09a Axle flange shaft failure?

[johnboy00]

I thought I was losing an axle for the second time in a year. My 04 Jetta completely stopped moving as my daughter was driving to school this morning. AS I was waiting for a tow, I took a look at it and saw that the axle wasn't rotating at all even though I could hear the transmission spinning and clunking slightly.

I saw this at ECS tuning describing an axle flange failure: If your flange shaft goes out, it is very likely that you will know about it. Either your vehicle will not want to move, or you could hear a thunking and crunching sound coming from the back of your transmission. If you are replacing the seals in your transmission, always inspect and replace anything that looks damaged or worn.

I don't see a lot of info about this. Is it extremely rare? How likely is it that this is the problem? It has been clunking a bit for a while. It got worse last night. In all cases the transmission was always working fine.

Does anyone else know if any other parts should be replaced along with this? Are any special tools required to replace it?

 

[KrashDH]

This is from my 02 manual transmission, but honestly the concept is all the same with what goes on. I don't really see HOW the transmission output flanges could fail. They area a solid chunk. If somehow the splines internal were stripped, or the flange splines themselves stripped, that might be your issue. But like I said, not sure how that would happen as you can't really install them "incorrectly".

If it's been clunking for a "while", how come you haven't crawled under to take a look. That would worry me a lot the instant I heard it. Could be that your axle flange bolts are loose. But without getting under there and looking you probably won't get too far?

If you have to end up pulling the axle flanges, replace the axle flange seals...and inspect everything. I pulled them and did it while the transmission was out, not sure but I'm guessing if that's all you were doing you can pull those on the car to replace the seals. Also, if you've been grinding and clunking that long, best to drop the transmission pan and make sure you don't have any metal bits floating around in there...

 

[Hawkins2015]

My flange bolts had worked loose until there were only 2 hanging on. A hill start resulted in the two bolts shearing. Then the flange could still turn, but it was not connected to the axle. Sounds similar to what you described above.

After that I started checking those bolts every now and then.

 

[johnboy00]

This is from my 02 manual transmission, but honestly the concept is all the same with what goes on. I don't really see HOW the transmission output flanges could fail. They area a solid chunk. If somehow the splines internal were stripped, or the flange splines themselves stripped, that might be your issue. But like I said, not sure how that would happen as you can't really install them "incorrectly".

If it's been clunking for a "while", how come you haven't crawled under to take a look. That would worry me a lot the instant I heard it. Could be that your axle flange bolts are loose. But without getting under there and looking you probably won't get too far?

I was thinking the same thing; that it cant really fail. I've been keeping an eye on it, but I never realized it was that end of the axle. I assumed it was on the outer joint side. It would run normally for a a long time and every now and then it would get loud for a few minutes and go away. Otherwise there was just a click on turning. I replaced the axle, in June and it disappeared for a several months but then started to return. Until this morning, I thought I put a crappy axle in. I had someone who was going to sell me a VW axle from a swap, back in Sept, but they stopped responding.

Thanks for the pics.

 

[johnboy00]

My flange bolts had worked loose until there were only 2 hanging on. A hill start resulted in the two bolts shearing. Then the flange could still turn, but it was not connected to the axle. Sounds similar to what you described above.

After that I started checking those bolts every now and then.

I didn't check my bolts today, but I did check them not that long ago. They look to be all there and tight, but I'll confirm. Thanks.

 

[johnboy00]

Officially confirmed that it is the transmission, Something inside is slipping. I pulled the axle flange and it looks good.

310k miles on this beast, It needs tires and a timing belt, so I think It is toast, Unfortunately, Its got a lot of relatively new parts. My daughters are driving it and they refuse to drive a stick, so a swap is probably out of the question. I'll have to have a talk with them.

BTW, what is the approximate parts cost for a 5spd swap for a BEW?