Emergency question re: CV joint/halfshaft

[mva5142]

I ran some errands to day at lunch and heard a rattling grinding noise from the front of my car. 98 OBW w/ 115k miles. Intermittent at times, at times very noticeable. Determined that it does it when I turn left and not right. Crawled under the car and the inner cv joint is ripped, no grease to speak of inside the boot, don't know about the can.

 

Can I drive it with the noise? I work 54 miles from home so it is a long trip. Anything to get me home. Don't have the stuff to replace it here.

 

Any help appreciated.

 

MAtt

[idosubaru]

Definitely. I've put thousands of miles on axles before. let's see - 50,000 miles on fronts and 100,000+ on rears. Key is not going off road, driving in sand or areas where they put gravel, coal dust, etc on the road for snow - that stuff will tear up an axle quickly - but you'd still make it "home" just fine. Particularly if it's the original Subaru axles, they can take a serious beating.

 

The only thing you need to worry about is vibrations, if it starts vibrating, drive gently and change speeds to get rid of vibrations. The speedo gear in the trans is plastic and not far from the passengers side axle, it won't hold up to much stress, so vibrations are bad. But it would take a lot and continuous driving to hurt it.

 

If you stuff some grease in there by hand the noise will quiet down. My inner joints broke on the way TOO my 2,000 mile drive to go elk hunting in colorado. made it the whole 4,000 miles including treks up crazy offroad mountain passes to 10,000 feet with broken inner boots just fine. They even started maing noise/vibrating while in Colorado and I stuff grease in the boots by hand maybe 2 or 3 times, noises/vibration went away instantly and i made it the 2,000 miles home.

 

So yeah - you're fine.

 

I'd avoid stuffing grease though unless you're really worried it gets annoying splattered everywhere and stinking as it heats and burns off.

[nipper]

I've put a few 1000 miles on a cv joint like this, and also had them snap right after making this noise.

 

It is the luck of the draw, but if it is a sudden onset noise, odds are things are going down hill very quickly, if you just noticed it you should be ok. Just be aware of any noticable vibration. You should be OK, but once you get it home I wouldnt press your luck.

 

 

 

nipper

[robm]

Buy a new axle on the way home. No sense in wasting a trip.

[lmdew]

If its only in a turn, you may have a bad hub bearing as well. When you change the axle, check the bearing for smooth operation.

[mva5142]

Thanks for the repsonses.

 

I actually found a mechanic here in town that would have it done by 5. I dropped it off at 3:30 and picked it up at 5. Was done and quiet. Used a NAPA halfshaft, but not sure which one.

 

Also seemed to notice that the "shudder or vibration" I used to feel while at stop lights or signs seems to be less?

 

Not sure if there is a correlation or if I need to calibrate my posterior vibration detector!

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

Looking forward to the next few days as we are finally supposed to get some lake effect snow up here. Been a crazy year so far. Cold and wet october, but a beautiful november. Now that the suby is ready to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

 

Matt

 

Matt