Triple click after replacing axles and wheel bearings - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

dankneeton · 07-10-2011, 06:43 PM

Hello,
I recently had both wheel bearings, axles, and alignment on my 2000 Corolla last week. The car ran a lot smoother, but recently, there has been this click click click coming from my passenger side. I can even feel it on the ground and gas pedal. It's always random: straights, turns, deceleration, acceleration. And there's always three clicks. I'm making an educated guess, but it seems that the slot that the axles are connected to are getting worn out. So when I drive, it slips, then it locks up again. I'm guessing this because my manual transmission is original with 190,000 miles, and 3rd and 4th are gone. Not sure if they all come together. Hopefully that made sense...but yeah, just a guess. Thanks for your inputs.

sam333 · 07-11-2011, 12:40 AM

On both ends of the axel, there are splines that lock the axel to the side gears ( inside the differential)on one end, and then the axel to the hub on the other end. If these were slipping you would have sever damage to the side gears /axel or hub /axel. When they replaced the axels this would have been very obvious.What do you mean third and fourth are gone?

dankneeton · 07-11-2011, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sam333

On both ends of the axel, there are splines that lock the axel to the side gears ( inside the differential)on one end, and then the axel to the hub on the other end. If these were slipping you would have sever damage to the side gears /axel or hub /axel. When the replaced the axels this would have been very obvious.What do you mean third and fourth are gone?

3rd and 4th gears do not engage anymore. Could be synchros.

Okay, so this "could" be a possibility that the sound is coming from either the differential and axle OR the axle and bearings. Damnit, no money for a trans and I need to drive the car to commute.

If I drive it overtime, it'll be bound to break and leave me on the street.

Is it possible that the sound is coming from the struts? I'm hoping it is, instead of the trans, axles, or wheel bearings.

blb · 07-11-2011, 10:30 AM

The first thing I would do is make sure the axle nut is tight and torqued to specification.

The next thing I would do is make sure the bolt and nuts that hold the ball joint on are tight.

These are all things the mechanic would have touched in replacing the axles.

It is extremely unlikely that the sounds you hear are the axle splines stripping.

sam333 · 07-11-2011, 06:29 PM

Like blb said, it is unlikely that the splines are stripped( when the work was done they would have noticed damage). If you have all ready lost 3rd and fourth( your trans is in bad shape) , I would drain a little oil out of your trans and look for metal.If the sound happens when you are putting a load on the trans then I would suspect it too, but if it happens all the time( randomly) it could be anything in your front end ( except the parts you have all ready changed ). The strut mounts, ball joints, dog bones, sway bar and tie rod ends can all make rattling noises when going over bumps if they are bad.

dankneeton · 07-11-2011, 06:56 PM

Thanks for the information guys. So I'll go ahead and check:

1. Axles are secured and correctly installed with wheel bearings
2. Axles are secured and correctly installed with differentials
3. Transmission oil to see any shavings or anything else (possible broken pieces of gears)
4. All bolts and nuts on ball joint
5. Check suspension (make sure nothing is loose)

I forgot to mention one more thing...being the poor man I am, I can't afford to replace the trans and pick up a new clutch kit. In the mean time, I'm driving with a horrible throw out bearing (makes a loud, rattling sound when letting out the clutch at a stop), and a tranny with no 3rd or 4th. I've driven it that condition for some time now. Another guess is that the throw out bearing is so damaged that it is loose at times, causing the click sound. Or that the there are shavings in the trans that are flying around hitting the spinning gears.

Sorry if I'm being over paranoid...just trying to get all possibilities out of the way.

sam333 · 07-11-2011, 08:34 PM

I just went through this with my 2000.

At about 210000 miles no major work had been done to it, but it was burning alot of oil , other than that, no real problems (needed struts).

I do my own work, so I rebuilt the engine and replaced the engine mounts.Then I thought, heck I rebuilt the engine so it will last another 200000 miles , might as well rebuild the front end.

Struts , strut mounts , front bearings ,sway bar bushings, control arm bushings, ball joints, dog bones, drive shafts.Then the alternator went, then the trans.I have repaired those too.

So it gets away from you very quickly.

The car was totaled( minor body damage cant even see it) last year and I got about $6000 out of it. I dont want car payments, so I am putting some of the money back into the car that I got from the total.

dankneeton · 07-11-2011, 09:37 PM

So Sam...I see you're in California. Want to get more Corolla-awesomeness-experience and fix my car for a fat pay check that will give you a big smile?

sam333 · 07-11-2011, 09:44 PM

Sorry no time. Its my vacation and I have an engine to put in a truck, a trans in a car , a house to level, and a bathroom to put in. Ha Ha, well see if I get it all done!

dankneeton · 07-12-2011, 07:32 AM

Well...hurry up! haha jk...Being a self handyman must be cool, and a big money saver

dankneeton · 07-12-2011, 05:40 PM

So I came back from the shop, and everything is tight and up to par. The other and possible conclusion is that the bearings inside the transmission is starting to go bad, which causes the noise. I can even feel it close to my feet, so it could be around the center of the engine bay. Anyways, I only have a couple hundred miles (knock on wood). Hmmm....

sam333 · 07-12-2011, 11:37 PM

Go under the car and push up and down the drive shafts a few inches out from the trans. Do they move up and down? If they do then your differential is worn.

pdq · 07-13-2011, 10:49 AM

Sam, the CV axles going into the differential do move up and down about a half inch. I replaced the passenger CV axle, which improved highway shimmy a bunch. Out of curiosity, how much work is involved in replacing those differential bearings?

sam333 · 07-13-2011, 12:50 PM

The trans has to be taken apart ( a fair amount of work).

My problem was the side and pinion gears in the differential( badly worn), other than that the trans looked good( transmission gears were fine , bearings, syncros too.

I did oil( castrol) changes at about 50000 miles and at about 210000 I noticed a whirring /humming and then growling, so it was getting worse . The trans still worked fine and no large metal in the oil( just dark, very fine ferrous metal ,not much either) , but we drive this car all over the mountains loaded ( so severe duty) , so I had to check it out/ fix it.

I run castrol ( dino gear oil) in my other Toyotas and they all have 250,000+ miles and the transmissions on those are fine.