wtf!!!???? - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

***plyr503*** · 12-31-2010, 02:12 PM

OK so I've got an issue on the driver side of my dx. I had replaced the half shaft in may of this year and the damn thing was already bad. So I rode it out until I had some time off to get the new wheel bearings pressed in. Then I noticed a few days ago that the ds lugs and steelie were getting extremely hot when compared to any other tire and I finally decided it was time to act..... I got the new bearings and hubs pressed in and changed the half shaft and while I was in there I found what I'm fairly certain was a sticky caliper (that's a whole other thread in and of itself), I could barely move the hub with all my force applied (which was very different from the passenger side). Anyway I put everything back together and gave her a test drive on the freeway just to be sure my super hot lug nuts weren't somehow caused by my assuredly bad half shaft or old wheel bearings and found that they weren't the issue, the lug nuts and steelie were still way hotter than any others. My problem is though, that as I made the sharp right into my driveway I heard the familiar click click from the ds like I had a bad half shaft again. It wasn't as bad as the old one but it was there. WTF!!??!!?? I tried jacking the car up and recreating the noise by raising the control arm to about the level it would be while the car was on the ground and turning the ds hub while the wheel was turned all the way to the right, but wasn't able to get the car to do it again.
Is there anything else that could be making this noise ? If not is it possible that I toasted this new axle by taking it on the one test drive and heating it up? WTF?!?!?!?!

Flashmn · 12-31-2010, 02:25 PM

Possible the driveshaft was toast to begin with sure. Heat shouldnt kill the driveshaft so easily, they take quite alot of it. Maybe something is hittng the disk/tire at full lock.

90 GP · 12-31-2010, 02:49 PM

The cause for the hot lugs/wheel is likely the bushings in the caliper (where the bolts go through) are frozen in place due to corrosion. They need to be removed ,cleaned and relubed with high temp grease

Flashmn · 12-31-2010, 03:51 PM

Not high temp grease. Brake grease... high temp grease are petroleum products and will cause them to seize, definately no copper grease.

90 GP · 12-31-2010, 05:26 PM

Here is a link what you can use to lube the caliper bushings.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web..._T|GRP2035____

Flashmn · 12-31-2010, 05:43 PM

Yeah, that should work fine

***plyr503*** · 01-02-2011, 06:19 PM

Seeing as how these things are what stops me I just went ahead and replaced the caliper, 35$ isn't much of a price for piece of mind. As for the noise, with the new year, hangovers, and kids all in the way I haven't been able to mess with it. I'll post something up soon after I find out it's something incredibly simple......

jordanangel · 01-10-2011, 02:26 AM

is the tire balenced? i had a similar problem with a new halfshaft making a noise after i replaced it, then i got new tires and well it fixed the problem along with my alignment. hope this helps

***plyr503*** · 01-10-2011, 05:39 PM

ya just had four new tires put on a month or two ago.....I still haven't been under there to investigate further, since I now know that it is not a half shaft or wheel bearing issue I'm holding on to the thin shred of hope that the tire is rubbing something inside there and just stopped turning that sharply unless it's absolutely necessary. The way I figure it, the only thing left that it could be would have to be an issue with the transaxle if there is nothing rubbing or contacting with something in the wheel well....

***Silent Runner*** · 01-10-2011, 06:55 PM

Hey, a 4-5 or 5 years back I had my old Mazdas cv's replaced 3X in 6 months. Turns out our Canadian Tire chain (a big one in Canada), had sourced out a bum supply of remanufactered parts. In my case the suppling manufacturer had simply regreased, and slapped really poor quality new boots, on old core returns. I nearly drove myself nuts trying to figure what grinding and other drivetrain vibrations were comeing from, until someone at my local Canadian Tire, fessed-up, put a third set on and said if they did the same thing they would put Mazda OEM units on for free. Are the axles you put in from a bullit proof supplier other than OEM? I'll bet the other stuff you've found is good legit stuff that had to be fixed, but the real problem is a bum remanufactered part.

***plyr503*** · 01-10-2011, 11:53 PM

ya that's something that has crossed my mind several times. One of the things I plan on doing if I don't find something rubbing is to purchase an OEM half shaft and see if that solves the issue.....

***plyr503*** · 01-25-2011, 10:18 PM

So a lil update.....nothing's rubbing in there. I tried again to recreate the noise with the car jacked up and wheels on this time....nothing. I did notice that there is quite a bit of play where the driver side half shaft mounts into the transmission and I've also noticed that the spindle where the wheel nut screws on to sticks out of the hub about an inch further than the passenger side. I'm hoping maybe I have a crappy rebuild or incorrect half shaft, I'll try an oem one when I have a lil more money.

***SCT*** · 01-26-2011, 01:51 AM

Your problem sounds similar to mine, about the click-click sounds of a half-shaft. Then when you lift the car up and try to recreate the sound with the car off the ground, nothing.

My problem:

That's my differential casing, after removing the auto trans and opening the diff cover to see what went wrong before it had locked up. Those small gears, the one in the middle, lost its shims so it was able to move in and out to a point where it was able to move far out enough to jam up the other gears to the side. You can see what is left of the shim in the lower second picture.

To explain why I didn't hear nothing when I had the car off the ground trying to recreate the noise: When you are turning, the inside wheel would spin faster than the outside wheel. Which is sometimes why you would hear minor tire squeals making a sharp turn. Now when the car is off the ground, there's nothing to slow down the "inside" wheel so both inside and outside wheel is able to roll at the same rate thus creates no noise since all moving parts is able to move freely. I think this can also be true with CV axles. There's no weight or anything to slow them down when the wheels are off the ground.

So, you can try to change your axles again. But if the noise remains, it's your differential.

Before mines went bad, at first it would give a "whizzzzzzzzzzz" sound that would increase as I go faster. When it all started, it was intermittent, sometimes it happend, sometimes it didn't. Then it simply grew worse over time. More like I had a turbo spooling up kind of sound. Sharp turns, click click click. I didn't know what it was at the time after changing out the axle. It was long after I replaced the axle to solve the problem, the click click click got worse. Sharp turns, click click thump click click click thump. At that point, I just abused it until whatever was wrong went completely dead so it stuck out like a soar thumb. Then, leaving an EX-buddies house, that whizzzzzzz sound became a complete lock up. I was going about 35MPH, the front tires just froze instantly. Then it became free, turned the car around and limped it back to my buddies home. Stayed overnight. Next day, came to try to drive it home, got out the drive way fine with some clicks. But 10 feet further, locked. My friend who has an explorer, I told him to use his truck to push the car so it can free itself. My car didn't budge shit, so his bumper ended up going over top of my rear bumper. That's when we called a tow truck.

Brown_Muscle · 01-26-2011, 06:13 PM

x2 about the bad reman'd part. I've heard quiet a few claims similar to yours...what brand did you use? The fact that it sticks out an inch further that the passenger side doesn't sound right at all...if it is the wrong part that just fits it certainly could stress it enough to wear it out quickly.

***plyr503*** · 01-26-2011, 10:28 PM

autozone reman'd are what I've used

I'm going to purchase a new one of a different brand for sure. I won't be buying them from the dealer or a toyota parts supplier though, I called around today and did some shopping on the internet and everyone wanted over 400$ for a brand new Toyota half shaft !!!

till then I'm just praying it's not a differential issue. Those pics you have up there are no bueno sct! neither is the idea of having my wheels lock up on me......