Okay...I'm trying to troubleshoot a few problems with my 96 Accord LX, 2.2L, and one additional problem came to my attention while driving the car today.

In the front stearing there is a clicking noise that happens when I turn to the far right or the far left...the clicking is loudest and more prominent when stearing left. The odd part about this noise is that it only happens while I am accelerating and turning. If the car is coasting or simply driving straight there is no noise.

I'm aware that this could be bearings or ball joints, however I've dealt with both of those issues with other cars and this is more specifically a clicking and not a knocking sound. I am confused because of the connection between the noise and the acceleration of the car. Plus the car appears to have had the joints replaced recently. I've only had the car for about 3 weeks.

Any thougths on what this could be? I hate replacing parts on guesses.

 

might be an axle going bad.....a couple of guys i know have had this problem and thats what it was.....idk for sure though. good luck

 

thanks, I'll check into that as well.

 

99% of the time, when you get a clicking noise while turning and accelerating, the outer joint of the CV axle is bad. Replace the axle and the axle nut. it's a fairly easy job. use a torque wrench to torque the nut to 180 ft lbs.

 

just got this done on my car, it only gets worse with time, the out boot was torn and slinging grease, dont know if you want to use a split boot for a fix, but i have heard those are mainly temporary, a new cv axle runs about 60-70, at least thats what i paid for mine, not that hard just need to pull it off and then slip it back on. Does the steering wheel shake like when your breaking with a warped rotor when you turn or accelrate?

 

There is some shaking in the steering. I assumed this was a rotor. The shaking only happens when the breaks are applied at about 60mph or so. But there is a kind of "wobbling" that is barely noticable when the car is cruising at about 20mph or less. It seems to go away as it speeds up. Maybe this is all related?

 

For the "wobbling", check the ball joints for movement. Mine had a wobble, kind of a side to side feeling, that was due to worn upper ball joints (had to replace the whole UCA). If that is the case with yours it is a very easy job to change them.

 

Does anyone have a diagram or step by step list of how to change the axle/cv joints? I'm getting ready to purchase a new front axel. I've never done this and could use the help. Thank you.

 

remove the wheel you're working on, then unstake the hub nut. put the wheel back on and drop the car slightly to get some weight on the wheel. spray some pentrant on the axle threads, and loosen the nut with a 36 mm socket on a large breaker bar (with cheater pipe if you need it). it's very tight and may be stuck. once it's loose, you can lift the car back up and put it on a jack stand. remove the wheel, then the axle nut. now spray pentrant into the splines on the axle. remove brake caliper and hang it out of the way, but DO NOT let it hang by the hose. loosen the lower ball joint nut and separate the joint with a 2 jaw puller or ball joint separator tool, NO forks! you will tear the boot. if you need a new lower joint it's a good time to do that now. once you have the lower joint disconnected, you should be able to swing the kuckle out and push splined portion of the axle thru the hub at the same time. if it's stuck tap very lightly with a hammer. if you whack it you may damage something. sometimes it helps to disconnect the tie rod to get the knuckle far enough out. once you have the axle out of the hub, you will need to pop it out of the trans with a pry bar. should pop right out. be careful when pull the axle out so you don't damage the seal in the trans.

you may not be able to get the axle thru the strut fork, but i have found that if you grease the fork, the axle will slide thru it. you may need to jack up the lower arm slightly to maximize the space in the fork. you could just remove it, but it's much faster this way. if you do remove it, make sure you lift the suspension to ride height before you tighten the thru bolt in the bushing.

once you get the new axle in, put it all back together with a NEW axle nut. get it slightly more than hand-tight, then put the wheel on and lower the car so that there's some weight on the wheel to hold it. torque the nut to 181 ft lbs. this is where you need a big torque wrench. now that it's tight, you can remove the wheel again and stake the new nut to the axle. put the wheel back on and road test it.
if you need anything else like a brake job or tie rod end, it would be good to do all this at the same time. also Use NEW cotter pins in the joints that you disconnect.