Help; my car jizzed all over itself!

[nickthaskater]

Driver's side front wheel...CV joint/boot? It's noticeably more difficult to spin in neutral vs. the opposite side which is clean and tidy, though not significantly so (nowhere near a seized feeling, though I fear it could be heading that direction soon).

I haven't felt or heard anything out of the ordinary; no telltale CV clicking/clunking. I didn't notice any metal flakes/fragments in the grease that's literally everywhere in the wheel well.

Recommendations? Safe to drive to the shop? ...Help?

[Time for a GTI]

Stay classy San Diego

[nickthaskater]

Stay classy San Diego

Most useful post of the year.

[Omnilith]

Most likely the joint is fine and the just the boot has failed.

Yes, it is safe to drive to the shop.

[emmettlodge]

That looks nothing like jizz. And i've seen a fair amount of jizz in my time.

[nickthaskater]

Most likely the joint is fine and the just the boot has failed.

Yes, it is safe to drive to the shop.

Great, that's what I was hoping. I'm guessing the increased resistance is simply a byproduct of all of the grease being blown out?

[Jason4]

I was going to give you a straight, no nonsense answer but then I noticed who it was asking the question. Now I'm second guessing myself.

A reman'ed half shaft for a Civic is going to be substantially cheaper than the labor to R&R the CV boot. Any damage that you cause the CV joint on your way to the shop will not change the fact that the entire axle will get replaced along with the offending CV boot and the joint inside.

Try Simple Green to get rid of the grease and if any of it got on the brakes then be liberal with the brake cleaner. Just keep it out of your eyes.

[bubbagti]

Most useful post of the year.

I guess sarcasm wasn't the only thing that came early in this thread

[Jason4]

Great, that's what I was hoping. I'm guessing the increased resistance is simply a byproduct of all of the grease being blown out?

On a '97 Civic it's probably more likely caused by a dragging brake. That looks like a freshly cracked boot, I'd be surprised if the CV joint was in such bad shape that it was causing that much drag. We haven't had any rain lately, if it were a German car and it came into the shop that I used to work at we would pulle it all apart, clean and regrease the CV joint and install a new boot. I don't remember the labor charge but I want to say it was 2 hours, maybe less.

[Cousin Eddie]

Put a jizz stopper on there Jimmy.

[nickthaskater]

I was going to give you a straight, no nonsense answer but then I noticed who it was asking the question. Now I'm second guessing myself.

A reman'ed half shaft for a Civic is going to be substantially cheaper than the labor to R&R the CV boot. Any damage that you cause the CV joint on your way to the shop will not change the fact that the entire axle will get replaced along with the offending CV boot and the joint inside.

Try Simple Green to get rid of the grease and if any of it got on the brakes then be liberal with the brake cleaner. Just keep it out of your eyes.

I don't know why you're second guessing yourself; I don't even recall seeing you around here before. Nevertheless, your help is greatly appreciated

[MagicBus]

If I had to guess... and I guess I do...

If you're not hearing any noise, and the shop isn't far off, it's probably safe to drive there. They may insist on replacing the whole CV and not the boot (that's been my experience).

When you say that it's noticeably more difficult to turn, are you referring to the wheel/axle itself? I can't see lack of grease really causing that. Your profile lists your car as a Civic. Do you know if the axles are connected to the transmission via bolts, roll pins, or other?

Normally, it's the output shaft on the transmission and the wheel bearing that do the brunt of the moving. If you're feeling resistance, I would suspect those first, or maybe a partially-stuck caliper. The axle shaft and CV joint rotate together, and not really against each other, if that makes any sense.

[BluMagic]

clean the outside off, put some duct tape on there and go to the shop when you get a chance.

[babydubz]

That looks nothing like jizz. And i've seen a fair amount of jizz in my time.

LOOL.

[VadGTI]

That looks nothing like jizz. And i've seen a fair amount of jizz in my time.

[.LSinLV.]

damn it!! Vad beat me to it!!

[Jason4]

I don't know why you're second guessing yourself; I don't even recall seeing you around here before. Nevertheless, your help is greatly appreciated

Haha, we've pitched sh!t at each other in a few recent threads, the last one might have been the F40 that spun out in Vancooter in a light rain. I've been around for a little while now I just tend to keep my fingers off the keyboard unless I actually have something helpful or I can toss in a quick one liner. Good luck getting it fixed and cleaned up.

[emmettlodge]

damn it!! Vad beat me to it!!

Well he beat something to it, apparently.

[Ziptied]

I hate it when the rubber breaks and jizz gets all over, always use high quality rubbers.

[Aonarch]

[2000JettaGLXVR6]

Drive it till it fails.

[Old Windy]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned any of the following:
-Overnight the parts from Japan
-Why it still be able to win at Racewars
-VTEC just Jizz YO!

[Uberhare]

Jizz? Jeremy Clarkston approves.

[daschrier]

Don't replace just the boot, do the joint/half axle as well. ANY dirt in that joint will destroy it over time and can be dangerous, especially if it fails on the highway. Do it right and replace it all.

[choochoo]

safe to drive to the shop????

I wouldn't worry. I once went from socal to norcal (900 miles roundtrip) and came back and discovered a torn cv boot with not much grease left.... probably meant it was torn quite some time before the trip. axle and CV joint was still fine. needless to say, I did replace the whole axle assembly shortly afterwards.

pictures, post trip.


notice the lack of grease? because it was almost all gone

[nickthaskater]

Honda dealer: $112/hr for labour (est. 1.5 hrs @ $168); $282 for parts; $450 total.

Other shop I've been to before: est. $250 total; $150 for parts.

/sigh. I guess it could have been worse, ha.

[choochoo]

got some tools?
http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=382416

[bherman13]

I guess sarcasm wasn't the only thing that came early in this thread

[Jason4]

Dont' bother with the dealer. If you have time it should be fairly straight forward to do it in the driveway. Feel free to drive on it for a bit while you round up parts and tool.

[Broduski]

Are you capable of any DIY activity? If so, just do it yourself. Axles are actually pretty damn easy.

[nickthaskater]

Are you capable of any DIY activity? If so, just do it yourself. Axles are actually pretty damn easy.

I do things myself for the most part, but I don't have a driveway that I can use (have to do it all curbside) and I'd need to go buy several new tools for this. It'd just be more of a pain in the ass than it'd be worth in savings, given I'd probably only save $150 at the very most when it's all said and done. I can get it in the shop tomorrow and probably get it back the same day, if not the next.

Sometimes convenience > DIY pride

[pillows]

COINCIDENCE! This is exactly what I noticed on my passenger front wheel/strut/axle a couple days ago...I haven't had a chance to really look at it but thought it was the boot. my car has been driving pretty much the same way, no real differences so I'm gonna assume and hope its just the boot. Gonna call a pretty decent local shop tomorrow to see if I can get it replaced friday. hopefully less then 2 hours labor charge. 97 jetta vr6 btw, anything specific I should worry about or consider? thanks in advance

[Swapped6n]

Dude!

Go to a junkyard and pick up a driveshaft, with CV joint

Ive done it 3 times for my Polo: Cost me approx 35 euro (so I cant imagine it costing more than 50 bucks for you) and you can bring it to an independant garage.

100 USD and you should be back in action for many miles and years to come

Think about it, and save yourself the money

[nickthaskater]

Dude!

Go to a junkyard and pick up a driveshaft, with CV joint

Ive done it 3 times for my Polo: Cost me approx 35 euro (so I cant imagine it costing more than 50 bucks for you) and you can bring it to an independant garage.

100 USD and you should be back in action for many miles and years to come

Think about it, and save yourself the money

I live in Canada, things are a lot more expensive here than in the US. Scrapyards are not that cheap here, either.

For the time it would take running around to find a cheap part or to wait to order one from the US, I'd rather just have it done and finished with new parts for not much more money.

[kingrukus]

if you haven't driven it much since it split, try and clean all the spilled grease and see how large the rip is. I once fixed a small rip in my old maxima with some permatex gasket sealer - just dabbed a bunch over the crack and it was good.

Also replacing the shafts yourself isn't that difficult - but if you do not have the space to do it then get it done at the independent mechanic. The re-man axle with CV shouldn't cost more than a $100 with the core returned.