which cv axle is bad?

when i accelerate at any time my car vibrates very bad....i have tried the turn the wheel and listen technique to try to see which on is bad but neither make noise....how else can i tell???????????????

when i accelerate at any time my car vibrates very bad....i have tried the turn the wheel and listen technique to try to see which on is bad but neither make noise....how else can i tell???????????????

Have you physically gotten under the car to inspect them? Usually the only time they go bad is when the boot tears or develps cracks that allow the grease to escape. That would be my first course of action, inspect the boots on both sides.

Also, the common indicator of a CV going bad is a clunking or clicking noise when making a turn, not a vibration under load. This vibration could be a number of different things, not necessarily the CV joints.

when i accelerate at any time my car vibrates very bad....i have tried the turn the wheel and listen technique to try to see which on is bad but neither make noise....how else can i tell??????????????? Vibration may be caused by tires that need balancing.

Sam

I would like to know how you decided your problem is the CV joints on the axles? BTW the passenger side CV axle is replaced more often then the drivers side based on sales figures from our local NAPA store.

I'm not inclined to think it's the tires but you could rotate them and check the vibration - it should at least change, if not then it's probably not the tires. I'm more inclined to lean towards the motor mounts, get yourself a helper, with the car in park and the hood open rev the engine, if you can see the engine move more than a small amount you probably want to consider replacing th motor mounts. They are a relatively common failure on the camry, usually related to excessive vibration being noticed at idle on the 4 cylinder cars.

i took it to my guy and he looked at it and noticed that the passenger side cv joint was wobbling and i told he to go with it ...he switched them out and the problem was solved...no more earthquakes as i accelerate!

Normally, if you have a bad cv joint on one side, change them both. same with u-joints.
Say you have one bad joint, what is it doing to the other joint, beating it up. Now you fixed the bad one but the other is beet up and going to beat on the new one. back and forth.
You will have a dollar more in repairs now, but in the future you wont have any problems.
Just my humbel opinion.

Normally, if you have a bad cv joint on one side, change them both. same with u-joints.
Say you have one bad joint, what is it doing to the other joint, beating it up. Now you fixed the bad one but the other is beet up and going to beat on the new one. back and forth.
You will have a dollar more in repairs now, but in the future you wont have any problems.
Just my humbel opinion.



Today most repair shops just replace the whole axle with a rebuilt axle. This is the most economical way to do this type of repair, and it replaces both the inner and outer cv joints on that axle. I would guess that's what was done here. Personally, I see no reason to replace both axles, if the other axle is still in good condition.

Mike

Yep the passenger side seems to go out more often. I would like to know why that is?

I agree with Mike. No need to to both axles just because one is toast.