Manning

Well, the other day I was driving around. I was on winding undulating roads and it was hot outside. On the last bit of the drive I started to hear a clicking like from a CV joint, mostly while turning left but also while under heavy power loads, like climbing a steep incline. Since that day I have not heard the noise in any circumstance.

The boots are fine but the car does have over 100K on the clock. Time to replace the joints I guess.

TomH

If you're not hearing it anymore, it have just been a rock or screw that you picked up in a tire, that has since fallen off. Double-check your tires though.

Manning

I spoke too soon. Well, it did it again last night while my girlfriend and I were driving around Akron looking for a house. Seems like it starts when the car get warmed up. Must be the CV nearest the exhaust. And oddly, it only did it after we had been stop and go driving through a neighborhood. Then after we drove for a while at speed, which I guess cooled things off it stopped doing it.

You know, this maintenance stuff always pops up right when I am about to do some performance enhancements.

Tabor

Yea. I would replace them both if I were you.

Greg Hammond

My 944NA used to have a clicking "every once in a while" on the driver's side, and eventually it got more frequent until the point it did it constantly. That's how it starts - you notice it one day, then miraculously it goes away by itself for a few weeks or months.

I'd replace the side that's bad, and remove the -other- side and clean/repack it with fresh grease, and install new CV boots if necessary. Depending on how pitted the right side is, you might want to replace one or both joints while you have it apart.

Vertex sells complete axle assemblies (www.vertexauto.com) pretty reasonably. If you don't want to hassle with the extreme mess of cleaning/repacking the joints yourself, just buy new ones and sell your old ones back as cores.

Greg

Matt O.

Hey,

I had the same thing. It starts out very periodically, not all the time, then after a while it's constant.

How much was Vertex? Performance sells rebuilt axles with 30 month warranty I think for around 200 each, (including 100 core charge).

BUT, they are really easy to do and you may want to take it out yourself and clean it with parts cleaner, and repack it with bearing grease yourself.

I'm no mechanic, but I was able to do one of mine. The other two I had done and am hurting in the wallet because of it. Until my girlfriend's dad said "matt, just do it yourself it's easy."

Hope this helps.

-Matt

Matt O.

BY THE WAY,

at least on my 89 944 NA, it's a 12 point 18mm backwards bolt (don't know the technical name for it).

MAKE SURE YOU clean out the insides of the bolt with parts cleaner BEFORE you go sticking your wrench in there, make sure it's completely clean and clear. If you don't, you may strip it and then you're screwed.

Also, you may need an impact wrench or something of that nature if this is the first time they have come off. But just give it a shot.

-Matt

deni durrell

I had a clicking sound going on for a while as well (which only made sounds on certain turns going left). it turned out to be the left rear bearing that needed replacement. hope this helps your speculation.

Dave951M

If you're going to have them rebuilt, check out CarQuest if you have that chain near you. They'll rebuild each axle (that's both joints) for $68. I couldn't find anyone local that would sell me the parts to do it myself at a price that would justify my doing the job. Downside is the 3 week turnaround, so the 951 is up on jacks and I'm doing other stuff that was planned for later this year.

Dave Davies

I had what I thought was CV clicking and was advised to change out, so I changed all four. But the clicking still came back!

Turned out not to be the CV after all but a partly frozen parking brake cable causing the shoe to catch on the drum.

Half an hour of fiddling and WD40 got the cable unjammed and the clicking was cured.

Changing the CV joints caused no harm as they were originals that have done 100,000 miles but I could have saved myself the money until they really became a problem.

Dave.

Manning

Ya know, it could very well be the parking brake. For quite a while now I have been getting a little scraping noise from the rear brakes and rebuilding the brake calipers did not relieve this. I have yet to dig into the parking brake bits, but that could just be another problem on top of the CVs. We'll see.

Manning

I doubt it is the speedo cable as it is driven by the front left wheel and this sound is definitely eminating from the rear. After pulling both half shafts however I cannot readily determine which CV looks bad (or worse). The ***** do seem a bit small as they just fall from the retainer when the CVs are disassembled, though nothing looks cracked or pitted.

Wheel bearing seem fine and trans seems to be OK. We'll see what's up as I plan to replace all four CVs. For now I drive the Fiat.

By the way, I have cleaned and phosphate dipped the axles and have put on a base of POR15 and will later top coat with a high temp paint due to the proximity to the exhaust. That POR15 stuff is awesome, cure rock hard. Thanks for that tip Vince Ponzo.