Polo 6N1: Clicking Noise - Diagnosis & Repair

The car has driven 353,000 kilometers. As of today, a noise has appeared that seems to be coming from the front drivetrain.

I have checked:

- Gear oil.
- Wheel nuts

The noise can be heard starting at approximately 20 km/h and increases with speed. The sound does not change when turning. How can I determine what it is? In my opinion, it could be the drive shafts or the wheel bearings. The drive shafts and front wheel bearings have never been replaced. The car recently passed its technical inspection (TÜV). The noise did not exist at that time. Since the TÜV inspector was very thorough, he put the car on the shaker plate for 10 minutes. There is definitely nothing loose.

Hello!

You can sometimes loosen the boots on the drive shafts to help pinpoint the source of a problem, and then inject some oil into them with a syringe.

I would start by focusing on the internal joints.
According to your description.
That's actually the easiest way to do it.

I've had success with this approach several times before.


Once the error has been temporarily fixed and identified...
However, it will also be necessary in the long term to...
to verschandeln the joints and apply fresh grease.

What I forgot to mention: starting at around 50 km/h, you can hear very slight vibrations in the steering wheel. I think this also points to the drive shafts.

After sleeping on it, my first step will be to remove the drive shafts and re-grease them. Then we'll see how things look and proceed from there.

While driving, the noise seems to be coming from the driver's side. When I examined the drive shafts more closely, I noticed that the inner joint on the passenger side has a slight amount of play. The other side does not.

I'm also not sure if it might still be the wheel bearing.

What a torment .

Neither the driveshaft nor the wheel bearing on this car has ever been replaced. You can probably imagine what's coming next...
After I had completely loosened the driveshaft on the passenger side, the trouble began. I couldn't get the driveshaft out of the wheel bearing housing. After all my attempts proved futile, I managed to get the entire driveshaft along with the wheel bearing housing to my neighbor, who has a 30-ton press.

In short: The driveshaft and wheel bearing on the passenger side have now been completely replaced, of course with SKF parts.

The bad thing is that the noises are still there. Next week, I will completely redo the driver's side. Then, I will immediately put the entire assembly into the 30-ton press.

Die Fahrerseite ist ebenfalls neu gemacht. Also Antriebswelle und Radlager. Das rechte Radlager war hin. Was man im eingebauten Zustand aber nicht gehört hat. Ich vermute auch das die Gelenke auch nicht mehr gut waren und deshalb die Ortung der Geräuschquelle so schwierig war. SThat's the point.

The car rolls and drives again like on the first day . A difference like night and day.