cv joint cooked?????
 

hi guys! i have a '93 wrx

I have a problem with clunking/clicking from rear left corner when car is accelerating
(cruising, braking, cornering all is quiet)

so I've taken rear left hub off today and the bearing has no play and feels smooth!

so I then removed the drive shaft (and cv boots) and could see on the outer cv joint the grease has gone sludgy/lumpy and all the bearings/carrier have gone a browny/red colour which looks like caused by excessive heat! other than that it all looks fine in there, no obvious signs of worn metal or shards of metal.

could this be the cause of the clunking???

I will be changing shaft now anyway but would like peace of mind that this is the problem.

ps suppose thrashing around evo triangle wouldn't have helped matters much:)

cheers guys
Mark.

boinski:)

Yes it could be causing the noise.. you can replace just the joints and boots rather than the complete shaft.

Out of interest do your joints look to be knock off or circlip held on?

in the process of changing mine one of mine on a 96uk and was suprized to find the cv joint needed a big hammer to get it off rather than being held on with a circlip like I expected.

Simon

cheers

well I took the shaft out and split the cv on the inner end - this was held on with a clip - easy job, not so sure about outer end though.

Was the circlip obvious?

Hope to get around to pulling the one with split boot off my car at the weekend so will compare it to the spare i am building up to replace it.

Thanks
Simon

well I'm no great mechanic, but is was fairly obvious (with boot off)

Change my front inner cv boot last weekend.
There was one large C type spring clip inside the cv joint, once that was removed the cv joint came off with ease (Watch out for the ball bearings falling out). Then at the end of the driveshaft you will have the circlip. Not easy to see with all the grease etc. I used plain long nose pliers to get the circlip off. (2 small holes in the circlip).
Just remember which way the ball bearing RING holder comes off as it is tapered one end.

Ticky

second hand drive shaft - all is now good:)