Defective GKN Axles?

I just finished replacing all 4 wheel bearings, both axles and the brake soft lines. The car is a LOT quieter in a straight line now, since the old bearings (200k miles) were no good. The axles were original as well, with torn boots, so I figured I would replace them while I was in there. The axles were purchased from ECS, under the GKN brand.

Aside from the packaging being a bit beaten up when I received the stuff, I did notice that the outer joints of the new axles had a slight clicky / detent feeling in them as I pivoted them by hand. The inner joints did not do this. If only one axle had done it, I would have assumed it was defective, but since both did it in exactly the same way, I figured that they were worth a shot ("they can't BOTH be bad, right?"). So I got it all back together this evening, all stretch bolts replaced with new ones and properly torqued to spec, and went for a test drive.

When turning the steering wheel more than ~15 degrees and applying any amount of throttle, I get LOUD clicking, almost clunking, from the front left side. It is easily heard, and can even be felt. The right side does it as well, but less so.

Anyway, this strikes me as what a classic symptom of a failing CV axle. Has anyone else had one or both axles be defective from the start? I am sort of not excited about doing an exchange on these if the quality is this bad. It isn't like axles "break in" either, correct?

Reboot your old axles and send the “new” ones back.

send them back and go with RAXLES they are pricey but worth it. Great customer service as well

I have installed literally hundreds of new GKN drive axles on VAG products and never once had a problem. They are who makes the axles for VAG on the BRM cars in the first place.

I emailed IDParts regarding buying theirs after returning the ECS ones. They said that sometimes, if the axles have been sitting for a while, they will click a little for up to a week as the grease works its way back in. I have only ever owned RWD cars before, so I can see there being a slight learning curve on this new (to me) Craigslist car. However, it is not just a clicking, but almost a speed-related clunk that can easily be felt through the steering and seat, varying with how much throttle is applied while turning. I drove it in to work today and it is not getting better.

I also spoke with Marty of Raxles on my way in, and he is pretty sure that my rebuilds have bad re-grinds. They are rebuilds, based on the black paint and observing a little pitting in the splines that was clearly from rust in a previous life. So I am going to return both to ECS and get a pair from Raxles. The Raxles come out to the same cost as the "new/rebuilt" GKN ones everyone else sells.

Are the outer joints held together with snap rings, or circlips? Although I did not yank on them at any point, I cannot help but wonder if a snap ring popped loose. I am not going to open the boot because then there's no way I can return them, but I am very curious. Considering how beaten up they were from shipping, maybe I should not be surprised.

Anyway, I know my next steps now, and swapping axles is fairly easy. An 18" breaker bar + 4ft pipe makes the axle bolts into a very simple affair, too.

oilhammer said:

I have installed literally hundreds of new GKN drive axles on VAG products and never once had a problem. They are who makes the axles for VAG on the BRM cars in the first place.

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this...^

If those axles are remans that could explain why you’re having trouble. I believe idparts are new.

Could it be that they are for a different application and perhaps a slightly different length than the originals?

They are definitely rebuilds. ECS sells them for basically the same price as IDParts, so I assume that both sell rebuilds, but I do not know for sure (do they even make "new" ones for the MK5 anymore)? According to Marty at Raxles, if the ends are painted black, they are rebuilds; new ones are silver.

My Raxles replacements showed up today, so either way I am getting properly rebuilt ones in there. Raxles uses GKN parts, which is good, but I guess they do the re-machining and/or bearing fitment differently than the "cheap" companies. I have used GKN/Loebro rebuilds for my E30's before and never had a problem.

I took the ECS/GKN ones out and played with them a bit. The right side outer joint is no good and binds up when pivoting it, and it only has ~20 miles on it. Both of the joints on the left side have some angular runout (if I clamp the shaft and wiggle the ends, there is rotational play). So, these seem to be junk rebuilds. The old 200K mile axles do not exhibit any of this. I have read posts across here and some other forums where people did lose the rebuilt axle-lottery, although it seems rare. The ones from ECS were pretty beaten up during shipping, to the point that the main outer box and the inner ones were coming apart and some of the fasteners even needed their threads cleaned up with a file. Maybe things got damaged in transit, although it seems unlikely since the abuse these things take when in use seems more extreme.

Whatever the case, I expect to be back up and running today.

To close on this, I got the Raxles axles installed and the car is on the road again. No more awful noises while turning, and the GKN axles are on their way back to ECS. As for my original reasons for doing all of this, all of the dumb noises that were present on the highway are now gone. I assume that it was mainly from the failing original front wheel bearings (they had the old/original hex head bolt with thick washer, which was discontinued).

Also, the difference in quality between the Raxles parts and the GKN rebuilds from ECS was tremendous. Compared to the GKN ones, the Raxles parts had higher quality powder coat paint, an OEM shaft, the boots were made from a much more compliant material and there was zero nonsense in the joints (runout, binding). The Raxles axles themselves are the same overall cost as IDParts and ECS (if buying a pair), but you do have to pay for shipping which is probably $50-90 for UPS Ground for most people, and you have to return your cores. Still, it was 100000% worth it.

The other detail about the Raxles that I really liked was the attention to detail concerning the boots' band clamp crimps. They are good enough to position it between bolt holes in the flanges so that your triple square socket / extension will not get hung up on it. The GKN ones had the crimp on both inner joints right in the middle of a bolt hole, which was annoying.

bmwman91 said:

The other detail about the Raxles that I really liked was the attention to detail concerning the boots' band clamp crimps. They are good enough to position it between bolt holes in the flanges so that your triple square socket / extension will not get hung up on it. The GKN ones had the crimp on both inner joints right in the middle of a bolt hole, which was annoying.

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I love when this is the case...forethought

Found this thread after having the same issue. GKN driver side outer joint feels bone dry. Looking down into the bolt hole there is definitely grease in there. Passenger side which I'm doing at the same time seems fine. Was thinking about putting it in anyways but after reading this guess I will not. First experience with GKN, seems like a questionable product here. These aren't supposed to be bottom of the line right??

I can't speak for the GKN, but Marty doesn't regrind joints, they are new. He even warranties the boots, though with shipping that might not be relevant to some people. It's all he does there I believe.