Take a friend for a ride in your Passat. Go to an empty parking lot.
Roll down both front windows. Turn in circles both CW and CCW. Between
the two of you, you may be able to determine which side the noise is
coming from.

CV noises I've heard: clicking, clacking.

I'm guessing a little, but I'm pretty sure, it's most likely the outer
CV's wear before the inners.

Cheers,

Neil.

On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 11:41 PM, David Kao <dtkao0205@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> 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.
>

>
> David
>

--
Neil Nicholson '81 JettaWesty "Jaco
http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
http://web.mac.com/tubaneil
http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/