I had the axles replaced due to a vibration and bumpy ride that I was experiencing. The first set was bad and I was getting slips, they were replaced and everything was good for a short period of time.

The mechanic wants me to take it the transmission shop to have them take a look, they are stating that it could be another bad set of axles OR an issue with the differential?

I have no experience in this area and I'm not really sure what I'm looking at.

My question: When the axles are installed, should there be any play in the axles where they connect to the transmission? By play, when the car was up on the lift, if you grab the axle, you can slightly move it from left to right on both sides. There ends up being a small gap between where the axle meets the tranny.

Sorry I didn't snap any pics. This is the closest I could find doing a quick image search to show the area where there is movement.


*I wanted to add that there are no leaks.

 

Axle vibration is quite rare. Vibration during acceleration can normally be attributed to worn out engine mounts, and exhaust leaks. Axle vibration primarily occurs under heavy acceleration, and it will produce a "wobble" type of feeling. Loose engine mounts can attribute to this.

Slips? You mean the transmission is slipping out of gear? That is a totally unrelated problem. Axles will break completely, rendering the vehicle unmovable. It is generally accompanied by a significant "bang" beforehand. If your transmission "slips" you need to provide detailed information as to when this occurs, what gear, if the engine was cold or hot, and if the transmission fluid level is correct. The information you have provided is nearly enough to pinpoint your issue, from an armchair.

These axles (and most CV axles for that matter) use c-clips to retain the axle in the differential. There will be some movement when it is correctly installed, but it will be minimal. If the movement is excessive, an axle seal leak will develop, which you clearly do not have. Repeated axle seal leaks are the result of a loose differential bearing, or worn out side/spider gear components.

You should first start by telling up what engine you have, when the problem started, and what the last service performed on the car was prior to the problem occurring. You need to provide as much vehicle history as possible. Not all problems are the same.

 

The car has the 2.4 engine. The last service performed before this started was having both front axles replaced. Prior to the axles being changed, I never had any issues at all with vibrations accelerating, no hesitation or slipping etc. The vibration I feel is even at lower speeds and not accelerating hard. I can feel these things first thing in the morning with a cold engine or even part of the way through my daily commute into work.

This started with me complaining about my car feeling extra bumpy/floaty on the road. Roads with uneven pavement or smaller pot holes felt like I was driving on a horrible road. The expansion joints on the expressway also feel much more pronounced that I can ever remember them feeling. I thought I had a bad strut.

Car went in and they couldn’t find anything wrong with the suspension. The struts were good, no leaks. They stated that it might be something with my tires or alignment. I had a full alignment done and at this time they stated that the upper control arms needed to be replaced. After having this done, I noticed no change in the car.

Next I was told flat spots on tires. Against my better judgment I replaced the tires and again noticed no difference at all. At this time I decided to take it to the Honda dealership since they see cars all the time. Again, suspension checked out fine and they stated that overall the car was in really good shape. Mounts were all in good shape and they stated that everything was tight and not even anything they would suggest needing maintenance soon. Their mechanic said possible flat spots on my tires, but I already knew these tires had just been replaced recently. They performed another alignment, which made no change. Afterwards I took it to my tire shop just to have them verify tires were ok and everything checked out fine.

I drove the car with the issue for a little while since I didn’t want to dump money into anything else that wasn’t t going to actually fix the problem. Finally decided to get another opinion from a mechanic I had previously used before I moved a few towns over. He couldn’t find any suspension issues, nothing with my tires, but mentioned possibly an axle issue. He didn’t want to swap them out since he wasn’t 100% if that was it and since I had already been throwing money at random issues. I decided to go ahead and have them done since this was the only thing they could possibly find.

The day after picking up the car, I was getting a vibration when accelerating and at times I would accelerate and it felt like I was in neutral. This mainly happened after taking a turn. No bang or anything, so me calling it slipping is probably the wrong term. I took it back and they determined that one of replacements was no good. They replaced both just to make sure. I also think they went with a different manufacturer.

After the second set was installed, my car felt great! The bumpy ride was gone, that “slip” and vibration was gone and I thought wow finally! But after about 3-4 days of driving to and from work, the bumpy feeling was back. So now I’m thinking ok, axles were part of the issue, but maybe that strut is failing but not 100% gone yet? I took it back again and when test driving the car they didn’t feel that the car was bumpy at all, he even stated that the accords have a stiff suspension. I stated that driving the car for years, I can honestly say that this is not the normal driving conditions. Again everything was looked over and nothing could be found.

I drove for about 3 weeks and the bumpy ride IMO was just getting worse. Now the car is very bumpy and I get that vibration feeling when accelerating. Usually coming from a stop but I will also feel it at different speeds while on the expressway. Those expansion joints still feel like larger bumps than they should, at speeds around 60-65 it feels like I have an alignment issue but they car doesn’t really pull to either side. I notice when taking right turns, that if taking a turn quickly, the car feels like it leans more than normal and when I finish the turn I will get that bumpy/wobble feeling.

So I just took it back last week. Thankfully (well maybe not), both mechanics can feel the bumpy ride I’ve been talking about. He stated that it’s either the replacement axles or an issue possibly with the differential? He brought me in with the car on the lift and showed me the play in the axles. He stated that since he doesn't do a ton of work on FWD transmissions, he wasn't 100% sure if that movement is normal or not. He felt that it would be a good idea to have the transmission shop look at the car and verify it this was normal and have them check it out.

The current plan is to drop the car off tomorrow, he will take it up to the transmission shop to describe and show them what is going on with the car.

While reading up on this issue, I had read about checking engine and transmission mounts. Is it possible they look fine but are actually no good? I had seen one video where the guy stated that only until he actually removed the mount was he able to see the damage.



Hopefully I’m giving enough info. I admit upfront that I’m horrible at describing these things. Anything else you might need, just let me know and I'll do my best to describe things.

 

This sounds a lot like tire vibration, out or round, or out of balance. Engine mounts, like I have stated earlier, will usually cause vibration under acceleration because the entire powertrain flexes. This in turn causes the axles to work at an angle that is less than ideal. Most mounts will still appear physically okay, but when loaded with a stall test, deflect way too much.

Control arm bushings, in particular, to lower control arm bushings, can cause instability and vibration because the entire lower pivot have a greater freedom of movement. Ball joints could also come into question here, but the real cause is: 1: tire balance/roundness, and 2: Strut wear, causing excessive movement of the suspension parts.

It sounds like all the mechanics believe it is an axle issue. If that is the case, demand a set of new Honda axles be installed. I doubt this will fix your problem. In my experience engine mount deflection can cause axle vibration, but it is normally the mount itself.

Why were the axles replaced originally?

 

Well after being told that I had flat spots on the one set, I replaced all four tires even though I still had a good amount of tread life. While dealing with this issue, I've had the tires checks and also rebalanced a few times. I'm pretty sure that the tire shop uses a hunter machine to balance, but I'm not 100% if this is the same as getting "road force balance"? For some reason I thought the road force balancing costs more?

Is it possible for a strut to be worn but not leaking or showing any obvious signs? For a while now I have wondered if the bumpy/floaty sensation would be due to the struts. The only reason I haven't had these done yet is due to the fact that it's like a guessing game. I don't want to keep spending money without any actual results.

The axles were replaced after the mechanic had gone over the entire suspension again. He stated that the only thing that they noticed was that an axle was possibly slightly bent. He stated that they were not 100% this was what was causing the issue and it was up to me if I wanted to try. He mainly didn't want to replace more parts and have me spending more money only to see no improvement.

I am planning on asking the mechanic to go with Honda axles if they come back stating that the transmission shop didn't feel that the transmission has any issues. When I dropped it off, I did verify again that they have checked the mounts and he stated that all of them are solid.

 

Well the mechanic just called...he took it up to the transmission shop and they stated that the movement isn't normal. They stated that it's a differential carrier bearing that went bad? Supposedly this isn't uncommon with these transmission?

The transmission shop told him the fix would be around $2000-2500 (told me the quote includes a little wiggle room in case they find any other issues once the tranny is opened up.) I'll have to get another opinion and quote since this is going to be an expensive fix.

Now I'm just debating if this is worth fixing or if I should just try and get rid of the car. I'm only at around 93k miles and before this issue started, I had absolutely no issues with this car.

 

Transmission shops will do the job right but you will have to pay through the roof. If you know how to pull a tranny you can take it out and take it down to em and pay $600 or so for them to pop it open and replace the bearings. To replace a clutch, which requires pulling the tranny, would normally cost $600 at a standard shop. You are simply asking them to do that and open the case and press off the old bearings and press in the new ones. Then reshim. Maybe $1000 if you paid an expensive rate. Yes, I know you have an auto but I'm just referring to the removal of the tranny. If you don't like their rate(and I certainly don't) you can always call around and reprice it elsewhere. There are a lot of reputable shops out there that would love to beat that rate. Yelp is always helpful cause you can check reviews.

 

Transmission work would be over my head, and I also don't have the tools or space needed. I honestly don't have any idea what a "good" rate would be in my area. It did seem pricey, but I also understand why they inflated the quote a little to cover any unknown issues once it's taken apart. I would also be without my car for 2-3 days so I automatically assumed a large portion is labor.

I'm going to call around to a few other shops to get an idea of what they might charge.