The Volkswagen Passat axle assembly is an important structural component of your Passat. The axle has many functions and difficult tasks to accomplish, and one of them is to maintain the position of the wheels to each other. Axles bear the brunt of carrying the vehicle’s weight and any additional cargo on it.

It also bears with the acceleration forces that occur between the car and the ground. The axle assembly consists of the axle shaft, one or two CV (constant velocity) joints, and sometimes a U-joint.

The axle assembly is built to pass on rotational force that emerges from the transmission down to the vehicle’s wheels. In general, the axle assembly is usually found among front and four-wheel drive cars, and sometimes on rear-wheel drive, luxury European import cars. The transaxle is considered as the most popular among axles, and this type covers both the manual and differential automatic transmissions. The straight axle performs as an attachment point of the wheel apart from carrying the weight of the car. The drive axle meanwhile provides the differential’s torque-transferring abilities. Among the three axles mentioned, the transaxle not only does the functions of the drive axle, it can also operate with the transmission’s gear-changing abilities. Malfunction can be detected in the form of grinding noises. It is advisable to replace the entire axle assembly rather than changing a single damaged CV joint.Replacements can be quickly ordered here and with our 24 hour online auto parts catalog, purchasing is convenient.