natrl

My 2000 teg is stock besides the springs (neuspeed race). i have already replaced them 3 times within the past 5 years (freeway driving). this cant be normal, so how do i solve this problem??

Kendall

I've never experienced similar problems and I've worked on tons of lowered cars. Do you ever launch the car hard? And are you torquing the axle nut to spec?

91IntegraX

happend to me too....i lowerd my car 2in and bam the boot ripped...and bam new bills for me to have to pay

Tone_Locs Dc2

yeah same thing happened to me.......what i did was raise my car a little bit...never had any problem ever since

Jdm94gsr

I had the same problem after i lowered my car just with lowering springs. After couple thousand miles on new cv axles they ripped.. So i replaced the outter boots but to no change they still ripped. So I got some driveshaft shop axles an ive never had the problem after 10k miles.. In my opinion remanufactured axles suck NUTS!

jdmotorsports

the boots flex more now that your lowered. either get high quality boots, or get driveshaft shop axles.

tcteg

oem boots or universal???
i put universal ones on and it was the biggest mistake i made on my integra...

91IntegraX

universal anything is usually a bad thing

daLixz25

Not to thread jack, but my CV boots have been busted for about a year now. When I replace them, will there be a noticeable difference in suspension ride or anything?

DC_RaceR

it will effect the boot/joint.
If you look under the car you'll see the axles benting up.

DC_RaceR

By lowering the car it stretches the boot, makes it to wear out faster. The bearing also work harder.

Hold your arm straight and turn it.
Then put your hand into like a slight degree like lower car.
and turn it. Make sure the hand stay in a spot like the hub. You'll get the picture

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

Lowering the car will not affect CV boot/joint operation in any way, despite what you all may have heard. Lowered cars wearing CV joints faster is a MYTH.

Actually at a lower right height, the axle will be a little SHORTER than at normal ride height. If you were to look at a stock Integra at rest on an alignment lift or something, the axles would angle DOWN to the hubs. When my car was lowered about 2.5" to 3" or so, the axles went pretty much straight across to the hubs (not upwards). A CV joint is designed to flex all around 360 degrees, especially the outer joint. It does this millions of times on a daily basis just by the wheels rolling along. It also moves as the suspension compresses and extends. Loweing the car does not change the intended range of motion of the CV joint in any way. In fact, if you have stiffer springs, the CV joint will most likely in fact have LESS of a range of motion than at normal ride height.

Need proof? Consider my car. I lowered it at 105K miles, and the original OEM axles lasted me to about 165K miles, at which point I found both inner boots ripped. Both outer boots and joints were totally fine. Now after replacing the axles, I'm at 214K miles and haven't had any problems since.

Now, the part that DOES angle upwards when you lower the car is the steering tie rods. Those will probably wear out sooner (ball joints anyway) than if the car was not lowered.

However my original OEM tie rods (that I'm about to replace) have 214K miles on them, and the car has been lowered for about 110K miles, so you can see it didn't exactly wear out that quick.

If you're going through axles quickly, I would suspect the quality of the axle. I'm guessing they are rebuilts and not brand new? If they are CCT brand axles from AutoZone, I can bet you that's the problem. I can tell you all about going through 4 sets of axles in just 3-4 months because of those POS's.

jdmotorsports

actualy your wrong. at normal ride height the outer cv joints are almost straight. when you lower a car your introducing a constant angle onto the boots. now this combined with enviromental conditions will lead to boot failure. around here in new england if a car is driven during the winter a boot usualy lasts a year or so.

now not every car is gonna have boot or cv joint failure, but with a car lowered a good amount you will shorten their life.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

I have seen my car while on an alignment lift man. When it was lowered about 3" the axles were parallel to the ground, which means at stock height the axles would angle downward to the hubs.

The outer joints are designed to have a full 360 deg. range of motion. Having them at an angle isn't going to do anything to them. Suspenion movement as well as steering also run the outer joints through their full range of motion. If lowering a car were to wear the joint out faster, than steering the car and driving the car normally (bumps making the suspension move up and down) would also have to wear the joint faster, which clearly isn't the case.

jdmotorsports

which shaft? the long or short? the longshaft(the on on the drivers side) is alwasy parallel cause its a solid axle. if its either short shaft then it wasnt truely level. measure from the center of your wheel to the ground. now that measurement, has to be the same for the center of the differential socket in order for the suspension to be level. and if your car is lowered, i highly doubt it is.

mine it 11" to center of shaft and 9" to center of diff socket. 2" lower and i'm not even that low.

Vero

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jdmotorsports &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">actualy your wrong. at normal ride height the outer cv joints are almost straight. when you lower a car your introducing a constant angle onto the boots. now this combined with enviromental conditions will lead to boot failure. around here in new england if a car is driven during the winter a boot usualy lasts a year or so.

now not every car is gonna have boot or cv joint failure, but with a car lowered a good amount you will shorten their life.</TD></TR></TABLE>

this is the correct information

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

My car will be on the alignment rack later this week or next, I'll measure mine then. I may try to get pics, too.

But I still maintain that lowering the car will not cause any more wear on the CV axles than at normal height. It's the tie rod ends and their ball joints that have more stress put on them at a lower ride height, not really the CV axles.


Modified by PatrickGSR94 at 3:25 PM 10/6/2005