Driveshaft/Axle Maintainance

[SirAlec]

This is very important. This may save lot of money.
Most of our members have FF layout cars or front engined front drive. That means power of the engine goes to the front wheel.

What's inside the drive shaft?
A very critical components in FF cars and some AWD (CRV, Humvee etc) is driveshafts which delivers power to the wheels. It contains two Constant Velocity joints which comprises a two special bearings. This two joints are lubricated with grease wrapped inside rubber boot.

CV joint Bearing


Inside CV Joints


Grease inside the CV joint



Cause of Driveshaft Failure.
Major cause of Driveshaft failure is boot being torn resulting in grease leakage due to hard impact on wheel, trailing arm or many obvious related parts.

Damaged Shaft


Torn Boot resulting in grease leak





Now here is a catch
CV bearing are very well built, It may work perfectly without making any kind of noise until all the grease leaks out resulting in no lubrication left for the bearings. Now if this torn boot is detected in time it saves lot of money. As rubber boot are cheap but driveshafts are not.

Repair Kit (Buy only branded ones, like MGP is packaged GKN, don't buy cheap Rs.40 kits the rubber is hard and it will last only a month or so)


Repaired Shafts



For Example: Now maruti's MGP driveshaft costs Rs.2400 (it was 1950 previously) for GKN and Delphi costs even more. But the original GKN Boot kit Rs.160 for Wheelside and Rs.140 for Differential side. This dfference is even more for other bigger cars.



PS: Mod please move if its out of place.

[sohail99]

Wow! thats awesome piece of information there.

I'll get my M-800's driveshafts checked this Sunday(was already scheduled anyway). And get the rubber replaced with the GKN or similar(Delphi one).

Thank you again

[neel385]

Amazing gen SirAlec! Will keep this vitial piece of info in mind!!

[gpa]

Great post SirAlec

My local M.A.S.S has sent me a letter for a free check up camp this Sunday. My Alto has only covered 15,000 kms, and I am a very smooth driver, but I will make special mention to have this checked now and at all future services.

Thanks!!

Cheers,
gpa

[ssjr0498]

Hello Sir Alec,

any Idea as to which brand Kit would be good for the OHC and what would be the price?

Shrey

[mithun]

Excellent piece of info. Thanx.

[KSM-Vtec]

What a coincidence this thread just saved me the effort of putting up one. Great work SirAlec

Just got the axel boots changed on my OHC when my wheel alignment guys informed me that they were torn. The entire job cost me INR 1,300
(4 boots + 4 Clips + Labour)

I totally agree with SirAlec, it is a very important preventive maintenance point and one must check for a torn boot a on a regular basis.

Will put up my low quality pics soon.

Originally Posted by ssjr0498

Hello Sir Alec,

any Idea as to which brand Kit would be good for the OHC and what would be the price?

Shrey

[johnda]

Wow, this is jus what i've been looking for..
When I went in for my 65K service last month, the HONDA folks told me that the Boot was torn and the grease had leaked out and there was a slight knock sound on my right side, esp while I did a full turn.
They obviously said that the whole unit must be changed as that's all that they do, no in-between jobs.. or part maintenance.
The price quoted was out of reach that time but I knew that I had to shell sooner or later..
Please advice on on how to go about this.
How can I know if there is a damage to the drive shaft (to a point were I have to replace it)
I've been running with a damaged boot for about 6 weeks now :-(

Thanks
Joe

[aaggoswami]

This is quite timely. We are changing the driveshafts every 1.5 years approx and around 8 Lower arms in one year, i.e. four sets overall in one year.

Is it possible that the quality of parts used is not good as every 1.5 years ( approx ) the tick-tick noise starts coming, so its time for a new drive shaft. But is it that the driveshaft's life gets over so fast ?
What in general is average life expectancy of driveshaft for M800 ? I think they must last atleast 40K. I have broken down a damaged shaft of our M800 and noticed that CV joints were hard.
Is there any other thing that we can put in place of rubber boot ?

[clevermax]

I noticed that my OEM driveshaft is from Delphi. Good to know that!

We are changing the driveshafts every 1.5 years approx and around 8 Lower arms in one year, i.e. four sets overall in one year.

For how many cars? Don't say for one car!

[gpa]

Originally Posted by johnda

How can I know if there is a damage to the drive shaft (to a point were I have to replace it)
I've been running with a damaged boot for about 6 weeks now

You will notice a clicking sound on full turns. If you have been running on damaged boots, get the up on a hoist and check if the grease has turned dry. Replace the parts if there is any damage.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by clevermax

... For how many cars? Don't say for one car!

That would be a shocker!

My Alto's drive shaft are out; driven 60k+ so far. Will run for another 5k and then will change.

[amit_mechengg]

great piece of information. but MASS dont include greasing in regular maintainance.

[abhibh]

I have been doing this for some time now. Almost 2 years ago and i spend 500 - 700 bucks for the same job and it doing its job perfectly.

[amit_mechengg]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

That would be a shocker!

My Alto's drive shaft are out; driven 60k+ so far. Will run for another 5k and then will change.

as it is altos drive shafts make noise. " krrrr krrr" when driven at lower rpms in high gear. this is a peculiar alto problem. things get worse as the odo ticks more. there is a slight noise in my left drive shaft.
will see if the grease is intact. i should have checked this earlier