For the past 40K (94 K on the odometer) there has been a slight pulsing vibration under acceleration. Sometimes it felt like the front of the car was shifting left-right. Tires and brakes did not make a difference. The other day, pulled both axles and foung the passenger side inner CV joint toast. Pressed for time, I grabbed a $80 rebuilt axle. Upon installation I realized the replacement was solid and the OEM was a tube (hollow) axle. Installed the solid axle thinking, solid is better than hollow!! Well, not so!! The solid axle resonated at 1800 and 3200 RPM. The original vibration on acceleration was gone, but this new problem developed and was so bad at 3200 RPM I could not hear the tunes. Back to the auto parts place --- they hooked me up with a tube axle. Installed, and the resonance is gone!!
Pass Side Axle - must be tube, not solid
- Thread starter centsless
- Start date
KnLPrez
Well-known member
The solid axel would not be better in that case I would assume. Not only would it be heavier, but a properly designed cylinder or tube can withstand a much greater amount of torsional stress and strain before it fails. It seems odd to me that you came accros a solid axel. Good to hear your car is back to it's normal self. How often do you drive at 3000+ rpm?
JettaJake
Veteran Member
my thought exactly
KnLPrez said:
I pass through 3000 rpm, not drive continuously. The resonance was so bad, the impulse was to plug my ears ---- but that would have required letting go of the steering wheel.
Full RPM range every day keeps the intake clean!!
Full RPM range every day keeps the intake clean!!
KnLPrez
Well-known member
Okay, that is what I thought that you meant. I am wondering if there was something wrong with that axel, since it was resonanating so badely.
The solid axle was an "Interpart" rebuild with 2 new CV joints. Both joints felt fine and it matched the tubular axle exactly for length. I had done a search on the forum here and there were a couple of posts where others have experienced the same resonance upon a "CV Joint replacement". I was wondering if that was actually an axle swap and a solid was installed as a replacement.
DbLog
Veteran Member
Just installed my solid vr6 axles with fellow TDIer Rodrigues and am experiencing some vibrations at 1.8k and 3.4-3.8k rpm. Car doesn't pull or do anything strange other than resonate. at 1.8k rpm it will resonate while accelerating. 3.4-3.8k rpm it will resonate while accelerating and while coasting down from higher rpm's. Centless, what were the other posts you were speaking of? I searched boolean using 'axle' and couldn't find anything.
DbLog
Veteran Member
Put in a hollow axle on the passenger side and it fixed my vibration problem.