1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
See previous post, linked below. Detailed recap:
8 months after noticing a cracked outer CV boot (I'll never be that lazy again!) we started getting a vibration on RH curves at highway speeds. It didn't sound or feel like the CV's I had go bad on my '87 Legend or '83 900T. But it didn't seem like suspension or wheel bearing either. Problem got worse and started showing up at lower speeds, so I did the long overdue CV job. Replaced outer joint with a new GKN brand part. Didn't check the old joint for damage. Seemed to fix the problem... for about a week, <100 miles.
Problem returns in <100 miles. Went to shop, short on time & wife's patience. Shop DX: bad tires. Tires were indeed really quite bad and while I was suspicious since I felt 2 vibrations -- the bad tires at all speeds and while driving straight, as well as the problem above, I replaced the tires anyway. They were due. New tires fix general vibration but not above problem.
Returned to shop. Shop drives and thinks inner driver. They swap out the half shaft with a lightly used part on a low mileage salvage vehicle and it fixes problem on test drive. My outer CV job looked good so they swap out my inner joint w/the low mileage one. Problem returns! They decide it's a bad OUTER joint once again, even though it's a brand new GKN joint and that job seemed to go back together quite well. They saw no evidence of installation error or anything else. Shop puts the low mileage used outer joint back on car and problem is fixed. Everything seems great right now.
So, it appears it was a defective outer CV joint. Very weird but maybe I had a bad GKN replacement joint? I'm returning it to site sponsor for an exchange. I'm happy it's all driving great once again but not happy that I spent extra $ on it. This was a true false economy DIY. BTW, my shop was really great--no grief about the DIY, good pricing overall, and gave me the used parts for free, etc.
Derek / 1994 900 S V6 169,000mi - vibration free I hope!
PS Mike P: the strut mounts are definitely due but at the moment, I'm not interested in spending anymore right now. I'm out $550 on the joint process and $400 on tires & alignment. This car is going to become a commuter only in about a month when we get our '02 9-5 so I may just learn to live with crap like noisy strut mounts and sagging headliner.
posted by 71.111.2...
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