A couple of days ago after finally drving with the music off, i noticed a humming noise comming from the front end of my car when at low speed, espcially when braking. After lifting the car i noticed the CV Boots were disatached causing the humming noise as it hangs off the axels. Will just replacing the CV boot be good enough or is the axel damaged by now since dirt could of gotten into the inner parts (ball bearing for example). I was thinking of just putting on new boots.

 

Are you sure it's your cv shafts that is causing the noise? I thought my driver's side shaft was bad, but it was actually a flat spot on my tires that was causing the vibration. If you have a second set of tires, try to swap out all 4 tires to see if that's the culprit.
If it is your tires, you can get away with just changing the boot. If it's not your tires, it may be a bad shaft or two. Do you hear a knocking when accelerating or do you only hear a noise when breaking? I think bad shafts will usually make more noise when accelerating, and turning. If it's only during braking, it may be warped rotors and/or bad brake pads.
In either case you do need to get new boots, but you may not need a whole shaft if it's not broken.
Check out raxles.com and they have a chart that helps you figure out what's wrong.

 

SOUNDS LIKE YOUR WHEEL BEARING.

 

If your CV boots have been torn up for a while, the grease (and thus the joint) has certainly become contaminated with dirt and water. Just replacing the boot wont really help anything. You can rebuild the joint, but that is more expensive and time consuming than just replacing the entire axle.

That said, many members, myself included, have had great experiences getting new axles from www.raxles.com They use all new joints, not remanufactured units. They have good prices and great service.

 

It's probably the from the axle. I had the same problem with both the driver and the passenger side axles. Both boots were torn all the way around so I took it to my brothers shop and he replaced both axles. Each axle was $60. free installation

 

60 for new axles and free install.. my mechanic wanted 250 an axle!!!

 

according to raxles.com, i only need new boots... what do you guys think

 

If you told them what you told us, I'd be surprised if they recommended only replacing the boots. The humming you're hearing (if indeed it is the CV-joint and not a wheel bearing) is not because of the CV-boot being detatched or torn - it is coming from the drive axles or the CV-bearing assembly itself. This is one of the early signs of a failing CV-joint.

If you put a new boot on there, repack it w/ grease and button it up, you will probably still hear the humming noise. (It's not likely caused by the boot flopping around)

Also, do you have a slight shake in your steering wheel at highway speeds? (not tire-balance related?) This is also an early warning sign - I have one on mine right now.

If the joint is open and exposed to the elements as you indicated, consider the joint DONE, FINISHED, FRIED. There IS debris (pebbles/rocks/dirt) in what's left of the grease - being ground around in the CV-joint bearings, races, and the axle splines.

Bottom line: Once that CV-boot seal is broken, it's not a question of "if" the joint will fail, but "when."

If you want to save a little $, & can put up with the humming (and the boot is not torn), repack the boot with grease & resecure it using a CV boot clamp. If however, the boot is torn & you decide to replace it, you will still have to do 3/4 of the labor you would do if you replaced the entire axle assembly, so you might as well just bite the bullet & buy/install the whole CV-joint/axle assembly.

If you're paying for labor, definitely buy the complete www.raxles.com CV-joint assembly, & replace it. If you're DIY-ing this, it's a judgement call. In a world with no budgets, you should definitely replace the whole thing, though. The problem's not going to "go away" with a boot swap.

 

Noise aside. You need to replace the axle. So you might was well do it anyway. Plus if you ever done CV joint boot replacement work before, the mess you make is horrible. So considering you have no idea how long dirt and sand have been grinding itself into your cv joint bearings, go ahead and buy new ones(especially at the good prices raxles give you anyway)

 

thanx,, i will definitely be changing both front axles after reading this... much appreciated

 

If it is just the outter boots that are torn, you can get just the outter joint from raxles.com. they sell just the joint itself, and it isn't that hard to change out just the joint. installation is similar to changing the shaft:
take off tire
remove center nut
take off and hang brake caliper
remove brake rotor
pull shaft out of hub
instead of pulling the shaft out of trans, now you just cut the remainder of the boot that's left on the joint and pound the old joint off of the shaft. It is held on with one of those retaining rings, but a few good taps with a hammer (brass hammer is good, but not needed...who cares if you damange the joint, it's going in the trash anyway) and it will just pop off. then you just put the new joint on and put it all back.
This may save you about $50 a shaft plus you don't have to take off the whole shaft (and the bearing on the passenger side shaft) and make a mess w/trans fluid.

 

That's nothing - the local Nissan Dealership wanted $650 PLUS Labor.

I just bought the raxles axle. Putting it on tomorrow.

IanS

 

If you guys want the prices I got, give my brother a call at his shop:
mon-fri(9am-5pm)
(973)779-8405

Broadway Performance
292 Broadway Street
Passaic, NJ

www.broadwayperformance.com

 

some of us helped ladeesman put in his axles. We got them from raxles jsut like a couple of others have already mentioned. It took us probably a total of 8 hours, and that is pretty good considering we have never done them before. The real only problem is the torque specs on the hub, the haynes manual I believe said it was 174-210 lb.ft., and our torque wrench only went up to 150. We just said screw it, and put a breaker bar on it and I sat on it. He has had them on for a few weeks now and they seem to be working fine.

 

8 hours!

mtrai760 and I did mine today and it took 45 minutes!

 

10 min

 

10 min? hmmmmm. something smells funny here. smells like bs?


anyways, don't forget the alignment after replaceing it if you do it yourself.

 

i appreciate all the feedback. The humming noise was really anoying the sh*t our of me and since the car has about 90k miles it is a good dea to replace both front axles. On another note, when is it a good time to replace brake pads and rotors???

 

10min each axle. I didn't do it my brother did.

 

When they show signs of wear - there's no set "mileage" service interval on brakes, as driving conditions dictate rate of wear.

PADS need to be replaced when/before the wear indicator is reached (you'll hear pronounced squealing from the brakes when this happens)

ROTORS need to be replaced either when they become warped or when they are at or below minimum safe thickness (measured in mm).


Have a look at a Hayne's manual for instructions on periodic brake inspections, -A local brake shop will give you a free assesment, but you should learn what to look for yourself to best safeguard your wallet.

Also, search.

 

Well - i replaced my axle this weekend - no more "Click-Click-Click" when turning, but still a nasty vibration, only when accelerating.

Could be the other axle, could be a smurf caught in my intake manifold - I have no idea. - $1200 later, and still problems.

IanS

 

Same thing with me. I swapped out my cv shaft last week. it took care of most of the knocking, but I still have a vibration. I took it to my friend who's a mechanic at Infinity. I thought it might be the hub bearing. He said that it did seem to be the bearing, but he told me to try to swap out my tires first to eliminate my tires as a source of the vibration. I put my steelies on and all the vibration went away. Now i'm almost positive that i have flat spots on my tires (from going to scca) and they need to be changed.

 

You only get vibration when accellerating?!?!?

IanS

 

No, with my rims (with flat spots) I get vibration pretty much all the time. Sometimes it's barely noticeable, but sometimes when accelerating or at certain speeds it is more pronounced, but it is pretty much there all the time. If yours is only under accelleration, it may very well be your other cv shaft and/or hub bearings.
All I am suggesting is to try to put on another set of tires so you can either eliminate the tires as a source of the vibration or find out if that is the cause. Either way, you should try it before changing another part on your car.
Good luck.

 

Well, my problem is solved.

It was low tranny fluid!

All fixed!