Hi everyone! Hoping someone could help me out with this issue. I have a manual 2005 Mini Cooper S, and the CV joint went bad. When replacing it, the part I bought only had 26 splines in the outboard shaft and 34 splines in the inboard shaft. Mine has 30 splines in the outboard shaft. I have counted several times due to it not fitting and I have had other people count as well. I checked online and the part I bought is the correct OEM part, so it's my car that's different. Does anyone know if this is some kind of upgrade made by the past owner and what it could possibly be? I couldn't find anything on the internet. Otherwise, I'll just have to go and buy the full axle shaft assembly.
Thank you!

 

By "checked online" does that mean you went on OEM.com with your VIN to get the part number? Sometimes there are VIN splits - where cars of the same model year have slightly different parts due to changes during production.

If the inboard shaft fits in the transmission but the outboard shaft does not fit your hub, perhaps the previous owner installed a different wheel hub for some reason? Maybe a parts store will let you look at a wheel hub for your car and you can count the splines on it prior to purchase?

 

Yeah, I went to realoem.com and put my VIN in. The strange thing is that OEM wise - no part was made with that number of splines. And i didn't think about the wheel hub! That makes much more sense. I'll go ahead and check that. Thank you so much!

 

Probably got one for an automatic. Double check.