CV joints going -- worst case scenario if not fixed?

[Rice Over Wheat]

Just as the title says. There's a clicking sound when turning and giving some gas, though you can coast into turns and there is no clicking as long as no torque is applied on the turn. Just how urgent is this problem and what is the worst that can happen if it is ignored and not fixed?

 

[Danny_305]

nothing really on my previous mazda i had them clicking for a yr and nothing

 

[laserboost]

When I had a 2g my cv joint was making noise, 3 days later it popped and my wheel fell into my sideskirt. I would fix it right away.

 

[my95tsi]

Worse case senerio your wheel basically falls off. If you going fast on the highway and that happens you might as well kiss your ass goodbye b/c the only way they are going to be able to identify you is by your dental records. If something is broke fix it, if you can't then don't drive it. That is a pretty important part to just let go......

 

[Rice Over Wheat]

Damn, that's what I was afraid of. This is concerning my Integra here in Japan though I believe the info is relevent for any other car. I don't go any faster than 35 mph here but in Nov I'm getting rid of the car so I don't want to spend $650 to fix it. Looks like I may have to though.

 

[crankbender]

Please explain exactly how your wheel fell off from just a broken cv joint.

 

[my95tsi]

Like i said before the wheel doesn't completely fall off it just kinda dangles there. In my case my upper ball joint seperated from the control arm causing my wheel to go where ever the hell it wanted to go. It has no support so the only thing that holds it on is the loweer ball joints and the axle. The top of my wheel fell in side my wheel well and lodged itself into place. I lost completely control of the vehicle. If your lower ball joint seperates then the same thing happens but the bottom of the wheel has no support and the upper ball joint hold it in place. Any fool can tell you that a bad ball joint needs to be replaced.

 

[crankbender]

Like i said before the wheel doesn't completely fall off it just kinda dangles there. In my case my upper ball joint seperated from the control arm causing my wheel to go where ever the hell it wanted to go. It has no support so the only thing that holds it on is the loweer ball joints and the axle. The top of my wheel fell in side my wheel well and lodged itself into place. I lost completely control of the vehicle. If your lower ball joint seperates then the same thing happens but the bottom of the wheel has no support and the upper ball joint hold it in place. Any fool can tell you that a bad ball joint needs to be replaced.

Ball joints are not cv joints......

He asked what would happen if a cv joint broke. The correct answer is the axle will whip around and hit stuff at worse. If nothing else breaks please explain how the wheel falls off.

 

[GSX4LIFE]

Your correct Crank. The wheel cannot fall off. The wheel is held by the spindle, which is attached to the strut body, and lower control arm via ball joint. The cv coming apart would simply throw the axle around. It could very well cause significant damage, but the whole wheel falling off? I dont think so.

 

[leakyfaucet]

Maybe in this case the axle came off and damaged the ball joint, causing the wheel to partially come off.

 

[my95tsi]

Damn my bad i kept on thinking he was talking about ball joint when it's the cv joint. Slap me i'm a dumb ass. Well in that case the wheel can't come off but you could #### other shit up if your axle decides to whip around like a maniac. Anyways if it's broke fix it thats the number on rule.

 

[crankbender]

Damn my bad i kept on thinking he was talking about ball joint when it's the cv joint. Slap me i'm a dumb ass. Well in that case the wheel can't come off but you could #### other shit up if your axle decides to whip around like a maniac. Anyways if it's broke fix it thats the number on rule.

I agree 100%....well about the fixing it part anyway. I didn't call anybody a dumbarse.

 

[BoredOutaMyMind]

sorry to threadjack but i have a related problem. my car makes a weird vibration when i take a right turn and accellerate. but it doesnt do this when i make left turns, could this be a CV joint or something? bad lube?

 

[Rice Over Wheat]

Hm...well throwing the axle around doesn't sound very good. My biggest concern is whether I can lose control if the CV joints completely fail. Now, there should be two CV joints on each side right? I had a guy quote me to replace 8 of them though for some reason. This car has the "real-time 4WD" system that only uses AWD on traction loss, but is usually FWD. Does such a system have 4 or 8 CV joints to replace?

 

[Black_Havoc]

That sounds like the Atessa-PRO system the R-34 Skyline uses, under normal driving its RWD, then when it looses traction on any wheel BANG 50/50 fully variable AWD baby! TO answer your question, if its 4 wheel independent suspension it has 8. If it has a solid rear axle like an old muscle car (I doubt it) it only has 4. ANd you only need to replace the bad one. But its a good idea to change all the ones on the axle. IE if its a front one thats bad, do the 4 up front.

 

[Rice Over Wheat]

Yes, it's honda's version of that AWD system. Thanks for the info about the number of CV joints. I guess that mechanic was right then. I'm going to see about only fixing the fronts though. Thanks for the advice all, I've decided to fix the 4 front ones.

 

[mitsutuner]

Just go ahead & replace both halfshafts on the front, they're cheap & even easy to replace!--no point in fooling around with the CV joints. The worst case scenario is that the CV rubber boots were probably the first thing to go bad & all the grease from inside them got splattered all over the underside of your car.

 

[igs]

Your correct Crank. The wheel cannot fall off. The wheel is held by the spindle, which is attached to the strut body, and lower control arm via ball joint. The cv coming apart would simply throw the axle around. It could very well cause significant damage, but the whole wheel falling off? I dont think so.

If the joint breaks, wouldn't the boot still hold it in place and keep it from flapping around?

 

[mitsutuner]

Now you are being silly.
Most likely if it breaks completely, it will be when you are taking off from a complete stop & the shaft will drop to the ground & you will call for a tow truck or you could push it if you're not going too far.
It will cost you a 2-3x more to fiddle around replacing boots than to just buy reconditioned driveshafts, about $140 for both (with lifetime warranty!!!). EZ to replace but you will need to drain the tranny & put in around 6qts of tranny fluid--I had excellent results with the chevron dexron, less than $2/qt at Kragen(partsamerica.com).
Since you are draining the tranny fluid, if you have auto-tranny you should go ahead & replace the tranny filter--spend the few extra bucks to get the beck-arnley filter kit because it has a thick molded rubber gasket--Fram kit gasket is cork.
Less than $200 As described here if you do the work, shops don't charge much to do this bec it's very quick & EZ with a lift & compressor. What I always do is buy the parts & take to the shop for install.
If you fiddle around with the boots, you will waste a lot of time & money--The Jiffy-screwd up the street charges about $200 just to replace 1 boot!
It involves more labor then replacing the shaft!
The rear driveshafts last a lot longer because the wheels are not turning.

 

[BigDaddy186]

Who make rear driveshafts for our cars anyway?? Or must they come from the devil

 

[marcmsj]

my left front cv boot has been gone for a while now... no clicking sounds yet. heh

 

[mitsutuner]

hey no problem, you actually do not need boots or grease for the bearings inside the cv joints--a popular misconception. You can go ahead & tear off all the boots, reduces weight & makes the car go faster!

 

[BigDaddy186]

hey no problem, you actually do not need boots or grease for the bearings inside the cv joints--a popular misconception. You can go ahead & tear off all the boots, reduces weight & makes the car go faster!

10 h/p :laugh: