Date:         Thu, 20 Apr 2000 23:04:11 -0700
Reply-To:     "Tom L. Neal" <jneal@NETCOM.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Tom L. Neal" <jneal@NETCOM.COM>
Subject:      Friday Jetta "knuckle" problem (No real Vanagon content)
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Well, I would have thought that VW would have figured out how to do CV's
better since Vanagon days.....but, maybe not.

My son's girlfriend's early '99 Jetta with about 20K miles started a
"click, click, click".  Dealer reluctantly replaced the right "knuckle"
(presumably CV joint).  Thousand miles later...click, click, click...car
becomes almost undrivable.  Replaced right "knuckle". "Hmm, that must have
been a defective one."  Now, a few thousand miles later, "click, click,
click" from the same right "knuckle".  Having earlier suggested that VW CV
joints are a weak point, my current contribution is pointing out the
possible existence of an Illinois  lemon law. But alas, what if VW's CV
joints are getting LESS reliable in newer cars!  That's a scary thought.

My Vanagon's CV joints have a 90K mile self destruct timer (although I now
plan to proactively regrease them at 60K miles), but this Jetta has
developed about a 3000 mile self destruct timer.  Any guesses what may be
causing it? No obvious issues except the car was rear ended not too badly
about a year ago.

Another odd CV story is that I asked the Olds dealer about repacking the
CV joints on a '91 Olds 98 at 60K original miles and he thought I had
flipped.  "Those are sealed and we don't open them."  Really?  So what
gives with General Motors CV joints?  Just run them until they die? They
don't die? Right. The entire rest of the car except the engine has already
died at one time or another so why are the CV joints special?

And to think, before 13 years ago I didn't even know or care about CV
joints.

Cheers, Tom Neal  '87 syncro with a pile of broken CV joint parts
in the garage for show and tell