VW Polo 9n repairs. Episode 6, CV joint replaced. 

Its murder. I have 2 cars that need MOT'd in January. Think this year I might get them tested again in June so that I can fix them in warm rain next year.

BTJustice , thanks for the video , just used it to replace the CV boot on my Audi a2 , went about as I expected , only I got sunburnt !

Show off.

Fantastic Luke, I'm really glad you found the video helpfull and great to know you tackled the job and won.

Cheers. Dont get much choice in Scotland, its a good day when its not snowing :-D

@@AstonishingGlasgow Yep, definitely. I'm in North Lanarkshire, been bloody freezing here recently but luckily have a garage to keep the rain off. I remember doing welding on my brother's golf under a tarpaulin because it was snowing, never again!

You cant be too far away from me, Im on the southside of Glasgow. The same week I did the CV joint and door lock module on this car I had to replace the flex section of the exhaust for the mot. Started at 3pm and finished in the dark at 6pm and I had a tide line right around me where I was lying in a puddle :-). Kept getting shocks off my welder because my gloves were soaked through and I was getting my fingers too close to the tip. Sometimes wonder why I bother. :-D

@@AstonishingGlasgow I gave up welding on my brother's golf when I started getting zapped. Always welcome in my garage!

Glad it helped.

That's smart, thanks for the tip.

Worse bit of the job is the mess the old grease makes. It somehow gets everywhere. If you get a chance today, soak the 3 ball joint bolts with penetrating oil today to give it a chance to soak in before you try and remove them tomorrow.

Thanks, Im really glad you liked the video and found it useful. I thought about doing a voice over but I quite like the challenge of telling the story through image only and if I do a voice over, it would need subtitles for other languages. Plus im not sure I would be able to do it very well.

Thanks. Retreat is often the better part of valour. If you dont think you can do the job its better to seek help before starting it and being left stuck half way through.

Hope this video helped and It should all look similar in the Fabia door. Hope it goes well.

One of the down sides of working outside in Scotland.

That is a problem. Is there any chance its a non standard CV joint or that a previous expert has rounded it off?

Its Scotland. The rain never stops :-D

Sorry for not replying sooner. You will probably find that the ring will pop off the old CV joint. My old joint had a plastic ring and with the new joint the metal ring was loose in the box and just pressed on. I think its a dust cover for the wheel bearing and ABS sensor.

Its a 36mm multi point socket and I am pretty sure I got mine for less than £10 from ebay.

Heat. Use a blow torch to heat where the cv joint meets the axle and then a bigger hammer.

its a 36mm 12 point socket.

The nuts are not captive. The bolts passt through the control arm with the nuts on top. The three nuts are vonnected by a V shaped piece of metal. One of mine was turning as the nut had rusted from the V shape plate but I was able to get maul grips on it and remove the bolt.

Im afraid it was two years ago when I did this job and the part came straight out of the box and on the car so I dont have the measurements.

Its a 36mm multipoint socket.

Wouldn't be right to use ALL the parts 🤣. The clip that was fitted seemed to be doing its job fine and my fingers were covered in grease by that point so I left it there.

I bought mine at a local tool store so I dont have a link. They are readily available and not a VW specific item.

@@AstonishingGlasgow no worries cheers bud

Sits in the groove at end of the drive shaft and helps to hold the CV joint until it is bolted to the hub. My old one was fine so left it in place rather than use the new one.

Thanks and glad it helped. For removing the wheel cover you have to unlearn what you have learned. Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.

@@AstonishingGlasgow yes master.

Im really glad you found it usefull. The issue I had that led me to change the CV joint was that the boot had split and needed replaced and when I inspected the drive shaft there was lots of play in the CV joint. If I was you I would jack up the front of the car (and support on stands) and check the condition of the lower ball joints and upper suspension bushes. These are what tend to influence the smooth operation of the steering more than the CV joint. While under there have a check on lower control arm bushes and check power steering fluid level for good measure as well. Hope you get it sorted and thanks for watching, Dave.

BTJustice Lower ball joints were replaced 2 months ago, power steering fluid was changed last week but the problem still exists. Suspension bushes and tie rods have not been checked yet, I will give a try soon. But, the most interesting thing is that the steering wherl is excellent while the wheels are not moving/rotating. When the wheels start to move/rotate, the steering wheel turns wobbly/shaky. I tested it by jacking the car up; the front wheels were not touching the ground, the steering was excellent and smooth. I put 1st gear, the wheels started rotating, and the steering wheel starts turning wobbly/shaky. It lost its smooth turn after the wheels started rotating. This is why the cv joints are suspicious to me, but I am also confused after this test..

Sounds like it wouldnt hurt to change the outer CV joints then. They are cheap enough and if you had the ball joints off recently you know they will come apart.

BTJustice I’ve never done this replacement before. But maybe I can try, however my first focus is to find the exact cause of this problem. I’ll get underneath the car tomorrow, and will have someone to rotate the wheels while they are jacking up, maybe I can see what’s balancing at this moment. This problem annoyed me so much.

I hadnt changed a CV joint either until I made the video. Got to start somewhere ;-) With the front of the car off the ground I would push, pull and pry at every bush to see if there is play in any of them. Hope you get to the bottom of it.

Thanks, Im glad you enjoy the videos. A failing CV joint is not always noticeable until you get under the car and look for play in the half shaft or a split in the rubber boot but you can look out for a ticking or grinding noise when the joint is under load or when the steering is at full lock.

BTJustice Thanks for your help!!!.

You are more than welcome.

I dont have them to hand but I'm sure it comes up in text on the video or in the prior comments.

32mm I think

Its a 36mm multi point as shown in the video.

@@AstonishingGlasgow apologies, I was thinking of the rear hub

@@AstonishingGlasgow thanks !

If it wont come off the shaft you may need to unbolt the inner CV joint from the gearbox and clamp the shaft in a vice for better access.

No problem and I am really glad you found my videos useful. I think it would take about an hour to change the CV joint. It took me a lot longer as I had to set up the camera for each shot but if everything comes apart and you dont rush it I would estimate around an hour from wheel off to wheel back on.

Okey cool thank you 😃 .... so much.

I remove it from the old one but the new cv axle have the top of diameter Little bit bigger than old one

Im afraid it was two years ago when I did this job and the part came straight out of the box and on the car so I dont have the measurements.

What size socket is it to remove nut

36mm multi point. 0:45

Cheers. It needed changed when it failed on the MOT for having too much play.

@@AstonishingGlasgow ah I see. Cheers

You could but its just as much work to replace the gaiter as it is to change the CV joint and its only £40-£50 for the full kit. I swapped both because my CV was worn and making noises but had the joint been ok i would still have swapped it as I didn't know how old it was.

@@AstonishingGlasgow Thank you so much for the reply and for the video, very helpful.

Brave or stupid? I think I come closer to the second option but it worked.

If it wont budge in situ you may need to unbolt the inner CV joint from the gearbox and clamp the shaft in a vice to get better access to swing a hammer at it.

@@AstonishingGlasgow Got it off now, and the new one one. Just needed patience

Is patience the name of your bigger hammer?😄 Glad you got it now get ready for the fun of washing the cv grease off of everything.

Disaster!! On the plus side they are not captive so once all three are out you could use nuts and bolts but make sure they are the same size, strength and use nylock nuts.

@@AstonishingGlasgow fortunately my dad is a tool maker so we snuck into his work to get some of the correct bolts and just re threaded the connecting part.

Good job.