Clunking sound apparently coming from CV joint

[dderolph]

Got a 91 Accord, with 231K miles on it. For about a month now, I've been hearing a clunking sound when the car encounters uneven road surfaces, especially during turns. When making turns on a smooth surface, I hear no noise.

About two weeks ago, I changed oil. I grabbed the right drive axle, pulled and pushed on it, and noticed play and clunking noise at the inner joint, next to the transmission. The outer joint felt solid. I believe this explains why I hear no noise when turning on smooth surfaces; it's the inner joint that's bad, not the outer one.

The rubber boots on the shaft are OK; no rips or tears. I would normally expect to see a boot with a split in it and a worn CV joint due to loss of lubrication. Since the boots are OK, I suspect the CV joint was damaged several months ago when I hit curb very hard with the right front and rear wheels. The impact ruined the front tire and slightly bent the front wheel, to give you an idea how hard I hit the curb. Amazingly, my wheel alignment was significantly affected, as was confirmed when I later bought a new set of tires and had the alignment checked.

Although the seems to drive normal for highway driving, I believe I'd better not ignore this. I'd better replace the axle.

The last time I replaced an axle on this car, which happens to be the one making the noise, the cost was $250 at a local shop. I recently got a quote from a different shop; their price is only $150. Wow, that seems unbelievably low. The shop is owned by a Laotian man, and the technicians who work in the shop are Laotian. They have a 90-day warranty; I'm tempted to go ahead and have them do it.

[jeffcoslacker]

Need to check also: tie rod (inner and outer) play, stabilizer links/bushings, ball joint for lateral movement (this especially), lower control arm bushings.

CV axles with a bad joint will usually clatter loudly when turning tight turns, but it doesn't matter what kind of surface, that has no effect. And you don't hear them when running straight at all.

I'm worried you may be repolacing the wrong thing. I'm 90% sure you have a suspension, not driveline, issue.

Most shafts have some give in the inner joint if you shove the shaft around. Check the other side, it's probably the same.

[dderolph]

Actually, I did check the other side and it was tight; no play there at all where the left axle connects to the transmission. But, you raised some good points. I agree with you there are other possible causes for the noise and I need to try to pin this down; I don't want to replace the wrong thing. Thanks for mentioning that.

If I'm not sure what cause is when I take it to a repair shop, I think I'll tell them I want to see what they identify as the problem before they do any work.

[jeffcoslacker]

Originally Posted by dderolph

Actually, I did check the other side and it was tight; no play there at all where the left axle connects to the transmission. But, you raised some good points. I agree with you there are other possible causes for the noise and I need to try to pin this down; I don't want to replace the wrong thing. Thanks for mentioning that.

If I'm not sure what cause is when I take it to a repair shop, I think I'll tell them I want to see what they identify as the problem before they do any work.

I think that's wise...you may be on the right track, and since I can't hear your noise I don't know, but outers usually clicketey-clack loudly on hard turns with throttle applied, inners tend to rumble or hum ay a constant tone when they get rough.

Clunks that respond to road surface are usually suspension related. A good sideways curb-check will shove the ball joint hard sideways against it's preload packing and sometimes crush it, but not be evident right away, but deteriorate from there over time.

To check this, just raise the wheel off the ground, grasp the tire and rock it top to bottom with as much force as you can while watching the point where the spindle and control arm meet, the ball joint connects them together. Any horizontal movement between them is too much, it's shot.

Grab the tire front and rear and rock it in a steering motion back and forth as abruptly as possible. Any clunk felt or heard is tie rod endplay, again, any is too much. You can then grasp the rod and push up/down, front/rear to see the movement and see which ball stud is failing.

With the tire just off the ground, slide a big prybar or strong pole under the tire and lift, watching the upper mount of the strut for movement and feeling for freeplay. Grab the top of the tire with both hands and push/pull in/out, looking for lateral movement in the strut bearing plate up top.

And stabilizer bar bushings and links are notorious for rough pavement and turning noises, but usually the sound is very unique, a clacking or popping like someone tapping the underside of the car with a hammer.

The older Accords that I remember also had a torsion bar that connects the lower control arm to the subframe up by the front of the car, bushings would go bad and make some clunks and pops from there as well.

Happy hunting!