How hard to change fwd driveshafts?

[FrankUnderwood]

Hi all,

How hard is it to change the driveshafts on a Polo? I've done smaller jobs such as oil changes and brake pad changes before. My biggest nightmare is when bolts get stuck!

If iI got a garage to do it, how many hours labour should I be expecting them to take and bill?

Many thanks,

Matt

[PaulKemp]

Getting hub nut undone
Pulling or pushing shaft out off the hub bearing
Sometimes the inner spline is held inside the gearbox with a spring collar, I use pry bars to get them out
Sometimes it can be a simple job other times a PITA

[imagineifyeswill]

Polo driveshafts arent splined into the diff there are fixxed flanges on diff and shafts bolt too them with 6 splined head bolts, probably take about an hour too an hour and a half too change both.

[Sensibleboy]

If the Polo is the same as the golf it's easy. Remove the hub nut. Remove the drive shaft flange splined bolts and unbolt the ball joint. Drive shaft then slides out. Easy.

[BritishRacinGrin]

The hub nut should be done up FT, often a couple of hundred NMs. This is two or three times as tight as a wheel bolt, for example. The tool of choice is a pneumatic impact gun, or a long breaker bar (2'+) with the correct 6-sided socket. On some cars, One of the hub nuts will be a left hand thread so research first. I'd say that removing and re-fitting the hub nuts will probably be the trickiest part of the job for a DIY mechanic with a socket set.

[CrutyRammers]

BritishRacinGrin said:

The hub nut should be done up FT, often a couple of hundred NMs. This is two or three times as tight as a wheel bolt, for example. The tool of choice is a pneumatic impact gun, or a long breaker bar (2'+) with the correct 6-sided socket. On some cars, One of the hub nuts will be a left hand thread so research first. I'd say that removing and re-fitting the hub nuts will probably be the trickiest part of the job for a DIY mechanic with a socket set.

Agree with that. Get a looooong extension bar.

[dbfan]

+1 to that and get some good wedges to stop the car moving: I almost turned my Mk2 Golf's wheels over a 4" wedge before giving up on the job and sending it to a garage!

Make sure you get a new lock nut for the hub (I seem to remember that the Golf had RH thread on both sides - I still have the nut I bought with the bearing kit)