Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting CV Joint/Half shaft problems

I think my car might be on it's last straw... I replaced my driver's side half shaft/cv joints (whatever you wanna call it) this weekend. When i got my old half shaft out it was longer than the new one. Smyth Automotive said it was because the joint in the old one was busted. Made sense. So i put the new one in and put it all back together and take it out for a drive. RIGHT when i left my driveway, check engline light came on and so did the ABS light. Both right away at the same time. As for the drive......my alignment is way off (pulls harder to the other side than before), it feels like i have a flat tire but i know i dont, my whole car shakes (mostly when im not accelerating or braking), it has mass torque-steer, turning and cornerning arent as tight, AND it's making more popping sounds than the busted cv joint and i can easily feel the popping. So i came to realize that the half-shaft i installed is a non-ABS one. Now my CSVT never came with an owners manual, but from what i hear the CSVT does have ABS. There is no ABS sensor on the new one. So my question is did i really mess something up? I mean, it's hard to believe that ALL of those symptoms would be caused by installing a non-ABS half-shaft. So im worried i somewhat destroyed the drivetrain, specifically the transmission. This might be a big problem cuz im moving to nashville in 6 weeks. Any help would be awesome. I havent driven my CSVT in 4 days and it sucks.

well you need the ABS one...why wouldn't you replace it with the right one? That's why the ABS light is on... as far s being different lengths...how about the length of the shaft (solid part) was that the same? There are different one for an auto and manual...not sure if you could actually install the wrong one though. I remeber when I replaced mine (driver's sde) I couldn't find one with ABS for a manual locally...I had to order it, but the stores always stocked the other ones.

another thing you might want to check is the part o fhte axle that goes into the hub assembly. I tried replacing mine axle with a new GCK axle from autozone, and the axle sucked. It was manufactured without a large enough indent after the teeth on it and it didnt fit fight. It made my wheel wobble. That might explain your flat tire feeling and other wierd driving issues. Jack up the front wheels and see if one wobbles left to right more than the other.

I didnt know if the CSVT had ABS (caught me off guard and made me feel like an idiot). So the guy told me to look at my master cylinder and if there are more than 2 lines running out of it than it doesn't have ABS. Mine only has two lines. I know that the new half-shaft i bought is for a manual tho. Although the half-shaft did not come out/go in easy at all like it's supposed to. We had to hammer it in and out. i hope i didnt mess up the teeth though. im going to take it apart today and hopefully get the right half shaft. Another thing i noticed is that the teeth in the transmission are pointed and the teeth on the transmission end of the halfshaft are rounded. I hope the teeth in the transmission are still pointed lol.

You might also roll up to autozone and have them pull the code for you (free) that way you can actually see what the problem is. It might be unrelated ( my SVT likes to break in multiple locations at the same time )