mrrhtuner
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2011
- Location
- London Ont Canada
- TDI
- 2003 Jetta Wagon TDI, 2015 Passat TDI, 2015 Touareg TDI
Hey guys,
My driver side axle decided to give me grief two weeks ago. I scoured the internet for my options.
Option #1 - Rebuild with all German inside/outside joints. As I want to do an allignment after, I wanted to rebuild both my axles and be done with the drivetrain. I looked at the price *YIKES* and decided to try another option and risk it. Bad Idea. HUGE
Option #2 - IDParts Metelli joints. Italian branded...chinese made. Confirmed by IDParts. Why even sell that garbage? PASS
Option #3 - I've been told to stay away from Chinese branded axles. I get it and I agree. We have had chinese axles on our B5.5 passat and they were utter s_hit.
So as I was reading forums, I've heard Cardon Select mentioned. People stating that they have a manufacturing plant in the good ol' US of A and Mexico.
Great...finally something with a promise to be good. So I placed an order from RockAuto. Each axle was CDN $60ish dollars vs a local shop selling the same axles for $180.00. RockAuto it is!
Both axles arrived pretty quickly and the first thing I noticed was...the box had a "Made in China" stamp. FU_CK.
Anyways...
The axles 'look' fine but they do NOT use anything OEM from what I can tell. Maybe at most they would use the inner/outer joints and rebuild them? but the shafts are nothing near what the OEM MK4 TDI shafts are (size wise).
So the shorter driver's axle installed and it appears fine. The passenger axle, when I took it out of the packaging looked like this:
So after messing with it, I was able to get the joint alligned properly by disassembling the inner joint but than the axle wouldn't flex at the joint or move in/out. Being 11pm at night, I tossed in my old axle and said I will never buy anything other than German for crucial car parts.
To top this off, I looked at RockAuto's commercial invoice.
So with the money plus shipping that I get back for the passenger axle, I will start collecting GKN joints and rebuild both of my OEM axles.
So all those location's that Cardone identifies on their website and people reference, means sh_it all.
https://www.cardone.com/about-us/locations-directions
My driver side axle decided to give me grief two weeks ago. I scoured the internet for my options.
Option #1 - Rebuild with all German inside/outside joints. As I want to do an allignment after, I wanted to rebuild both my axles and be done with the drivetrain. I looked at the price *YIKES* and decided to try another option and risk it. Bad Idea. HUGE
Option #2 - IDParts Metelli joints. Italian branded...chinese made. Confirmed by IDParts. Why even sell that garbage? PASS
Option #3 - I've been told to stay away from Chinese branded axles. I get it and I agree. We have had chinese axles on our B5.5 passat and they were utter s_hit.
So as I was reading forums, I've heard Cardon Select mentioned. People stating that they have a manufacturing plant in the good ol' US of A and Mexico.
Great...finally something with a promise to be good. So I placed an order from RockAuto. Each axle was CDN $60ish dollars vs a local shop selling the same axles for $180.00. RockAuto it is!
Both axles arrived pretty quickly and the first thing I noticed was...the box had a "Made in China" stamp. FU_CK.
Anyways...
The axles 'look' fine but they do NOT use anything OEM from what I can tell. Maybe at most they would use the inner/outer joints and rebuild them? but the shafts are nothing near what the OEM MK4 TDI shafts are (size wise).
So the shorter driver's axle installed and it appears fine. The passenger axle, when I took it out of the packaging looked like this:
So after messing with it, I was able to get the joint alligned properly by disassembling the inner joint but than the axle wouldn't flex at the joint or move in/out. Being 11pm at night, I tossed in my old axle and said I will never buy anything other than German for crucial car parts.
To top this off, I looked at RockAuto's commercial invoice.
So with the money plus shipping that I get back for the passenger axle, I will start collecting GKN joints and rebuild both of my OEM axles.
So all those location's that Cardone identifies on their website and people reference, means sh_it all.
https://www.cardone.com/about-us/locations-directions
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