cv joint - new or reground?

[2004B6S4]

I replaced my passenger side CV shaft about 20k miles ago because the inner joint was bad. I've read that the cheap axles at the parts stores are made with cv joints that have been re-ground to accept oversize bearings, but that they typically don't last which is why it's recommended to get oem or raxles. I opted to go for a new one from "GKN Driveshaft," thinking it would be the same as oem since GKN is the oem manufacturer. Although I'm not sure if what I got is actually the same as oem or not, because I know that a lot of manufacturers lately have started selling crappy aftermarket parts under the oem name or a slight variation of it, because they can still charge a premium for the name.

Well the outer boot on that shaft is already torn but the joint is still good so I've decided to install a new boot. So that brings me to the whole point of starting this thread - while I have the joint separated from the shaft, I'm wondering if there's any way to tell by visual inspection if it was remanufactured/re-ground or if it was brand new?? Can anyone offer any help with this?

[2004B6S4]

not sure if anyone else cares about this info but I did a little hands on research into this after disassembling my original oem cv shaft. I now think that the GKN aftermarket cv axles are probably the same thing you'd get from the dealer as a genuine part, not saying that it is definitively proven or anything though. I measured the ball bearings in the outer joint and they were the same size - 19.99mm in both the new GKN aftermarket joint, as well as the original oem joint. If the aftermarket joint had been re-ground then I'd expect it to have larger bearings.

The main difference between the aftermarket CV shaft I bought and the original one from my car is the outer boot - the one that came on our cars is a harder material, more plastic-like than rubbery. The one on the aftermarket GKN shaft that failed after only 20k miles was soft rubber material. This can probably be explained by the fact that it's a different part # - the one I bought is part # 8E0407272S but the original part that came on the B6 is part# 8E0407272AT. The parts are interchangeable so what I got is compatible, but apparently the -S suffix was the older version which got superceded by -AT.
I also ordered new GKN inner & outer boots to put on the drivers side CV shaft (on that side I still had the original part installed, the inner boot had failed but only recently so the joint was still good, so I just replaced both boots). The aftermarket GKN boot I got was the same hard plastic-y material that came on my original shafts which were both still good when the inners failed at 130-150k

[M0ve0ver]

I splurged on Raxles for my fronts when I needed to replace them. Going to go with them again if I ever have to do the rears.

*one thing to keep in mind with Raxles, is that the core you return needs to be an OEM core

[emilio]

good info, thanks! as these cars get older and parts rarer it's important to have a heads-up on potential supply risks.