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so i had about 130k on my car when i lowered it, and i've heard all the talk about how lowering a high-mileage car will produce vibration during accleration because of the new contact spot in the cup, etc; the only time i ever had any vibration was just the tiniest amount, on certain roads, at low speed. regardless, i decided what the heck, i'll go ahead and do the swap even though what vibration i do have rarely occurs and is barely noticeable (car now has 170k).
well...i guess that turned out to be a bad idea. i pulled the cups off, cleaned them out, and...i saw no wear on the bearing surface whatsoever. none! i've gotten this far though, so i decided to go ahead and swap them...what could it hurt, right? i filled them up with new cv grease, put everything back together, and now...mad, mad vibration under accel and decel. WTF? i can hear and feel the joint(s) every time i clutch/shift gears/apply throttle. it sounds like there's play between the bearing and surface somehow. i have no idea; maybe one of the bearings came free when i put the cup back on and somehow i didn't notice it?
anybody have any ideas? i'm gonna pull it back apart this week and swap them back unless i can tell exactly what happened when i get them apart. i swapped them without taking the axles all the way out the first time, i won't do that again.
anybody have any thoughts?
Hey bro, this exact thing happened to me. Your story is just like a Deja Vu of my situation.
In my situation it was a nasty pounding that showed up during shifting and accel. I put the car on the lift and discovered that the driver side axle had VERTICAL play where it meets the inner cup. it was like 1/4 to 1/2 inch play. So I simply replaced the driver's side axle, being that the right one was nice and tight, and the problem disappeared. Maybe the bearing fell out as I put it back in? in my case I wasn't sure but I knew that that axle was re-manufactured so knowing that I just went ahead and put an used one in instead.
I suggest you fix it asap, as your differential and everything else is taking the punishment of that vibration and could damage components, just like a wheel out of balance. Good luck to ya!
i never get why people don't just get a whole new axle when they do stuff like this. personally i don't want new parts mixed with worn parts when there is such little room for error.
if you don't want a whole new axle just warranty the cup and try another one untill the vibration goes away.
i did an axle on a saab once where you cannot remove the inner cup from the tranny. it took 4 different axels before i found one that didn't vibrate. idk exactly why so many axles have issuse especially on subarus if you don't get if from the dealer, but keep trying and eventually you'll find a good one.
ps i have also found that sometimes its the loose nut holding the wrench.
fatjoe - thanks for the response. i suppose that must be what happened here, except my bearing didn't fall out completely; it must have just come unseated while i was trying to maneuver the cup back in place. i'm gonna lift the car and see if one axle or the other has obvious play in it, then hopefully i can just pull that one and fix it.
luder - that was...just short of helpful. i'm not mixing old and new parts, just swapping side to side. new axles are close to $500 apiece; maybe you're not familiar with this technique, or maybe you just like buying brand new replacement parts when something needs fixing. either way, thanks for your implication that i'm inept.
got everything back apart on tuesday, the problem was pretty clear...
minus the grease, here's how it was sitting
the roller bearings come off pretty easily when trying to put the cup back on, especially if you're trying to do this without removing the axles. it's not really that much more trouble to pull them all the way out, and it makes it a LOT easier to work with; the only other step is to remove the axle nut, as i only needed to pop one ball joint (top one.)
anyway, the cups still look fine...virtually no wear
everything's back together and (almost) good as new
02-22-2010, 05:04 AM
inner cv cup swap,
