half shaft makes clickety clickety noise

[Rooster2]

I know my driver side front half shaft on my 99 OBW is starting to tell me that it is going bad. It is making the clickety clickety noise on left hand turns. This just started. Any idea how long I can drive the car this way before absolutely having to replace the half shaft? It makes no noise going straight or making right hand turns.

 

Thanks for any advise!

[GeneralDisorder]

Could last for years - especially if you remove the boot and repack it with new grease.

 

There's no telling really. The clicking is because there is wear to the internal components. If they wear too much they will jam and the inner race or the cage will fracture and the joint will come apart. How long this takes is dependant on too many variables to give you an accurate answer. The dealer would tell you to replace it.....

 

If it was me I would base my decision on two factors:

 

1. Is the axle an OEM or aftermarket unit?

 

2. Is the boot torn?

 

If it's an OEM with an intact boot then I'm likely to remove the boot, clean the joint, and inspect it for wear. Depending on what I find I will either toss it or repack/reboot it and reinstall.

 

If it's an aftermarket or the boot is torn and the grease has been contaminated/lost then I'm very likely to just toss it and get another one. They aren't expensive in the scheme of things and regrease/reboot procedure is more time consuming and messier than installing an axle assembly.

 

GD

[idosubaru]

of course i recommend repair. but if you're asking about limits - roll on man, you're golden. my personal rule of thumb was (back in poor college days) start thinking about it when they start clicking while driving straight. it'll happen...a long time from now.

 

i have hundreds of thousands of miles of CV clicking and broken boot experience. back in college (8 years of it) i'd run them until they got so bad they were vibrating or clicking while going straight. these were original subaru axles though (most likely) which are very robust compared to aftermarket.

 

you can get 50,000 miles out of fronts and basically the life of the car on the rears. if they're original subaru. if they're aftermarkets then who knows but i'd bet you have a very long time.

 

stay out of sand and coal dust (or whatever that black coarse stuff is they throw in the mountains of WV on the snow). that stuff will eat joints quick, i have personal experience with both. plain old road salt on snow was never an issue.

 

as a temporary remedy you can even stuff grease in there by hand but it won't stay in very long obviously, but the noise will go away or reduce. then you can saran wrap the boot to keep it in like my roommate used to do.

[brus brother]

of course i recommend repair. but if you're asking about limits - roll on man, you're golden. my personal rule of thumb was (back in poor college days) start thinking about it when they start clicking while driving straight. it'll happen...a long time from now.

 

i have hundreds of thousands of miles of CV clicking and broken boot experience. back in college (8 years of it) i'd run them until they got so bad they were vibrating or clicking while going straight. these were original subaru axles though (most likely) which are very robust compared to aftermarket.

 

you can get 50,000 miles out of fronts and basically the life of the car on the rears. if they're original subaru. if they're aftermarkets then who knows but i'd bet you have a very long time.

 

stay out of sand and coal dust (or whatever that black coarse stuff is they throw in the mountains of WV on the snow). that stuff will eat joints quick, i have personal experience with both. plain old road salt on snow was never an issue.

 

as a temporary remedy you can even stuff grease in there by hand but it won't stay in very long obviously, but the noise will go away or reduce. then you can saran wrap the boot to keep it in like my roommate used to do.

Wooah! Now that is for sure some good ole WV broken back ridge fix!

[idosubaru]

Wooah! Now that is for sure some good ole WV broken back ridge fix!

thank you.

 

 

 

 

if by "weston" in your location that means Weston, WV I was just there Friday and bought 2 subaru wheels.

[Rooster2]

Thanks for the advise. The half shaft is after market from Autozone, so I knew to somewhat expect trouble when I bought it. It is guaranteed, and labor is not much to replace. My Subie dealer is too far away to deal with, and an internet purchase kind of a hassle in my opinion for something like this.

 

Like someone said in a response post here, I will drive on until it clicks when driving straight, or if front end vibration starts, then I will replace it.

 

I have even heard of using a syringe to inject grease through the boot, but I don't know if that would get the new grease worked into the joint.

[idosubaru]

wow, are you saying that it's clicking without the boot even being torn?

 

classic aftermarket garbage. that sucks.

 

if you got grease in there it very well could help. i've had clicking/vibrating axles shut right up after stuffing them full of grease. problem is it just flings out immediately if the boots are broken (typical cause of clicking).

 

my boots tore last year in colorado up a mountain access road. they vibrated the entire 1,500 miles back home towing a huge trailer/4 wheeler, etc. i stuffed grease in at every gas stop on the way home and they'd be quiet for a few miles. let off the gas to stop when the vibrating got really bad. i ended up repacking and rebooting those axles and they're as smooth and quiet as could be for the past year now? i have tons of XT6's, XT6 axles, and boot kits so i didn't care, it was worth a shot.

 

so yeah - grease might be a big help. if the boot is still good you could even try unclamping, greasing, and reclamping the boot. all it would cost is a clamp. CV clamps are just annoying though. but you could just use a hose clamp.