silvercobra

Alright, so my 95 Runner (4wd v6) randomly started jerking to the left and right the other day at patterned intervals. I took it to Walmart and had the front to tires balanced which fixed the jerking issue but it is now making a loud noise on the front passenger side wheel. I looked and the CV (boot?) is completely torn open, the accordion looking thing. I was also told at walmart my driver side tie rod was super loose.

So I took it to a mechanic and he confirmed the tie rod needed replaced as well as the outer passenger side CV axel. I have had this Runner for about 10 years now, survived many collisions (since I was 16) and has a bunch of dents to prove it. It likes to kill the battery for some reason and the check engine light as been on since the second time it blew a head gasket. I am not wanting to put much money into this poor vehicle.

I had the mechanic replace the tie rod and do a front end alignment for $120 but he wanted $225 for the axel parts and labor which is way over my limit.

My question is, since the axel is already making some horrible sounds while driving, how will I know when it is time to stop driving my Runner? I know not to put it into 4 wheel drive. Also, what are some possibilities on what happens when the axel completely fails? Will parts fall off my vehicle or what? Plan to get a new vehicle soon but the longer I can wait the better off I will be financially.

Thanks for any help!

buickid

If you don't need 4wd, you could pull the front cvs out I believe. That would keep them from thrashing around. Pretty low-cost band-aid.

silvercobra

That's what the mechanic mentioned though he said he wouldn't' recommend it. Would that require as much work as completely replacing them? I am very mechanically challenged but my father has the gift, would it be worth it to pull it out versus time/labor at home invested? Probably wouldn't be able to do it until later spring anyways.

buickid

Shouldn't take more than an hour per side TOPS for a 3 banana mechanic. It's only a bit more work to put new ones in, but you mentioned you didn't want to spend the money on new ones. This solution would let you keep driving it without it making an awful noise and the remote possibility of the CV siezing or blowing up, or whatever if you keep flogging it along.

buickid

I guess crap could get in the bearing. If you can plug the hole where the cv goes, you would be golden.

silvercobra

What is a 3 banana mechanic?

I mainly didn't want to spend $225 but if I plan to do it myself (with assistance) then I could buy the part only. Someone mentioned they got one online for around $70, might be worth it. I would be able to replace just one side though correct? Also does that apply for taking it out or would I need to take both sides out if I were to go with that option?

When you say "remote possibility of the CV siezing or blowing up" what exactly would happen to the wheel of the vehicle if that were to happen? Just trying to determine if I should take the interstate at 65mph speeds to work or stick with back roads 35-40mph.

RJR

You only need to do the bad side, either way you do it.

You could also just pull the drive flange off of the end of the axle. That will stop the axle from turning, but will leave the wheel bearing open to dirt, so you'd need to cover it with duct tape and plastic. If you do a good job of that, it could keep you running for a few months until you can fix it right.

buickid

You can replace just the bad side, nothing has to be done to the other side.
If the CV gets really bad, theres a remote possibility it could break and possibly get jammed up on something. Odds are pretty remote unless you're REALLY negligent, but continuing to run parts that have reached the end of their life is never a good thing. Never know when you'll pull the short straw.

The banana thing is an informal difficulty rating system that gets tossed around when talking about doing stuff to cars. 1 to 5 bananas, 1 being something like changing a tail light bulb, 5 being perhaps a motor rebuild. 3 is typical backyard mechanic stuff like changing a CV or perhaps a water pump

Team420

You could just pull the bad axle, or pull the flange to prevent the axle turning, but I would not recommend either. No doubt dirt and water will get into the bearing. I blew one of my front axles a ouple weeks ago, like, totally blew it, but I also put manual locking hubs on years ago

Anyway... my local parts place has the axles in stock for $55..... an hour of time, and a 6 pack makes it a quick easy fix ....

silvercobra

Thanks for the replies. How much work is removing the flange? The noise it was making has gone from seldom to frequent to constant in a rapid amount of time and I am going to have to do something because people on the sidewalk are looking at me pretty funny when I drive by. My local mechanic quoted me something like $225 for the parts and labor to replace it.

silvercobra

Ok so I crawled under the runner and looked, found what I believe is the axle and both boots (the accordion looking things) have completely torn in half. I can very freely move the axle back and forth (towards and away from the wheel) and that has to be what is making the sound. First off, if I am able to remove one boot (by cutting it off or something) can I just pull the axle out or is there size limitations that won't allow that? It feels like when I push it one way or the other it is ready to pop out.

RJR

The flange is not too hard to get off. Here's the steps I used.
- Pop the grease cap off
- remove the gold bolt (if it's still there - sounds like it may not be)
- Loosen several turns, but do not completely remove, the 6 nuts holding the flange on. The cone washers under the nuts will still be jammed into their sockets, holding the flange tightly in place. To get them loose, do the following.
- Get a couple of 8mm bolts and thread them into the two threaded holes in the flange. Tighten them up to put some solid pressure on the flange, but don't get too carried away - you can't remove the flange until the cone washers are loose.
- Whack the nuts and the flange hard with a hammer a couple of times to loosen up the cone washers.
- Now loosen those 8mm bolts again. With the pressure relaxed, the cone washers should be loose. Remove the nuts and cone washers and pull off the flange.

That will stop your CV shaft from turning, along with the associated noise, but as has been noted above, your wheel bearing is now exposed to the elements, and water and dust will trash it fairly quickly if you can't find some reliable way to tightly seal it up again.

hockey88fan

I saw the cv axles on rockauto.com for as low as $39 for a carbone I believe. It is a fair amount of work replacing it but I'm sure you and your dad could do it with all the writeups on here that take you step by step. I would try it if I were you.

silvercobra

I am very mechanically challenged as I mentioned earlier. Would this method require me to remove the wheel first and also jack up the front end of the runner?

Thank you for the website, I found the part and even with $12 shipping it still is a very reasonable price. If my dad doesn't have time right now I might toy with the idea of getting the part myself and seeing if I can get a mechanic to install it for me.

I tried to shove a bunch of grease in the boots and wrap a million strands of duct tape around them tonight and had no luck. It stopped the sound for about a mile, haha. I could have sworn when the mechanic had my runner jacked up he spun the wheel and the axle didn't turn but right now it turns.

The duct tape on the right side boot for the axle seems untouched but the left side let go because I had it attached to the bar and the wheel, I thought I was just trying to prevent the bar from shaking around and moving back and forth. I think if I put a piece of cardboard around the bar then tape over it and all over the boot it might make a makeshift boot for now and allow the bar to spin. Or maybe even cut off the tap around the end of the boot that touches the bar, that would probably work even better.

Have to mess with it more tomorrow, luckily wife is off work so I get the Yaris tomorrow. Thank you everyone for the replies!

RJR

No need to remove the wheel or jack it up to remove the flange. Leave it on the ground - it's safer that way. Getting the CV axle out is a bit trickier. Do some reading on this site about it before you try that. Or, pay someone to do it for you.

If your CV axle is loose in the hub, it may be sliding back and forth enough so that sometimes it turns, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it engages the splines just enough to make a horrible racket (and do some damage in the process.)

(Btw, the best way I've found to search for stuff on this forum is to use Google. Just type <what you're looking for> :yotatech/f116. That'll tell Google to search within this forum, but uses Google's sophisticated search engine to find stuff. Maybe it's just me, but I have a hard time finding what I want with the local forum search engine. )

silvercobra

Whatever it is doing right now it makes a constant sound. Originally it was doing it occasionally, maybe every 20-30 wheel turns then it moved up to around every 15 and now it sounds like when you put a card in a bike tire. Well, maybe not quite like that but you get the point. The faster I go the faster the sound goes. I can manually turn the axle with my hand and hear the sound as well.

scope103

26 years old and $225 is over your limit?

Let's see. If you break the half-shaft (it sounds like you're pretty close to doing that), having the truck towed from the back-and-beyond is going to be way over $225. And that doesn't count all the damage to the vehicle.

But if breaking the axle locks up the front wheel, well, that won't be pretty. If you're in town when it happens, just the ambulance ride to the hospital will set you back about $2,000. If they take one look at you and say "you're okay, go home", that will set you back another $1,000. Anything else is more expensive.

There's no shame in being mechanically challenged. That's why you pay other people who know what they're doing. And there's no shame in being cheap; pretty much everyone on this forum has some of that. My advice (like others), is to get your hands dirty, figure out how to do this fairly simple job, and GET IT DONE. Doing a half-assed job (or even worse, just hoping it will go away) is not going to end well for you.

snobdds

Sometimes it's too expensive to be cheap, remember that going forward. Like Scope said, $225 and your problem is fixed. Pay a little more, but do it right the first time. Don't listen to all these quick fix ideas...just fix it right.

You will be money ahead...

silvercobra

Not quite sure how my age plays in to how much money I am suppose to have. I am definitely not cheap, I am just lacking funds. Trust me if I had the money to spend on this it would have already been fixed.

The debate I have is between fixing my 4runner or finding a used car. My runner has blown a head gasket twice ($2000+ repair), both front turn signals are busted open, my headlight is just a piece of square plexiglass with caulking around it, my hood barely closes and locks (hit and run), my rear driver side passenger door barely opens (had to use the money from that accident for other life events), my check engine light goes off and on at the most random times, and something is killing my battery so I have to keep a float charger on it while at home (either that or I am just that unlucky to go through 5 batteries in a years time.)

Investing more money into this vehicle that is about due for another blown head gasket at any time isn't something I really want to do. I would much rather have another gas efficient car similar to my Yaris that is reliable but in order to get that I really need to pay some debt down first so I would like this vehicle to last as long as possible.

I appreciate telling me what would happen if I were to crash or if it were to break, I know everything has risks (that is why people buy insurance) but I am trying to find out a general frequency pertaining to this problem and it seems that would be "rare." Also I would love to try this myself but if I get everything taken apart during the weekend and can’t get it back together suddenly I don’t have a ride to work and that is just as bad as it breaking down (minus the crashing part of course.)

Thank you everyone for the answers, I plan to try my last fix and then decide to either buy the part myself online and use my father or a mechanic to repair it or start investing in a new vehicle.

hockey88fan

My vote, buy online and fix yourself. A lot of write ups on here that take you step by step.