I lowered my 98 max about a year and a half ago with KYB GR-2's and Intrax.. My mechanic at the time told me he was surprised how new my axles looked being the car had 70k miles on it.. About a month later my car makes a crunching sound going over all bumps, slow, rolling, fast, doesn;t matter... I just thought it was normal from a lowered car.. This past week, crunching still there, I see the sludge on my front passenger wheel. My boot still looks good but the sludge is all over my suspension too.. Is it possible that I have been driving on a bad AXLE for 1 1/2 years??? And would this have caused more damage, will crunching sound go away after replacement with raxle on pass. side?? Please give me any input and advice on my cars situation/ it does have 98k miles on it.. thanks

 

Sludge is grease from the axle.
Crunching noise is signs of a bad axle.
replace that axle, it will go away.
I doubt its been like that for over a year if your just barely seeing the grease and hearing the noise.
Im sure the boot has been ripped for some time though. The axle wouldnt go bad immediatley.

 

yeah thats tru... its just weird that the crunching has been there all this time, just saw sludge this week tho.. thanks

 

The crunching could be a number of things though, are u positive it is comming from the axle???

 

Crunching noises on bumps doesn't point to bad axles. The grease (sludge) sure does. The boot has probably broke open. You can put a boot kit on if you catch it before contamination gets into the CV joint. It's a messy job, but costs much less then replacing the axle. You can also purchase the CV joint from Nissan and repair your axle. The CV joint is only held onto the axle with C clips.

Check the upper strut mounts and bearings. Thats probably the source of your crunching noises.

Axle or CV joint failure makes a clicking sound around turns while accellerating.

 

Alright thanks for the pointers... IF the CV joint is contaminated, do i just replace that? Whats the point of replacing the whole axle if you can always just replace the CV joints?? Thanks in advance for everyones assistance.. I want to just buy a raxle axle I think since labor would all be about the same for me?? either thing i replace, the whole axle needs to come off??