help with drive train ....

[spyder300]

Hey guys, I have a quick question. Went to a shop today to get two front tires put on and now they tell me that I need drive axels, ball joints and tie-rods for both front tires($800 ). I know the tie-rods are bad (quit a bit of play side to side). But there is no clicking when turning, and a slight turning noise (sounds like it might be the axels) from the front end when the car is slowing in gear with no throttle. My question is can I drive the car with just the new tie-rods or should I get all that other bs they say I "need". I am away at college and have no way of fixing or diagnosing this myself. What could get messed up if I drive my car with bad axels. (CV joints look good, boots are not cracked).

Thanks alot for reading and any info would be greatly appreciated

 

[blackbyrd]

How bad is the noise when your turning? whats it sound like? that may not be your axles.. If your boots aren't cracked they should have all the grease in there and should be well lubricated.
I dont recommend it, but I drove with two bad front axles once(too poor to fix it) for about 6months, completely cracked boots, living miles up dirt road(so a lot got in there) and it got to the point when my axles would have a hard time turning, sometimes locking up for a second, making noise in all motions. haha.
So if they're turely bad its not going to kill you to keep driving on them for a little while, you have to replace them anyways.
FYI, you can replace both axles and tie rod ends in a couple hours with minimal tools..
All you need afterwards is an alignment which cost about 50 bucks. 50bucks for each axle, and about 25 for the tie rod.
Good luck!

 

[spyder300]

The car makes no noise at all when turning or driving for the most part. Every once and a while when im in gear riding with no throttle and decellerating (higher rpms going down) it sounds like the axels are making some noise. The noise is not very noticable and Im wondering if I can drive the car with just new tie-rods and not ball joints and axels without damaging anything else. I am living in an apartment far from home and have no place at all to fix this .......how will you know when your axels really need replacing??

Thanks for the reply Bro

 

[blackbyrd]

Well I could tell it was time when my car shaked violently everywhere I went.
Not to mention the noise was so appauling, clunk clank clunk clunk bang clunk.
I'd still ask them how they came to that conclusion if your boots are still intact?
I would imagine the noise would be from the tie-rod or balljoint first before the axles(without hearing it to properly diagnose)
How bad are your balljoints? Are the boots completely ate up? can you move them around in there seat?

 

[spyder300]

the ball joints seem fine ....(bad ball joints you sould be able to move the wheel up and down...right????) other then that everything looks good but the wheel has quit a bit of side to side play....the apparent axel noise sounds like you can hear them turning ..... but screw it ill wait to take it to my guy in Dubuque when i go back home

Thanks again and I appreciate all the help
Any more input would be appreciated