Tried to install new suspension, now axle wobbles! Vid inside

So today, I finally dove into the front suspension. I bought a set of ST coil overs last year and needed to get them on. Passenger side was easy. Driver side gave me some difficulty. Couldn't get the axle to come out of the hub. Then it seemed to separate from the inside (trans) and gave me enough slack to get the knuckle off the lower control arm and drop it down low enough to pull it off the strut. Great... So I thought.

Upon reassembly, everything seemed to go back together just fine. Took it out for a drive ad I felt a horrible clunk clunk clunk. W t f? I re-checked all my bolts and everything looked good.
Still there. I basically disassembled everything and redid it all just to make sure things were seated. Yep.

Still there... Clunk clunk clunk. W t f?
Re-installed the original suspension thinking maybe my ST stuff was the culprit. Nope still there. W t f?

It felt like a wheel was not bolted down. Hmmmm... Can't tell where it's coming from.So I jack up the front end, pull the wheels, and run it in gear. This is what I found!
This is the driver-side axle. I tried pulling it out and seeing if there was something off, but everything "feels" fine. You can clearly see the wobble.

What gives? Anyone encounter this? Do I have a broken cv joint?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_rFrAy4Wp4

Whoops, that inner joint shouldn't be able to separate, I think it's busted or something has slipped out of place. Unbolt it from the box, unbolt the dogbone mount and use a small jack to move the engine a bit then you can drop the inner end, after that just take out the outer end and get a look at it.

Crap! Thought it separated or something like that. Cant touch it tonight. Maybe tomorrow after work. Ugh!

There's a clip on the shaft on the gear box side, either in view or behind a metal plate that just taps off. Then the bit with the three bearings comes off, I think something's happened to that looking at that vid.

Seatman said:

There's a clip on the shaft on the gear box side, either in view or behind a metal plate that just taps off. Then the bit with the three bearings comes off, I think something's happened to that looking at that vid.

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Thank you for your insight. I figured something came apart. I'm now debating on whether to service this or replace it. Leaning toward replacement, but haven't priced things out yet.

Yep; looks like your CV joint may have separated. Mine did that when installing suspension on my MKV R32 as well, though it was the outer CV for me...

"Servicing" it was a royal PITA; as these axles are designed tob e one-use toss and replace units. You can do it; but it is not a particularly fun job.

DubFamily said:

Yep; looks like your CV joint may have separated. Mine did that when installing suspension on my MKV R32 as well, though it was the outer CV for me...

"Servicing" it was a royal PITA; as these axles are designed tob e one-use toss and replace units. You can do it; but it is not a particularly fun job.

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Figured it was serviceable, but not in a friendly way. Called VWoA and got them to agree to tow it to the dealer tonight under warranty. Will update when it's all said and done.

Nice!

As these "shouldn't" be capable of separating I guess they went with it. we did my suspension while up on a lift, so we just pulled the axle and went to work on it. After fighting it for a while I started wishing I had done what you did instead.

Good luck with it!

When my mechanic put the FSDs in my Golf he told me it's easy to break the inner CV joint: you need to remove the axle to prevent that from happening. Sounds like that might be what you're experiencing. Made me happy I didn't do it myself.

I think part of the problem is that the axle did not want to come away from the hub/bearing assembly. I eventually got it out, but by then the inner cv joint had separated. I think next time I will get a hub puller to make sure this doesn't happen again. I was surprised the splines didn't have any anti-seize or other kind of lube on them.

I will never understand, there is no reason to pull axles when changing suspension.

I understand the new cars are different. You can drop the subframe for clearance, but when you do the axle angle can cause it to break. It doesn't take much, I'm told, to break it. It was a surprise to me as it's not like changing struts on my A4s.

nikhsub1 said:

I will never understand, there is no reason to pull axles when changing suspension.

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You're right. Actually I didn't pull the axle on this (driver) side because it wouldn't come out. So I worked on trying to remove it without pulling the axle. Finally got the strut free, and this (busted inner CV joint) is what I ended up with.

It was only later when I was trying to figure out what was causing the clunking sound that I finally pulled the axle (becasue I thought something wasn't seated
fully).

So, just to be clear, even without pulling the axle, you can separate/break the inner CV joint on the axle. I think the preferred way would be to use a bearing/hub puller to separate the axle from the knuckle and eliminate any unnecessary stress on the axle. Just my $0.02.

nikhsub1 said:

I will never understand, there is no reason to pull axles when changing suspension.

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Yeah; the one I was speaking of above (MKV R32) we didn't pull the axle to install suspension either. We dropped everything to get the struts out, and the outer CV busted.

While putting everything back together we found it; then we had to pull the axle to fix it.

I did my coilovers without pulling the axle. Sorry, I know that doesn't help now.

Never pull the axle, that's my advice but as for fixing, they totally come apart and are usually fairly easy to do. There's a right up on vortex somewhere for it, just get an inner cv joint if you can't fix that one. No need for a complete axle but watch out for cheap crap if you go that route.

I've done a ton of suspension installs on MKV/MKVI's there is no need to pull the axles for anyone who might read this. If you can't get the front struts out, make sure both sides of the sway bar link are disconnected (Passenger, driver, top, bottom), then put a towel on top of the brake rotor and give it a good stomp, while lifting up on the strut.

Quick update: I got it over to the dealer (with original suspension installed) and they covered it under warranty. I have since swapped back in the coilovers and it looks amazing! So happy I did this.

As for not pulling the axles, I'm guessing you can do it with out, but that's how my driver side got damaged/separated - for sure! Since I didn't want this to happen again, I rented an axle/hub puller and pressed it out. It literally took less than 5 extra minutes to do this step and it eliminated all stress from the CV joints.

Will post pics soon.

AO928 said:

Quick update: I got it over to the dealer (with original suspension installed) and they covered it under warranty. I have since swapped back in the coilovers and it looks amazing! So happy I did this.

As for not pulling the axles, I'm guessing you can do it with out, but that's how my driver side got damaged/separated - for sure! Since I didn't want this to happen again, I rented an axle/hub puller and pressed it out. It literally took less than 5 extra minutes to do this step and it eliminated all stress from the CV joints.

Will post pics soon.

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did you end up installing new axle nuts since you pulled the axles?

AGOODHI said:

did you end up installing new axle nuts since you pulled the axles?

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I know they say to replace them, but I didnt. Living life on the edge I guess. I'm sure the reason is that the bolts stretch and the only way to ensure proper torque is use a new bolt. I will recheck them shortly and make sure they haven't loosened.

I've unbolted and rebolted CV's on 4 different Mk6's/JSW's and reused the bolts without issue (needed step in downpipe install).All the cars except 1 have over 10k miles since the install without issue (one is still waiting on the ECU to come back from PDE with the Malone stage 2 tune).