VW price for parts

[Sunny43.5]

Drove off today with a clicking sound from the front RH side of the van , seemed to make a clunk when braking and then two smaller clunks when taking off then a metalic sound at certain times as well in motion . Checked for loose wheel nuts suspension and brake componenets and nothing . Jacked up the van and run it in top gear {manual box } with drivers side off the ground and sure enogh it was growling and clicking while running , so removed the drive shaft and found it pretty badly worn inside . The stub spline on the gearbox side doesn,t look too bad but I would imagine it should be done at the same time . I did replace the spline on the passengers side many years ago but at that time not the drive shaft iteslf on that side . Seems I have the ugly duckling of the bunch as every supplier of drive shafts laughed when told it was 2.0 petrol manual with AXA engine code . I have to take the two bits to a driveshaft supplier nearby in the morning to check against what they can get , but from what the other crowds said they are as rare as rocking horse poo . So as a last resort I rang VW and they do have them in Sydney but by the time I pay for shaft / stub spline / grease and seal oh and the obligatory VW recycle fee on exchange it will set me back $976 whilst the non genuine with 2 years warranty would if available come in around $440 . Makes you wonder why we lose faith in a car makers these days .

[Umai Naa!!]

Do what I did, clean it out, grease it up, and put it back.

Heard the noise when I bought the van at 147K, inspected the stub shaft and driveshaft at 350K when I did the clutch. Have since done another 23K.

I've just added it to the long list of other things that are worn out, and needing attention.

[Sunny43.5]

I did think that but from looking at in flesh the splines inside the shaft are almost non existant so I would imagine it was going to fail completly sooner rather than later . The noises were rather disconcerting as each time I stopped you could hear it and while driving it was easily felt and heard . Last thing I wanted was it to let go while out on a job somehwere around SE Qld , Like I said the gearbox spline looks pretty good still unlike the spline on the passenegers side I replaced some years back the splines on that one were less then half normal width . The spline on the stub hasd only minimal wear on the outer end but if I have gone this far it would make sense to replace both . Fingers crossed the guys have the parts locally tomorrow .what sort of grease would you recommend Umai .?

[Umai Naa!!]

Grey moly grease.

I guess you could use wheel bearing grease too, if that's you have on hand.

[Sunny43.5]

Thanks for the reply on grease but I will go with new parts although I will use the grease on reassembly because it certainly seems VW did not use any by the rust seen . Out of interest with the front jacked up and wheel off , I ran the van in top gear on idle , there was a noticable shimmy in the actual drive shaft you could see it was turning out of balance sort off . I could sumize from that that as the gearbox spline and the shaft spline had the wear it was allowing the whole thing to vibrate [bit like an unbalanced tailshaft on a rear wheel drive car ] I dropped the shaft and spline to a place here in Brisbane and they have assured me they will have the correct parts before days end . Fingers crossed .

[Sunny43.5]

Well job done and I can say one thing there are some companies who go the extra mile to give customer satisfaction , Australian CV and Power steering here in Brissie were amazing with service . I rang them yesterday afternoon and was asked to bring the old shaft and spline to their shop this morning , less than 3 hours later they rang to tell me the parts were in stock as they sourced them from the other side of Brisbane at a trade only outlet . I refitted them this afternoon and the old girl is back to normal again , now the best part the whole drive shaft CV joints assembly and spline total price $341 for brand new parts . Compared to VW at $900 plus is pretty good and I did not have to surrender my old parts and pay the VW "recycle fee "on top . Oh and as Umai suggested I used some Moly Grease on all the splines , thanks for the tip Umai .

[syncro91]

Looks like a really good outcome at a very reasonable cost... How much labour was involved on your part?

[Sunny43.5]

It took only about an hour to remove and slighty less to refit , only hard part was removing the lower control arm as I did not have any sort of puller to separate it . So with van on a trolley jack I used a small pump up jack under the lower ball joint loosened off the nut jacked up the nut and then tapped around the base until it just popped off . Same procedure for refitting as well as the ball joint will just spin around , but once the lower control arm was jacked up it stopped spinning . One funny thing was I reassembled everything and rolled the wheel back into position suddenly I noticed something did not look right DOH forgot to bolt the brake caliper back onto the hub !! I had put it back behind the stub almost out of sight from the position I was sitting at . So two hours from start to finish .

[Umai Naa!!]

It's easier to undo the two bolts that bolt the balljoint to the steering knuckle.

[Sunny43.5]

Yes I did realise that but hey forgive me I am a lowly sunroof fitter and motor trimmer , I have every tool in the universe to fit a or repair a sunroof but mechanical tools to suit VW's sometimes silly ideas means I have to improvise . I do know those bolts holding the caliper and then the ones for the hub are pretty horrendous to undo , luckily I did some years ago buy a half inch drive loooooong lever handle so with some grunting and straining and a hefty dose of curse words the bolts usually give up , oh forgot to mention a heavy dute rattle gun sometimes forces them buggers to relinquish their grip .