Golf GT TDi 150 repairs

[alaric]

Hi all.

We bought a 2002 Golf GT TDi last week. It's great. We've just had cruise control fitted at the local VW dealership - £200 all done. Excellent.

I asked them to check the car over while it was there. They've come up with a couple of problems:

1) Split CV joint. Apparently the engine management system picked this up. Is this possible? If so, doesn't that mean the joint is knackered? They plan to replace the boot only for £134. I'd usually do the whole cv joint.

2) Track rod inner ball joint play. I can't feel any play in the steering, and the cost of replacement is £200. Surely I should feel some play or hear knocks on bumps or have fluffy steering (obviously a technical term).

Item 2 is my real concern - on 1) in the test drive I did hear a slight noise at a junction from the cv joint, but felt it wasn't too bad - which ties in with them replacing just the boot. Is item 2 a known problem - the car has only done 36k miles?

Otherwise it's a fantastic little car. Shame it's the wife's!!!! And I paid for it!!!!!!!

All the best.

Sean.

[aBoijj]

Depends which end the boot is split and how long it's been like that - if it's split at the narrow end and it's not lost too much grease I'd just change the boot, re-greasing the joint at the same time. I'd be very surprised if it was picked up by anything other than a visual inspection. If the joint is knocking do the whole joint rather than just the boot - test this by driving slowly on full lock.

With the track rod I'd imagine you'd get some feedback through the steering wheel on uneven road surfaces if it's worth replacing. I was driving my little brother's saxo while I was waiting for my golf to have it's turbo replaced and the track rod ends were screwed on that - it tried to kill me on several occasions by trying to lurch off in a random direction when I went over an uneven bit of road.

[alaric]

Thanks for the reply.

The car feels very 'tight' - no knocks that I can hear, just a noise from the offside front when near full lock. I think that means the joint is knackered and should be replaced.

All the best.

Sean.