I have noticed some fluid around the area where my driver size CV joint enters the transmission along with some drips on the floor. If you jack the car up and grab the tires at the 3 and 9 positions and move it back and forth there is a clicking/clunking noise. Seems like play in the tranny or CV? The noise seems to be coming from the drivers side when moving either tire. Am I correct in assuming I am losing a CV joint or seal? I don't have any experience with CV joints. Is this something I can service myself? Are any special tools needed? I need to address this ASAP, going to Virginia in 4 weeks.

Thanks all.

 

Ronald,

If you are in a parking lot at low speed and turn the wheel from full lock to the left to full lock to the right and back, a CV joint will "click" and pop when they are going bad. It is fairly easy to replace them if you have all the tools but they are not common hand tools unless you are in the business or into cars (my problem...)you will need a 30mm socket, tie rod popper and a slide hammer with a CV joint hook.

It will take roughly 3 hours without a seal replacement and 3.5 hours if you replace the seals (I would as that is where your leak is more than likely coming from). To give you an idea, you need to drain the transaxle, drop the steering link, pop the tie rod end loose, remove the speed sensor and then unbolt the lower arm. Once everything is loose, remove the axle nut, pop the axle from the lower arm bearing assembly with a big, plastic mallet, push the axle thru to the back and let it hand down. At that point you can sometimes pop the axle out of the housing with a pry bar but a slide hammer with a hook is faster. Once the axle is out, use a seal puller to pull the seals.

Install in reverse. Simple yes? By the way, just go ahead and buy a complete CV half shaft axle assembly including the boots. It is not worth the effort to do this any other way as they will run from $60 to $70 for the left and $85 to $110 for the right if you buy aftermarket axles. You REALLY don't want to buy the factory axles....added together they list around $1,450 plus seals and 3 hours of labor per side.

Find a friendly neighborhood tech that can do this one for you instead if you don't have the time or tools to do it yourself. Going local, you can probably find someone that will do the job for less than half of the dealer cost. This is not a high skill level job, jist a right tool in the box job. If you know a good tech, they will often do side jobs on the weekend for $40 or $50 an hour if you supply the parts. Going that direction, the total cost would be around $450 to $500.

Hope this helps...

 

Thanks David. I am contemplating doing them myself.

 

I hope you do them yourself; it will be fun and can save you a bunch. If the axles are OK and you just need the transaxle seals, you can get out with just the seal cost plus the new tranny fluid.

If you need any help on specifics, let me know
.

 

I am still in the diagnosing mode. Raining here tonight so I didn't crawl around under the wet car. I am not convinced the cv's are bad. The noise I heard seemed higher when I was laying under the car. It could be tie rods, it seems like I have a lot of play from side to side when I move the wheels with the car jacked up. I do think I have a seal leaking on the driver side also. I don't have a seal puller, but I think they are regular lip seals? I will have to see what I can come up with to get them out, I can probably reset the new ones with a socket, I have done that before.

Thanks for the help David and I will keep you posted on what I come up with. May need to pick your brain more.

 

If you have ny "slack" movement when you try to move the tires left/right while off the ground, more than likely the tie rod ends are loose. If you unload the spring pressure from the ball joints and you get vertical movement in them, they should be replaced.

If you are trying to rotate the tire in the direction of travel, it is normal to have some play in the transaxle. The seals are normal lip seals and can be popped out with a seal puller, screwdriver or something similar. I have used sockets, blocks of wood or seal drivers to reseat them. Shouldn't be a problem though. The hardest thing at home is getting the axle nut off. If you don't have air tools, leave the car on the ground and get a BIG cheater bar on a 1/2" or 3/4" breaker bar. I use a 4' long jack handle for that.....

One they are broken loose, jack it up and finish everything else.

 

My experience replacing both half axles on my 1994 Corolla at 150,000 miles.
I bought both half shafts that included the inner and outer joints. I found a axle shop here in town that was closing due to the owner having chronic back problems. The owner put my car up on a lift and showed me the narrow grease tracks from the inner boots where the grease had slowly leaked out over the years. He also recommended me using rebuilt half shafts and have a shop to install them.

This was in 2002 a year before I sold the '94 Corolla at 185,000 miles and bought a new 2003 model. Using the internet I located a rebuilder that used new outer CV's and rebuilt the inner CV's. They used improved boots and a all synthetic grease to refill all four boots with.

The axle exchange price was reasonable. The only problem I found after I replaced them was a slight vibration from the axles at highway speeds like the CV's were not balanced like the factory originals.

The symptoms of the defective inner joints when driving was a rather loud vibration from both front doors when I accelerated like from 45 to 60 mph or when climbing any grade. It was very audible and irritating when driving up any mountain.

I used Georgia Hybrids finding a bad outer CV joint. I would drive to a large open area of any parking lot. Open both front windows all the way down. Slow to 2 or 3 or miles per hour then turn the steering wheel all the way to lock and hold hold it. Drive in a circle a few times listening for a crunching or metal grinding sound. Then do the same turning in the opposite direction. If they are really bad you should be able to hear them with the windows closed and the AC set to low fan.

I tried this with the old joints and the turning circle was rather wide including some CV noise. After installing the rebuilt half axles the car would then turn in a very tight circle just like when it was new and no CV noise at all.

I did call toyota back in 2002 to ask how much it would cost to replace the both half axles with new ones. It was something like $1450 total including labor.

I bought the rebuilt half axles for like $250 exchange including shipping to my front door. I was told the two outer CV's were new and the two inner CV's were rebuilt.

I replaced both seals in the tranny case the same way Georgia Hybrid mentioned earlier.
,

 

If the axles do need to be replaced, try raxles.com for a good rebuilt axle or look into something like Cardone Select new axles. The raxles site will also give you some good info on testing your axles and is worth the time to understand how they wear.

 

I can personally vouch for raxles.com. They rebuilt a set of axles for an older Mercedes Diesel I used to own as well as a newer Volvo. Quality axles and a fast turn around. They have a following with the older Benz owners.

That sucks about your problem. I am curious to hear what it turns out to be and how it turns out. Mine just turned over 155,500 miles and I still have had no real repairs to speak of besides the water pump @ 114,000 miles. I'm sure the struts and end links will be soon. Axles and hub/bearings at some point are inevitable.

 

Thanks guys, I will let you know what I come up with.