.

Thanks,
GlowBugTDI

There should be enough play in the joints to allow for up and down movement of the suspension.

I had a CV shaft come off my Vanagon many years ago. It just wasn't torqued enough to keep the bolts tight and eventually most of them fell out and the last one just unscrewed. The older 6 point Allen head bolts can't be torqued as well and the 12 point star style head bolts so those would be my choice. It might be good to use a bit of loctite blue on the threads during the reassembly to help prevent this from happening again.

Never had axle issues when I had my mk4 golf lifted 2". Not enough to bind of cause serious issue. Youre likely stressing the joints themselves a bit more because it's lifted, but nothing jamming bolts like that. I agree with pb_nb, a little blue locktite wouldn't be a bad idea. I had the axle bolts loosen (think from my own undertorquing) on my mk1 cabby. Let loose on take off and left me coasting. Little Tim Hortons parking lot mechanics, and we were back on the road. I put the blue locktite on there too, and no issues yet.

Your mechanic didn't torque them correctly.

ok, thanks all! he replaced it under warranty, so that's good! Im on my way to pick it up now, and guess ill see what he found the problem was...
Thank you!!

Ive been thrashing my mk4 with a 2" and stage 3 tune for about 3 years with no issues... Im guess it was ready to go anyway. The lift definitely doesn't reduce stress but I doubt that was the main issue.

pretty easy to overtorque the m8 bolts

[486] said:

pretty easy to overtorque the m8 bolts

Click to expand...

Apparently! Some previous wrench glued one of my M8 triple square bolts in using RTV after they broke it... (sheared right at the CV flange, I backed it out with my fingers) I replaced it with an old allen head CV bolt from a Mk1 VW... Last mechanic says: You know the Mk1 bolts aren't stretch bolts, right? I responded: "Yes, and I only ever had a problem with them backing out on my Mk1 if I didn't torque them properly..."

Considering I put ~40k on the MkIV with one CV bolt sheared and held in using RTV, without the others breaking or backing out, I'd say the lift kit wasn't the issue. Someone didn't pull out their torque wrench and torque the CV bolts. I hope they checked the other side while they had the car up in the air??