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1994 Corolla Making Front End Noise.

by Bikeman982, February 5, 2009 in Pre-1997 Toyota Corolla and Geo Prizm



Bikeman982

I suspect the CV joint is bad.

It makes noise when turning.

It is a knocking on the front left wheel area.

I jacked up the car and took the wheel off, but did not see anything unusual.

The car also makes a noise when I let off the gas and then step down on the pedal again.

It seems to be coming from the front left drive train.

I plan on changing out the short drive axle.

More to follow.

Sure sounds like the CV joint - it has the classis signs. Noise when turning and knocking/clunking sound when loaded/unloaded. I take it that it is probably the original one? If you don't have to send in the old one for a core exchange, for the replacement axle - maybe take the original one apart, just to see what kind of wear there is over those miles.

Bikeman982

Today I used my friends discount (plus my military discount) and got a remanufactured (new one would need to be ordered) driver's side drive shaft.

It was (after discounts) only $39.00.

My friend changed it for me at Midas (on his day off) in 15 minutes.

(I bought him a $7.00 lunch at Burger King).

I did have to add a quart of ATF (spilled out during the change) for $3.75.

The car drove home with no noise and seems like it is fixed.

As far as I can tell, it was the original driveshaft that was changed.

The old driveshaft seemed to have a lot of play at the inner CV joint and must have been bad.

I turned that back in and got a core refund of $60.00 which is why the reman. one was cheaper than a new one.

More to follow.

from the ones i have seen , the originals last 100-200000 miles.re- manufactured drive shafts last at least 50000. so you're good for another 3-5 years. occasionally you gat a bad reman ,but you will know right away . they fail within a few weeks.

i've had a pair of autozone remans in for the last 20-25k miles without problem. at the shop we use alot of new cv axles from a company called MevoTech and we've never had a problem, been using them for years and years.

Bikeman982

Since I have over 186k on the car now, if the driveshaft holds up for 25k or more, that will be fine.

Bikeman982

I drove the car and the noise is gone.

Definitely was a worn/bad CV joint.

Easy fix for the front end noise - changed entire drive shaft.

Cost for me - $39.00 for parts , $7.00 for a lunch and 15 minutes of time.



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