doubleoazn03

Hi guys, I drive a 92 Honda Civic Si. I've been having problems with my hatchback. ALMOST ever time I make a left or right turn it starts clicking. I thought it was my hub assembly or my axles but then I realized that it only happens when I am turning left or right WHILE in gear. Its now starting on and off to start clicking when I drive straight. Its getting somewhat worse. I think it has to do with my transmission? Pilot Bearing? Since it only does that in gear , thats what im guessing. My clutch is about 6-7 years old but it still grabs good, no slips or anything.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Nothing you've said is dispositive of a failed or failing axle. Replace your axles, and work from there.

doubleoazn03

but it only clicks when in gear on turns

joey1320

^ because that's when you place torque on the axles...
If you have any friends with a civic, just swap them and see.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Which is EXACTLY diagnostic of bad CV joints. Specifically, outer joints.

TomCat39

Can someone describe this clicking for me?

The reason I ask is my 95 is starting to "tock" on sharp turns. Has to be a pretty steep turn for it to go "tock" "tock" "tock".

My initial thought when I heard it the other day and the last couple is my CV joints are finally starting to go bad, but knowing everyone always says tick (makes me think of valve tick) I am second guessing.

Not really sure what else that would act like that only on deep turns.

OP, since you are starting to hear it on straightaways too, it usually means the CV joints are really bad off and you don't have a whole lot of time left on them.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

There's two kinds of thunking noises you'd commonly hear when turning. One is a rotating deep tick. That's CV joints. The other is a loud thunking noise, which is more likely a failed suspension component. The easiest way to tell the difference is a bounce test. A suspension thunk will be heard during a bounce test, whereas a CV thunk will not.

TomCat39

Kewl thank you, "deep tick" I think better describes the "tock"ing sound I was hearing.

By bounce test, just to carify, I can "bounce" my front end up and down (tires never leaving the ground) by repeatedly stepping on my bumper, or repeatedly sitting on the front end?

Not like bounce the front end like they sometimes do when they have hydraulics on the car?

If it's the latter, not sure how I could pull that off solo......

tweaver

iTrader: (1)

Probably cracked or torn cv boot which is causing your axle to fatigue.

MadVladCivic

If, in fact, the CV axles are this far gone, likely the CV boots are in fragmented rubber "rings" or close to it.

If you like re-building stuff (and saving some money), you can rebuild
the CV joints. If the joint is as far gone as it seems, you will likely
need to replace the bearing *****. You can find bulk bearing *****
at Amazon.com on the cheap. I re-build my CV joints. Not difficult.
You will need the following parts for outer joint:

1) stopper ring
2) bearing *****
3) boot kit
4) optional: inner bearing race (I could not find a new one)

(Rock Auto sells new outer joint assemblies for EU-designated cars.)

Tools:

1) reasonably sized hammer, eg, 32 oz
2) vise
3) brass drift (3/8 in is fine)

Procedures are available at Youtube.

TomCat39

The boots aren't always gone by this point (could have been rebooted). My boots are cracked but not split, and it seems my outer CV's are clicking.

Another option is to replace the axles with The Driveshaft Shop Level 0 axles. The CV joints they manufacturer are better than OEM or so they claim and you should not have to worry about it again, unless a boot gets ripped. Easier to pop out an axle and pop a new one in than it is rebuilding the CV joints in my opinion, and get an upgrade while you are at it.

Thor294

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Yep, exactly. Just put weight onto each corner of the car, one corner at a time, bouncing it up and down and listening for noises. After you get it going, step away. It should recover within 1 and a half rebounds. The second part is a strut test, but the first part is the important one for the sake of this thread.

joey1320

You can have a few freinds forcefully rock the car from left to right while you listen under the vehicle (not under under) for noises. If you hear something unusual you can then place your hand on different points of the suspension, i.e. sway bar link, sway bar bushing caps, lower balljoints, and feel for the noise. This helps pinpoint the source of your problem.

TomCat39

As was already mentioned and I hope you haven't gone MIA. The most likely culprit of this is your CV joints. Have you jacked up your car to inspect underneath it?

The reason I ask is that there is quite likely obvious signs of bad CV joints aka torn boots. I know being I had the exact same thing as you, just started but I wanted clarity on the sound itself which NotARacist provided nicely. Anyways, this morning as I lifted the front of the car I spotted both outer boots torn open and cv grease flung all over. The behavior I had was clicking on turns when gassing it, then was just starting to happen a bit on straight away with load just like you. The water, dirt and grime got in and it makes short work of the already worn joint.

If you are going to have the fun of doing this yourself, the easiest method I found is to just buy new axles. In my case after taxes it was 246 bucks for SurTrack premium axles with a lifetime warranty as long as I own the car and the boots are not torn (totally reasonable).

Here is a tip for popping the lower ball joint, I don't like the ball joint forks because they almost always rip the boots up. And I don't like beating on the castle nut or the lower control arm to pop them free being you can damage things pretty easily. So here is what I do to pop the lower ball joint. I loosen the castle nut (after removing the cotter pin. Then I jack up the arm and I put a couple of wrenches in between the upper part of the ball joint and the lower control arm and then lower the jack, so far has popped the lower ball joint every time.

Looks like this:



First thing is to break the spindle nut free, for this, put the car in park or neutral, start the car and have you significant other, or friend stomp on the brake. You need the car running so you get the brake booster helping you hold that rotor tight. Also note: on automatics, do not leave in park when trying to break the nut free, if the rotor slips you will be putting undo stress on the transmission which could be bad. Put the transmission into neutral after you start the car. Now if you have straightened out the spiked part of the nut some by hammering in a flat tip screwdriver some, you should be able to break it free with standing on the breaker bar. That worked for me thankfully or I would have been dead in the water before I even began.



If you see this when you lift your car, you know that is why you get the clicking while turning.



Lift the lower control arm and it widens the space between the knuckle part of the ball joint and the lower control arm. Once it is up you can put something SOLID in between. I say solid because the box end of a wrench will not take the force no matter what. That's why I stacked my wrenches together to get a thick enough solid steel in between.



A close up of the loosened castle nut on the ball joint.



Here is after I lower the jack with the wrenches between so you could get an idea of what I am talking about for the easy trick to pop the lower ball joint.



And the popped ball joint, easy peesy. Also note there is absolutely no damage to the boot nor has it become unseated in any way. A perfect pop without any damages what so ever.



You have to take the strut fork bolt out to get the axle out and the new one in, this is after I pulled the driver's side axle out.



Here is the new axle in flush in the transmission. This part can be a bit of a pain. The instructions on the axle said to grease the c-lip so it holds centered. I still had to hook my ratchet up to the crank pulley bolt, put the car in reverse (easiest gear to turn) and turn the crank counter clockwise. At some point the new axle slid in. Also of note, before even getting to the point of putting the axle in, it's a good idea to compare the lengths of the old and new, and count the splines on both just to be sure you have the correct axle for your car. (Also on the SurTrack axle instructions). I have not done this process on an automatic as of yet so I am not sure if it's feasible to start the car up for a second to throw it into reverse to engage, then kill the car immediately. Automatics are a pressurized system so I'm not sure if you will get a mess of fluid coming out to do this. With a manual, you don't have to start the car to put it into any gear. This stage may be even more challenging on an automatic.



Last but not least, make sure to fully load the lower control arm before you torque the strut fork bolt and nut. The FSM also says put silicon grease on the bolt before putting it back in for the strut fork, I used moly grease being I didn't have any silicone grease. Might not be recommended but it should keep the bolt in good shape and from rusting or seizing.

Also one other thing to note, that castle nut sometimes does not like to go back on with straight hand tools. If the ball joint bolt spins (sometimes they do) when trying to put the nut back on, I found an impact gun seems to do the job, I just loosen it by hand after and then torque to spec. My drivers side wasn't a problem but tomorrow I get to go down with my electric impact gun and get my passenger side on like we had to do at the shop when we did the tranny swap.

Anyways, I hope these tips help you if you find that you need to swap your axles and decide to do it yourself. Also as far as I know this way also doesn't force you to go get an alignment, especially if you've had one done recently.

Oh and to torque the spindle (axle) nuts, once again you will need a friend and to start the car so as to mash those brakes really good. Don't forget to stake them down in the groove of the axle either, that is VERY important to not forget.

Took me about 4.5 hours to do this solo. Would have been a bit faster but I was self defeating at times in my steps. i.e. don't pull the strut fork bolt out before you pop the lower ball joint.... You need that spring to do the work.

Ciao.

brem1

^Had the exact same problem and it ended up being a torn boot.

WhoIsJohnGalt

I'll have to try that wrench trick, it looks pretty slick.

doubleoazn03

Lol, even though it was a while back, I figured out what it was the hard way lol. I was driving home from work one day. Right before I was going to go on the freeway I heard a loud noise. Checked my rear view mirror and saw something fall out. So I decided to take the streets home, 4 miles away a more louder noise happened, again checked the rear view and saw metal ***** fly out the back. I pulled over to check, walk back to what fell out and realized it was big ball bearings. I put 2 and 2 together and realized it was my passengerside outer axle fell apart. Lol

WhoIsJohnGalt

Lol, it can happen.