Was going to replace my drivers side front axle shaft today, has a little play, makes a ton of noise. Turns out, its not whats making the noise.

Guessing is something related to the differential/final drive, but this is uncharted territory for me.

When I turn the axle shaft by hand, it'll go ~100° around, and then 'slip'. I'd compare it to a missing tooth or something, but theres no place in the rotation where it'll freewheel, only spots of less friction. Each of these spots probably add up to about 10° of rotation.

Driving, under load its a light vibration, decelerating, its almost non existant, but cruising/coasting its a loud rapid clunk as the wheel rotates.

Like I said, theres a tiny bit of side to side play in the inner joint of the axle shaft. Theres no push-pull play I can tell, but I didn't remove the CV from the hub. I'm not sure if that would hide any free play or not.

Any help/suggestions?

Matt

 

Heres a few minute video clip, sound is most obvious when coasting in neutral, but you can hear it when in gear as well. You'll hear it stop when the brakes are applied, or during any amount of acceleration.

http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t...t=MOV01444.flv

 

ok......very strange noise.....i would remove the cv from the tranny. it takes either a 6 point or a 12 point key. make sure you have all 6 bolts in there..(as well as the butterfly washers) The sound is coming from the front drivers side right? take a look at the tranny(female) part that the cv joint(axle) goes into. it should be very smooth and no bumps on it at all. it almost sounds like a wheel bearing but wouldnt explain most of those symptoms let me know

 

I'll tear back into it tomorrow and check. 99% positive its not a wheel bearing, unfortunately, that would be the easy thing to check, everything else is more or less, internal.

http://www.vagcat.com/epc/cat/au/ATT...29/52/2881274/

 

sounds like spider gear is shot... is it awd or fwd... also replace the shaft anyway... it may not a tooth broken on the input shaft but not likley

 

quattro

 

doesnt sound like tranny related to me.....but then again it could very well be. if it was infact the tranny spider gear it should make a horrible sound while accelerating

 

also when did this start happening? happen all of a sudden? or were you working on that side of the car?

 

was a very faint, occasional clunk a week ago. I was thinking it was a sway bar bushing binding a little. That was a saturday afternoon, I put 200 miles on the car between that point, and the next night,Sunday night, and it was full bore beat-***-beat by the time i pulled in the driveway. So, 200 miles, 24 hrs.

 

see i have an occasional clunk as well nothing like in the video....more like what people describe of the strut bearing and bushing.....i replaced the one i thought was making the noise (drivers side) and didnt do the passanger side yet......so i cant really rule that out till i replace the passangers side..(hopeing this will eliminate the sound) i keep thinking What if its the motor mount? or what if its the tranny? or like you said the front sway bar bushing.....i will have to look into this a little further if after i replace the passangers side bushing and bearing and the knock persists