I had a complaint of a noise on turning, coming from the front right of the car recently from the missus. Drove it myself and it was nasty, loud clicking noise, only when turning right.  Had a look and initially couldn't see anything obvious, no sign of broken spring or other suspension stuff, no grease about anywhere.  Tried rotating the brake disc while holding the driveshaft and there was some rotational play, but nothing dramatic. 

Then I happened to get hold of the CV boot and wriggle it around a bit, suddenly the problem was obvious:

 

Boot had just sheared off neatly at the outside edge of the inner clip. This boot had been in place for approx. 7 years, replaced by a local VW indy not long after the car was purchased by us.

 

No idea how long it had been like that but lets say it could be up to 11 months as that was about when it was last MOT'd.  Quite likely caused or aggravated (by me) during the gearbox change last Easter, thinking about it. Or could have been like it for longer and not picked up at MOT, gut feeling is that should have been found though.

 

When I got the driveshaft off and happened to turn it outer CV end upward, black water ran out!  As you can  see, there's no sign of any grease at all on the bit of shaft revealed. Haven't cut the boot right away to look inside properly yet.

 

Changed out the whole shaft as I had a spare, fortunately.

 

 

 

 

Can't say I've seen one fail in that spot before. If VW fitted it, it should have been a genuine VAG boot?

Edited 13 January, 20206 yr by TMB

It was a VW-specialising independent, not VW dealership, but yes, they probably would have used a genuine boot kit, knowing them. May be able to find a part number on it when I dissect/post-mortem it...

Edited 13 January, 20206 yr by Wino

I've seen one go there before but like you say the chances of missing a boot failure with all the grease coming out tells me that there was bugger all grease in it to begin with. For it to all wash away without a trace when you yourself go under your car and supposedly the MOT man as well.

I've seen a few tear like that too but normally grease is everywhere too.  

Ive seen that with my mothers old Golf Mk4 a many moons ago. The CV joint was totally devoid of grease but no grease deposits on the strut or inner rim of the wheel.. Joint itself had catastropic wear. Boot was split clean on the inner bellows if you like - It looked fine no sign of any grease.

 

Boot was the original - the car was 99 and this was maybe 04.

 

Rare but not unheard of - It will all become out in the post mortem no doubt.