Grease those Drive Axle Splines
Grease those Drive Axle Splines
After months of putting up with a light grinding noise while making right turns, the dealership finally solved the problem. Re-checking and ruling out the wheel bearing and bump stop caps, they determined that the drive axle splines needed to be re-greased. Because the grinding was intermittent and I minimized driving the Maxima, the splines were fine so the drive axel did not have to be replaced 
Couple weeks ago me and my friend inspected the calipers, brake pads, rotors, cv boots and any obvious signs of damage or abnormalities. Nothing. Everything looked fine.
In the end we figure it had to be something within the axel because when driving in rainy weather or wet roads the problem got worse.
It feels great to have the Maxima running in perfect order. No grinding noises while making right turns!
Symptoms: Grinding or winding noise coming from front axle (driver/passenger) while turning or straightening out of a turn.
Check list:
Wheel bearing
Hub assembly
Bump stop caps
Break pads
Calipers
Rotors
Drive axle splines
Feel free to contribute.
Couple weeks ago me and my friend inspected the calipers, brake pads, rotors, cv boots and any obvious signs of damage or abnormalities. Nothing. Everything looked fine.
In the end we figure it had to be something within the axel because when driving in rainy weather or wet roads the problem got worse.It feels great to have the Maxima running in perfect order. No grinding noises while making right turns!
Symptoms: Grinding or winding noise coming from front axle (driver/passenger) while turning or straightening out of a turn.
Check list:
Wheel bearing
Hub assembly
Bump stop caps
Break pads
Calipers
Rotors
Drive axle splines
Feel free to contribute.
I never really noticed a sound, but yesterday when I changed both outer cv boots I noticed they were really dry, made it a real hard to pull it out of the hub. greased it up and now rides alot smoother
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 497
From: Colorado Springs
I never thought about putting grease there but it makes sense. I wonder if this could be what's making the sound on my wife's '91 Max? Regardless, if my '02 ever starts this noise, the first thing I'll do is grease the splines.
Originally Posted by biggy8481
I never really noticed a sound, but yesterday when I changed both outer cv boots I noticed they were really dry, made it a real hard to pull it out of the hub. greased it up and now rides alot smoother
Originally Posted by kbohip
I never thought about putting grease there but it makes sense. I wonder if this could be what's making the sound on my wife's '91 Max? Regardless, if my '02 ever starts this noise, the first thing I'll do is grease the splines.
The dealership charged me with a $100. It included the disassemble of the axle, regrease and reassemble. Too bad my warranty was up, but being that I had to put up with this for so long I'm not complaining. Now if I had the knowledge to do it myself I would have. Leave it to the professionals.
Junior Member
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 55
Greasing Axle Spline?!....
I never heard of this before. I guess if everyone says it works. I was just thing though, My son and I replace his drive shaft three weeks ago, in his 4th gen.
The inside spline is actually inside the tranny, so it has plenty of tranny fluid on it. If you pull the axle, the fluid come rolling out. So it should be well lubricated. The outside spline, runs thru the wheelbearing, it has a 32mm, i think, nut on it and a cotter key running thru the spline. That nut is torqued to like 145 ft pounds, it is a monster to get off.
My point is, the spline design is really at a tight tolerance, the outside of the spline fits exactly on the inside of the wheel hub. I can see greasing it to make it slide in easier, but once it is in, not sure what good the grease would do. That spline gets hot, I would think any grease in there would liquidfy and roll out the end of the shaft.
How well, learn something new everyday.
If mine gets noisey, i will know what to look at, thanks,
Don
The inside spline is actually inside the tranny, so it has plenty of tranny fluid on it. If you pull the axle, the fluid come rolling out. So it should be well lubricated. The outside spline, runs thru the wheelbearing, it has a 32mm, i think, nut on it and a cotter key running thru the spline. That nut is torqued to like 145 ft pounds, it is a monster to get off.
My point is, the spline design is really at a tight tolerance, the outside of the spline fits exactly on the inside of the wheel hub. I can see greasing it to make it slide in easier, but once it is in, not sure what good the grease would do. That spline gets hot, I would think any grease in there would liquidfy and roll out the end of the shaft.
How well, learn something new everyday.
If mine gets noisey, i will know what to look at, thanks,
Don
Originally Posted by dstrawsb
I never heard of this before. I guess if everyone says it works. I was just thing though, My son and I replace his drive shaft three weeks ago, in his 4th gen.
The inside spline is actually inside the tranny, so it has plenty of tranny fluid on it. If you pull the axle, the fluid come rolling out. So it should be well lubricated. The outside spline, runs thru the wheelbearing, it has a 32mm, i think, nut on it and a cotter key running thru the spline. That nut is torqued to like 145 ft pounds, it is a monster to get off.
My point is, the spline design is really at a tight tolerance, the outside of the spline fits exactly on the inside of the wheel hub. I can see greasing it to make it slide in easier, but once it is in, not sure what good the grease would do. That spline gets hot, I would think any grease in there would liquidfy and roll out the end of the shaft.
How well, learn something new everyday.
If mine gets noisey, i will know what to look at, thanks,
Don
The inside spline is actually inside the tranny, so it has plenty of tranny fluid on it. If you pull the axle, the fluid come rolling out. So it should be well lubricated. The outside spline, runs thru the wheelbearing, it has a 32mm, i think, nut on it and a cotter key running thru the spline. That nut is torqued to like 145 ft pounds, it is a monster to get off.
My point is, the spline design is really at a tight tolerance, the outside of the spline fits exactly on the inside of the wheel hub. I can see greasing it to make it slide in easier, but once it is in, not sure what good the grease would do. That spline gets hot, I would think any grease in there would liquidfy and roll out the end of the shaft.
How well, learn something new everyday.
If mine gets noisey, i will know what to look at, thanks,
Don
. Wish I could find where my FSM cd-rom is, to check and see if Nissan lists it as a lubrication point....
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5th Generation Maxima (2000-2003)
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Oct 31, 2018 10:25 AM