I went to Napa and got the remanufactured left and right front drive axles for my 1.8t manual quattro. I jacked my car up and removed the old ones only to find out that the ones from Napa were different from one another. The two old ones looked just like one of the axles I got from Napa, but the other one from Napa had a shaft that was significantly narrower than the other three.

All the axles are the same length and have all the same attachments, but I'm still thinking I probably shouldn't use this part due to its shaft diameter. What do you guys think?

 

Sure enough, wrong part. Correct ones came in today.

 

Yup, think the ones you got were the front wheel ones.

I'm glad you got everything figured out.

 

Just finished installing them today. They made a popping sound when I backed out of my driveway then a clicking sound when I went around a corner. Is this a normal part of the "breaking in" process?

 

I wouldn't say that's normal for new axles/CV's. I replaced mine with new ones couple months ago and it wasn't making any sound after.
It did however, made clicking sound on turns when I pull the steering wheel all the way before I replaced them as they were going bad (the boots were out for a while, didn't replace them).

Do you know if both of them are making the sound or just one? Since you said you got re-manufactured parts, it is possible that they were rebuilt improperly.

 

Couldn't really tell which side, guess I should keep the windows down next time. The strange thing is it only made those sounds one time each. I drove a little bit longer and didn't hear them again. I'll repost if it happens again.