Vibration After Front End Work

Hello,
PD Jetta Wagon - 5 speed - 600k-km
I refreshed the front end on my wagon with all new control arm bushings, springs, shocks, joints, wheel bearings and it rides like new. After this work was done and the car was aligned, I've noticed a thumping/drumming, usually lower RPM under load. Its so bad I'm not driving the car as I feel that my front end work might be damaged if I continue to drive it.
Searching the issue seems to point to CV joints and I have some rotational play on both sides, the drivers side is worse and I can hear a good clunk transitioning from off throttle when taking on-ramps to the highway. If I have no up/down play on the shaft but some rotational clunking would this be the cause of my issue?
Here is a video of the axle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8lhLQApltw
I believe that the problem isn't new but because the front end was so worn that I didn't really notice the it. Can this type of CV wear be the source of such a significant issue?

Ayup.

OK. These are original axles, is the best approach to change the ends with new GKN parts? Reading lots of bad things about most aftermarket CV joints. Is any play in these acceptable or do all 4 need replacing if I can detect rotational play?

Thanks,

The noise is so bad now and you couldn't hear it before?
I'm assuming you used the correct tools to press the wheel bearing in and tightened the axel nut to the proper very tight spec.

I've heard CV joints make clicking noise while cornering and such so it's possible they are bad but I would thing the noise should have been there before the work or you disturbed something in the process

I watched your video.
I would try to isolate exactly where the clicking is coming from.

Did you replace the axel seals in the trans while you were doing this?
Center bolt tight?

On my cars is the past I took the joints off and cleaned them to check if there were wear grooves where the balls rode.
Pack with grease and re-use if they are OK.

I didn't remove the axles from the car and I used a shop press for the bearing job. It was straightforward and the bearings were torqued as per the procedure. The axle nut torque was checked again after a few hundred km's. I pushed the CV axle stub through the hubs with a puller and the balljoint disconnected.

I'm into CV's for sure on the drivers side (the video) because I get some clunk/clicking from the outer under some cornering and loading/unloading the drivetrain.

The shafts just hung down after I removed the hub assemblies and we not dropped or pounded on.

zslnk said:

OK. These are original axles, is the best approach to change the ends with new GKN parts? Reading lots of bad things about most aftermarket CV joints. Is any play in these acceptable or do all 4 need replacing if I can detect rotational play?

Thanks,

Click to expand...

Yes, it's best to keep the originals and swap in quality joints (don't know from brands). I've read in some cases you can swap the joints side to side.

zslnk said:

The shafts just hung down after I removed the hub assemblies and we not dropped or pounded on.

Click to expand...

OK.

Before I spend the money I would clean them and check for grooves in the channels the balls ride in.

I wonder if one of the balls popped out while the shafts were hanging.

I rebuilt the drivers half shaft (the one from the video) with no change. The car still thumps badly at 1500rpm in 5th under light load but smooths out once you get a little higher in the rev's. I also still have a light clack on turns when getting on the throttle on the side that I rebuilt, as before.

I'm going to inspect the passenger side but I think it's fine as it wasn't as loose as the drivers side that was rebuilt.

The car has Lemforder solid control arm bushing now, could these be source of the vibration? Previously the car had the OE bushings with the voids in them. Another thought is that with the new springs the car is riding about 1" higher in the front and this could have moved the CV's out of their worn in position. I think the next step is to replace the remaining inner CV on the passenger side...

zsinc,

Be aware that IDparts has these:

https://www.idparts.com/gsp-north-america-m-264.html

I replaced all 4 CVs with GKN parts, the thumping is gone. There's still something that was not present before but I'm pleased. I believe the solid control arm bushings may be the change.