CV joints

[SlowPoke]

I have a clicking noise at full lock to the right at low speeds on my front drive. So does that point to worn cv joints? What's the worst that can happen if I don't replace the cv joints/driveshalf?

 

[porterdog]

Yeah, that sounds like a worn CV to me. I've had them go long long long with this condition, but the worst that could happen is that the joint itself could come apart, dropping the halfshaft and allowing it to bang around under there, possibly causing Big Damage or getting hung up on the ground and causing a loss of control. Fun.

At the very least have a look to see if your boot is blown out and you are losing/have lost all your lube.

 

[surfstar]

I let mine go a few months b/c I couldn't see any crack in the boots, but somehow the grease escaped anyways. So the boots looked good, but I had noise.

My GFs civic was the opposite, no noise, but both outer boots were completely ripped 360* around! If you can tackle it yourself, its not too hard of a job and you can get lifetime warrantied ones from kragen/autozone/etc for ~$60 an axle, and if it ever goes out - free replacement.

 

[m2200b]

Probably your left boot is torn and the grease is gone/ been gone for awhile with damage to the left cv joint.

Basically you can clean it up and use a reboot kit or pull the axel and put a new boot on the reassembly. Rebooting a clicker probably won't fix it but it won't get worse and/ or come apart.

What did you do?

 

[pbm]

SlowPoke: If you look around you may be able to find 'split boots' that allow you to replace the boot without pulling the joint. If you can find these then you can clean the joint out good with brake cleaner and dry it with compressed air and then repack it with fresh CV joint grease. This repair can last quite awhile. I would do this if the car was an old beater. If it is a car you plan to have for years you may be better off doing
it the regular (more laborious) way.