Just a wee update on my
Ibiza situation - if anybody is interested?
We've been running around Edinburgh and out into Midlothian during the summer but haven't run up a helluva lot of miles. The wee "tumbly knocking" noise I'm attributing to wear in the O/S inner driveshaft plunge joint is now a bit more noticeable, especially when slowing down on really smooth road surfaces where transmitted road noise is at a minimum - slowing for the roundabout under the A720, where the A68 meets the city bypass, coming back into town, the road surface is especially smooth and the noise can be heard clearly when slowing there. There's also a harshness that wasn't there before the Devon trip. I'm betting the farm on it being wear in that joint.
So, with a a few weeks in hand before the big family wedding down near Alton, Hants, it's time to make some decisions. I've just had her up on stands for a crawl under to check on that joint.
Observations are:
1) Carrying out the usual checks for wheel bearings - ie, hold at 12 and 6 o'clock, then again at 3 and 9 o'clock and tug/rock looking for play etc in the hub. then spin by hand and listen for bearing noise and there's not even a hint of a
problem with the bearings or hubs.
2) With both front wheels free to spin - engine stationary and G/B in neutral - and lying with my "good ear" on the centreline of the car I can just hear a slight noise from the inner plunge joint on the O/S shaft when rotating the wheel by hand. Trying to feel for play in that inner plunge joint reveals little by way of play either radially or axially, which surprises me. Chocking the N/S wheel doesn't
help much (thought I might hear more by stopping the N/S driveshaft rotating) but all that happened was the noise of the diff spider gears tumbling over themselves masked other noises.
3) So then I took the car off the axle stands and ran the front wheels up onto my ramps as i'd remembered I'd found play when i did it that way before - I don't think the play is so obvious when the shafts are in droop? Oh yes, now there's rotational play between the shaft and the outer cup, Still pretty much zero play up and down though. Then I started wondering if the plunge joint boot was stopping me feeling the full range of the play due to me not being able to exert enough rotational force to the outer cup of the joint by hand alone - So I got out a strap wrench - very similar to this:
https://www.toolstation.com/strap-wrench-set/p98766 which allowed me to apply much more force, and oh yes, there's a wee bit more movement in this than I could detect using just my hand to grip the joint. I think that with the front wheels on the stands (and so effectively immobile) and the shafts in the same position they will be when running and the increased leverage I'm getting with the strap wrench I'm now "seeing" the true extent of the wear in this tripod joint. It's not horrendous yet, I've seen much worse, but I think asking it to go a long journey is probably a bit silly, better think about a new one. Tried the same procedure on the N/S and there's really very little detectable play at all.
So, N/S is probably OK (which lines up with something I read about the O/S plunge joint being known to fail first? Wonder where I read that?). Rang up my factor for a new one and was very surprised to learn they don't supply driveshafts! Then tried a couple of others who said they might be able to do the shaft complete but definitely not the plunge joint on it's own. Just been looking on line and can't find anyone doing the plunge joint but there are a number of listings for the whole shaft - much more pricey of course - but no one has them in stock. Going to try ringing West End to find out if the plunge joint is available on it's own and if not what a genuine VAG shaft will cost - also what the availability is. Might be the same deal as with the gearbox, where it had to come from Germany?
In the meantime continuing to expand my search options - going to give Cox Motor Parts a ring as they've been helpful in the past. Anyone else with suggestions?
Have to say, with the new gearbox now in place, I'm just slightly worried about prizing the the old shaft out against it's retaining circlip. Sometimes they can be very tight and I've got visions of cracks being induced in the nice new casing! Just me being "silly" of course. Very pleased to be able to see the new box is completely oil tight - as you'd expect, but nice to see never the less.
