CV failure question

Anyone have a cv fail without it tearing the boot? I've got a grinding noise up front and can't find any slop in the bearing. I had the ecgs done and still have the problem. The truck was aligned recently and the tires should be in balance after only a couple thousand miles.

 

Have you jacked up the front end and spun the wheels independently? Grinding would more than likely indicate some sort of brake issue I'd think.

Are you lifted? If so, how much and for how many miles? Also, what would cause you to think it was the CV? Have you done any hard wheeling lately that could have lead to a failure?

 

CVs will click when you turn if they're going bad. Without a tear in the boot, you shouldn't have problems for many many years.

Give us more description of the "grinding". When does it happen? Is it constant or intermittent? Etc... The better you describe it the more likely we can diagnose it. A video with sound could help, if it accurately represents the noise and conditions.

 

So the truck has been lifted 2.5"s for over 30k miles. It grinds when turning at any speed and wanders and pulls with the crown of the road bad. Stock uppers with caster just under 2 on both sides. The wheel jerks with each tire rotation trying to straighten out. I know the caster could be a bit higher, but it's never rode this way with the same #'s. If I hit the brakes going straight it doesn't pull either way all the way to a stop from 40 mph. On smooth pavement.

 

Jack up and check your wheel hubs. Prob a bad bearing.

 

What tire size? Are you sure the tires aren't rubbing in the wheel well? Before getting new UCAs, I had the same setup as you. With lower backspace rims and 265/75/16 tires I rubbed and it wandered and bump steered. With stock rims and 255/85/16 (skinnier, but much taller) tires, it drove fine and rubbed very little.

 

Wheels are 18*9 with -12 offset. Tires are 275 / 65 / 18. There's no rubbing in normal driving. I've had it jacked up several times and find no play in the bearings or audible grinding spinning them by hand. Toe reading was fine less than a month ago. Thanks for the responses.

 

A 100% sure fire way to find out for sure would be to drain your diff, remove your front axles, and go for a drive. If it still feels like shit you can remove the CVs from the list of possible problems. No it's not a quick endeavor but it's a sure fire way to figure it out immediately.

For the record, I highly doubt it's a CV problem. Sounds like a malformed wheel honestly. You said it jerks the wheel with each rotation of the tire? A CV problem wouldn't have that issue. When driving straight the CVs essentially act like a solid drive shaft almost. They aren't doing much work except to compensate for the small lift.

 

This is very BAD advice. The outer CV joint is what holds the wheel bearing together. Without the CV joint in there, there is a VERY high risk of the wheel bearing coming apart, destroying things, causing an accident, with injuries and DEATH.

 

What's it do when you put it in 4wd?

 

I don't see how this can be misinterpreted. The only way you could safely do this, is to remove the complete front axle shaft, disassemble the outer CV joint and then put only the CV stub shaft back in the truck. If you look under the back of a 2WD Honda CRV, this is how they hold the rear wheel bearings together from the factory. You can even see the grooves in the stub shaft where the balls would have been if it was a complete CV joint.

 

One quick check you can do is jack up the wheel that is making the noise. If you have ANY play when the wheel comes off the ground, then your hub bearing is bad. If you can grab that wheel when it's in the air and move it up and down, or feel any plan in it with your hands, again, hub bearing.

I've had one so bad (on a Silverado) you could hear it CHUNK when they lifted it up at the shop. Not cool...

 

Yeah sorry if that was bad advice. I didn't realize the axle actually held in the wheel bearings. How does the 2WD model have it's wheel bearings held in? Is the hub totally different? There has to be something holding it in since it doesn't even have axles up there....
I've taken the 4WD axles out multiple times and didn't notice the vehicle COULDN'T operate without it. Now that I'm thinking about it, I guess you'd need something like a dummy part of the outer CV just to thread through.

 

Like I said there's no play in the wheel with it jacked up. Also there's no visible wobble spinning it by hand. The problem has steadily gotten worse over the past couple weeks. No noise from the front diff either.

 

When my bearing went bad it had a groaning that got progressively worse had little to no play when lifted

 

I know the guy on here selling bearing assemblies charges a couple hundred more for 2wd models, so something's got to be different.

 

You will not hear or feel grinding in the hub or notice a wobble ( unless it has completely grenaded ) with it up in the air because there is zero pressure on the bearing. When you checked the hub for play did you grab the tire at 12 & 6 ? That is the only way to check the hub...what you are describing sounds so much like a hub going bad.