Sorry to bother everyone with this NVC subject. But I really
could not find good advices elsewhere and this group has a lot
of experts on VWs. I hope someone can give some good advices here.

My 2001 V6 Passat has had a low pitch noise coming out of the front
axles. The noise will only appear at a speed above 20MPH. The pitch
and the volume will increase when it speeds up. At 40 MPH it is
so loud that it will make all drivers of Japanese cars laugh at me
when they pass by me.

I discovered that both sides of the outer CV boots were torn and
grease leaked out last year. I had replaced the boots with new GKN
bootf from my FLAPS. I inspected the two outer CVs and they all
had minor pitting. So I did not replace them. They were very expensive
and I tried to save. There were no cracks on inner CV boots so I did
not think there was any problem with the inner CVs.

Now I have decided that enough is enough. I will replace the offending
CVs. The problem is I can not tell if the outer CVs are really the ones
that make the noise. They don't make clicking noise at all when turning.
They are quiet when spinning the wheels by hand. I don't want to replace
both axles with after market cheap axles. Dealer price for both axles is
over $1k. I think Bus Depot has GKN axles at over $600 for the pair.

But I found I could get German outer CVs at the price about $90 from an
Internet store. What is really the best strategy to deal with this?
I was told that inner CVs rarely have problems and I really should not
need to replace them. I am tempted to get those $90 German CVs. My Passat
has 93k miles on the engine now. GKN outer CV costs about $200 each.
I wonder why my friend's Sienna at 300K miles has had no such trouble
whatsoever. I bought a wrong car!!! Any advice will be really appreciated.
Thanks a lot.

David