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i have that tell-tale popping noise when i crank the wheel and apply power. i know that it's either the cv joint or the axle. but i don't know which. it's on the passenger side. does the axle itself have any moving parts? is the cv joint a seperate unit that i can replace alone?
The axles on front whhel drive cars that I have familiarity with have bearing sets.
The noise that I associate with CV & axle maladies is a grinding caused by bearing sets disintegrating, and popping is usually the sound of something loose, pulling apart and popping back in again as pressure subsides. Soon the noise will likely become an audible "growl".
My "guess", based more on some familiarity with fwd reather than Honda's in particular, is that the CV joint is going.
I don't have the slightest idea of the cost of the CV joint, or axles, and what is involved to replace them, or how much shop time a garage has on their book for these types of service. My experiences have been with fwd domestics, and that was several years ago, and in Canadian dollars.
I hope that other members can input their experiences, and let us know of costs, or share DYI knowledge.
if you don't know anything about cars, please for god sake take the car to a mechanic who knows what he is doing. it will cost you some money if you take to a mechanic but this way you won't screw something up.
The clicking or rattling you hear going around a turn and accelerating is a cv joint, or more appropriately, the bearings within the cv joint. If you hear it when you're turning left, its the pass. side, if you hear it around a right turn, its the drivers side. If you hear it both ways, odds are the thing's blown well enough for you to see, so just look under the car. It is most likely not the axle, but since a remanufactured cv shaft is like 70-90 bucks, and the kit to rebuild your own cv joints is like 30-40 bucks, most folks just opt for the rebuilt axle. (less messing around) If you take the car to a shop they'll put in a new cv shaft, at about 150 bucks for the part, and labor will be $80-100. So you can save dollars by doing it yourself. You will need to do the following things: buy the haynes manual, drain the tranny oil, and pick apart the suspension on the side youre doing. If you feel uncomfortable with any of this, take the car to a shop. Whatever you do, best of luck to ya!
I paid $50 for re manufactured axles for my 89. This is not a job for those that don't have experience working on suspensions etc. If you have to remove the damper fork to pull out the old axle, you will most likely have to cut the lower carriage bolt that goes through the damper bushing. You will then have to press out the old bushing or cut it out like I did. It's a bitch to do. If you rebuild the outside cv joint, you will not have to take off the damper fork. You can also take apart the cv joint on a new axle but the new axle needs to have a clamp on the boot that is reuseable.
