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Possible CV Joint problem

arin

CEG'er
Joined
Feb 26, 2006
Messages
201
My 96 Contour started making a kind of "clicking" noise when i would turn, in gear, about a week ago(front passenger side). Now today it got real bad on the highway and I'm getting alot of vibration in the wheel and it pulls to the right intermittedly. I looked around and it seems like it could be a CV joint? I'm guessing this isnt enough information to distinguish between other tie rod, control arm, etc type problems.

Anyway I can diagnose this? I can definitely see atleast one crack in the boot behind the rotor
 
pull it off of the road NOW

pull it off of the road NOW

If it is a cv joint and it is making that much noise and causing your car to drive funny, pull it off of the road NOW before it either breaks or locks up.

From your description it sounds like a cv joint, clicking when turning. Must have been doing it for a while as it takes along time for them to get really bad.

Jack the car up on that side, (use a jack stand to support it) and with the car in neutral rotate the wheel (that is unless you have a lsd the differential not the drug). If it makes noise or is not smooth, it might be the cv joints or the wheel bearing.

A wheel bearing might be found by trying to rock the wheel up and down. If you get and appreciable movement, you have found that your wheel bearing is bad.

If you can't troubleshoot it your self, get some help either from friends or pay a mechanic, but don't drive it again until you know what the problem is.

Best of luck
 
Get in a large parking lot and and cut the wheel to full lock to one side and slowly move forward.Then the other direction.You should hear loud clicking and maybe some jerking if the cv is going out.
 
Yeah, I limped it home after it started getting really bad. If it is CV joints, is this a difficult thing to fix yourself? I'm not that auto-savvy, but could get some help to do it.
 
If it is the passenger side you will have to jack the car up, remove the wheel and crawl under the car to remove 2 nuts holding the intermediate shaft bearing retainer to the block. You will have to remove the large nut on the CV (1 1/4" I think) - put a screwdriver through the caliper into one of the rotor vents to keep it from spinning. After you remove the nut (basically 4 or 5 jam nuts held together with sheet metal and a washer) you will remove the caliper and hang that off the coil spring. Remove the nut and bolt holding the pinch joint to the ball joint and seperate the two. This may be hard to do at first - if you struggle with it pound a chisel into the back of the pinch joint to open it up and make the removal easier.

After you remove the knuckle from the lower control arm you can push the CV out of the wheel hub (perfect time to check for wheel bearing play) and then remove the entire outer cv and intermediate cv from the car. When you remove the cv from the transmission it will start to leak oil - just jam a rag into the open hole and it will prevent fluid loss.

What you have removed it 2 pieces - if there is play in the intermediate shaft bearing replace the entire shaft - the bearing is not serviceable. The intermediate and outer and clipped together - out the intermediate into a vice and pound the outer cv off with a chisel by hitting the lip of steel where the two shafts join up.

Clip new cv to intermediate and reverse order to put back together - make sure to re-torque cv nut after driving the car a short bit (slowly around the block or up and down your driveway) to ensure the cv is seated and to prevent wheel bearing damage.


IF it is the drivers side CV it is the same process except there is no intermediate shaft and the cv is clipped into the transmission which makes it a PITA to remove. Feel free to ask me questions as I've done this more times then I can count removing motors and transmissions....


I had mad vibration and very slick clicking from the passenger side a while back - the cv turned out to be ok, but this was my main problem.
The bearing had separated from the intermediate shaft causing a :censored::censored::censored::censored:load of vibration- combine that with the tight boot of a new cv and it pulled the intermediate shaft out of the trans leaving me stranded on the side of the freeway pouring out ~$15/quart of Ford honey...
 
Well I took it into a shop and they quoted me $1182 for(i believe):
sway bar
ball joint
front pads & rotors
control arm

Does that sound right?!
 
Well I took it into a shop and they quoted me $1182 for(i believe):
sway bar
ball joint
front pads & rotors
control arm

Does that sound right?!

You could pay that - but you would be throwing away ~ $1000 bucks for easy work.

sway bar- why? if you somehow broke yours get one from the many CEG parts cars and new bushings for dirt cheap.

ball joint - you can either drill out the old bj and bolt in a replacement or call Steve @ Tousley Ford and order a new lower control arm with new bushings and ball joint for less then the cost of a quality ball joint.

front pads and rotors - very easy to replace and not worth having it done. If you can remove the lug nuts and have a 15MM socket you can do your own brakes. Once again - on the cheap you can get those parts from CEG or get cheapo rotors from your local auto store and some ceramic pads and be worry free.

control arm - see ball joint

You can replace your swap bar, sway bar bushings, ball joints, control arms, rotors and brakes for well under $200.
 
Yeah, I definitely wasnt paying that. Dont even know why I had to ask
 
No problem with the axel?

No problem with the axel?

I noticed that the shop didn't quote replacing the axel? Was the clicking something else?

Are you having brake problems? If not then why do they want to replace.

I forgot to tell you the best method of checking for cv joints. Drive slowly in a circle, left then right and have a friend walk next to the car. If it is cv joints they should be able to tell you which side.

The repairs aren't that hard, but make certain that you are doing the correct ones.

If you do need to remove the 32mm nut for the axel. Leave the car on the ground, take off the hubcap, put the car in park or gear, and put on the parking brake. Then with a nice long breaker bar you should easily be able to loosen that nut. Much safer and less likely to damage a brake rotor. Or just use a 1/2 inch impact wrench.
 
It seems like they did say a control arm and/or axle, but this is all they said when I called them back:
wheel bearings
sway bar
ball joint
hubs, rotors

If I got a Haynes manual and some help would these be doable?
 
Front rotors and pads are easy to do, just did mine last week. Passenger side control arm is also pretty easy. Getting the ball joint popped off the control arm is sometimes a :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored:. If control arms are 2 bolt, replace the whole arm. If 4 bolt, just replace the ball joint if arm bushings are still in good shape.

You'll need jack stands, an assortment of metric wrenches and socket set, a 7mm hex bit, a breaker bar, etc. The haynes manual is actually pretty good for doing these repairs.
 
I'm in the same boat. Can someone rockauto the correct parts for me? Need driver side ball joint (4bolt control arm), stabilizer links both sides, pass side cv joint.

Thanks for the help.
 
I don't understand why ppl don't go to their regional section and ask for help. Plenty of CEGers to help to point you to a good shop.
 
I don't understand why ppl don't go to their regional section and ask for help. Plenty of CEGers to help to point you to a good shop.

i have a good shop, just wanted to make sure i ordered the correct quality parts seeing as how they have such a large price range.
 
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