Axle question

I recently bought a 91 civic LX. The guy before me gave me all the receipts for the lifetime warranty parts. He had replaced front right axle, but the CV joint is already clicking again. He did this less than 2 years ago. I looked up the part at oreilly's and it says that it is for a 1.6L, but this has a 1.5L. Would there be a difference, or is there enough that it would have already caused this to go out? I don't want to have to buy another if I can just exchange this one for no charge. Thanks.

Wow, I just answered a question like this yesterday I think.

Yes, a 1.6 and a 1.5 axle are the same. The only time you need to worry about a different axle is: A) Different series engine, i.e., D16 and D15 can use the same axle, D15 and B18 won't interchange. B) Different type of transmission, i.e. Automatic or 5spd(unsure if there is a difference between 4spd and 5spd)

There are a few exceptions to these rules, but 90%+ of the time, your good if you follow these guidelines.

HF/STD axles have smaller hub-sides,
Automatic/4speed axles have smaller transmission sides.

Anything else is interchangeable, nix the B/H/F/K series.

By the way, the lifetime warranty doesn't apply after the vehicle is sold, and O*Reilly auto parts most likely will not honor the warranty, since you are not the original purchaser of the part. Take the guy you bought the car from with you, if you can get him to go.

They will require the old part up front for the warranty exchange if they honor it.

Thanks. I already talked to them about this, and they said they would still do it. They said they aren't supposed to, but would anyway for me. Nice to live in a small town, :)

I agree... I often get things like that too.

I just thought I'd warn you about it, since there was a chance that they wouldn't do it for you.

I brought in an axle once that I had tried to fudge the bearings back onto the mangled shaft.. When I went to set it down the entire outer joint fell off and metal shavings and grease went all over the counter!

The guy just shrugged and said "damn you did a number on that one"
I was like "is it still ok to exchange?" his reply was "hell I dont care, looks like you deserve a medal for being able to do that kind of damage anyway"



Life lesson, dont drive on bad axle for 3k miles...

my previous civic, I drove about 50,000 with 2 clicking cv joints. lol. This one is getting bad fast though, so I figure I'd better change it sooner

I actually just replaced my axles... and they're both still clicking around tight corners if I'm on the gas... so they're lifetime for a reason :P

Cool thing is, I gave them back the set that I took off... the "new" ones are still on the car, and I got "new new" ones b/c I exchanged the "old" ones... if that makes sense to anyone.

Then, when I'm done, I can take them back the ones that I have to take back off, and get my $40 core back.

I won't worry about the core until I get a set that isn't borked tho.

HF/STD axles have smaller hub-sides,
Automatic/4speed axles have smaller transmission sides.

Anything else is interchangeable, nix the B/H/F/K series.


You are correct on the size, but they will still fit, you just can't mix and match parts from one axle into another. The biggest issue with the axles are the transmission side, whether it will fit in the transmission or not. The majority of the outer joints are the same, thats why you are not required to swap spindles on most swaps(don't know anything about H/F/K, etc. swaps).

This is the main reason I love my Hondas is how interchangeable they are.

But, I thought the HF and STD hubs used smaller hub ends, but the tranny ends were fine to swap anything... (unless you managed to get an Auto HF... that would fail.)

They are. An SI/dx axle will not fit into the hf/std hubs. Ive tried, they are way too big. Hence my DA front brakes :P

well, changed it out yesterday. I didn't think I was ever going to get the thing out. The combination of the guy before me thinking everything had to be tighter than a.....I'll stop there. But other than everything being tight, I couldn't get the axle out of that fork (not sure what's it's called). I ended up having to unbolt that and drop it out the bottom. It seems before on my other civic it just pulled right out when I took off everything from the end of the axle. It took a whopping 5 hours to do all this, I was extremely frustrated. 15 minutes to put it all back together. But everything's good now, so thanks everyone.

Next time, get an impact, a 17mm and a 32mm socket, and a 17mm wrench, and a pair of decent needle pliers.

It takes about 20 mins to change both of them... (imagine how pissed I was when I put the "new" axles in, and they were bad too... friggin clicking noise)

You going to use those needle pliers to pop the axle out of the transmission?

Tools needed:
1/2" breaker bar(or impact)
32mm Socket
3/8" ratchet
17mm socket and wrench
Wire cutters(remove cotter pins, easier than needle pliers)
Decent size pry bar(some axles take bigger bars than others)
and whatever size socket you may need to place between the lower control arm and spindle to pop the lower ball joint out.

I've actually never had to use anything to pop the axle out of the tranny... on any car.

Frankly, if you do have to use something, you could use anything with a flat edge on it, from my experience.

I usually just yank on the axle a little bit, since if I'm changing it, it's bad anyway... if it's not bad, I just grab the CV housing and tug a few times, and they come out... the worst one I've ever had that wouldn't come out that way, I used a 6" 1/4"drive extension to get up between the tranny and the CV housing, just to push on it rather than pull.

I usually use a big screwdriver on the housing. Only one occasion ever required an angled pry bar. My hubs never come out by just tugging. The damn joint always separates and ill likely end up ripping the boot.

Hubs, I usually hit the end with whatever is handy, usually the bottom of my foot... one or two good strikes, they're out... but I grease the splines when I put them back in, as well, so they're easy to take out again.

When I said hubs I meant the inner joint. Sorry for the confusion.

ah lol.

I figured you were talking about the outer CV, or the spindle-side joint

Eh, I normally put a little light petroleum grease on the splines for the tranny-side too... just so it slides together better, less risk of disengaging the differential side gears... dunno if this can happen in a Honda, but I've had it happen in my old Escort... luckily, it was a matter of getting a screwdriver back in there to line them up again and then sliding the end of an old shaft into the tranny to hold them up while I bounced it around putting the tranny back in the car.