2011 Honda CRV with 98441 miles on it. CV joint broke on rear passenger side. No part available in USA. Had to go off market for part. Honda service repair was surprised that I could drive to the shop. The report card from Honda indicated that every thing else was satisfactory otherwise on the CRV. No recommendations of immediate or short term service that is needed. We maintain our cars. Asked Honda repair how the axle could have broken and told by Honda service manager that it was a part failure. Final bill was $639.21. Wrote to Honda customer service and they apologized but car is out of warranty. It was verified that there are no open campaigns regarding the CV joint. We have anyways been great ambassadors for Honda. We have had Honda cars that our children continued to use. I have lost trust in Honda cars and was told by Honda service manager that the axle could break on the other 3 wheels. Any advice? Joanne
Cars break, even Hondas. You are long out of warranty. There are cars with warranties long enough to cover this, but they are not generally as reliable as Honda or Toyota.
The car made it nearly 100,000 miles before the rear axle failed. That is a good thing. Cars break, old cars break more often.
Not sure why you would lose trust in a brand because one of the vehicles had an issue after eight or nine years and 100K miles. Sorry the CV went bad.
CVs go bad all the time. All it takes is some road debris to hit the boot. That tears it, the grease exits and grit gets in, and there goes the joint. That’s not the car maker’s fault.
To be blunt, you seem to expect vehicles to run, problem-free, for… what? Decades? Centuries? They’re mechanical things. they break occasionally. Yeah, that bill sucked but it would have been a lot cheaper if you’d gone to an independent mechanic instead of the dealership. That isn’t the car’s fault either.
One piece of advice would be to continue to drive any and all of your Honda vehicles as much as you see fit. I also encourage your children to do the same. There is nothing at all wrong or unusual about needing to replace any part of any vehicle after 9 years and almost 100K of driving. Parts can fail for a myriad of reasons, sometimes its a defect, sometimes its just the lifespan of the part, sometimes it’s just luck, but there is nothing at all awry with this CV joint failing at 98K and if I had to bet I would say that the joint was never a problem or defective…as the very knowledgeable @shadowfax pointed out, all it takes for a CV joint to fail is the corruption of the rubber boot that encompasses the joint. As he stated, the CV boot holds in the grease that keeps the joint lubricated and alive, so the metal joint is reliant upon that rubber boot to hold in the grease supply. You could take a brand new, non defective CV joint/axle and OMIT the rubber boot and the grease and you would literally see that part fail within a matter of days, if not hours, that is how critical that boot and grease actually is in this component. Rubber degrades over time and becomes brittle and the boot is susceptible to road debris and wide temperature fluctuations etc… Many many things can damage or take out that rubber boot and once that happens, the cv joint is close behind, it is an inevitability.
Your Honda did absolutely nothing to wrong you, it is not defective, it’s components are not substandard, nor did it fail in its mission to be reliable and well built, in any way, shape or form.
Unfortunately, the only things out of spec here are your expectations. Realistically setting your expectations will immediately allow you to recognize the reliability of the vehicles that you currently own and drive.
Really, “just” eight years?
…and almost 100,000 miles?
I’ve never had to replace a CV joint on my Honda, but if I did after eight years and almost 100,000 miles, I’d consider that normal wear and tear, nothing to get upset about.
My advice is to accept that this is a relatively minor issue, and if this is the only repair you’ve had to pay for, you’ve spent $0.0065 per mile for repairs so far.
Ambassadors for Honda. Is that a paying position ?
The only thing that surprised me is the problem finding the part…
I’m guessing there aren’t any available right now and that if there had been time to wait, more would have become available. But since it’s just a CV axle, why bother?
I’d be willing to bet that the OP asked the dealership or a parts warehouse for a bare CV joint assy only, instead of a new or rebuilt axle. A new axle (obviously with new cv joint and boot etc) is readily and widely available all over the country and with no delay whatsoever. The only way to make it seem otherwise is to ask for the item in the wrong way and believe it or not, this happens often. That’s my guess.
A CV joint is a wear item prone to failure at some point. Eight years and almost a 100k miles is nothing to worry about.
You will likely get mad at me for saying this, but i suspect the main reason you’re upset is simply because a normal repair is coming out of your pocket instead of someone else’s.
Maintain has nothing to do with it as there is nothing on a CV joint to maintain unless a dust boot is split and throwing grease.
This may be one of those 1% occurences - a risk we all take with any purchase after the warranty expires. You still made a rational decision to buy and keep a Honda, based on many factors including their quality and reliability.
In addition to the other axles, anything else on the vehicle could break at any time. My advise is, (and you’re not going to like it), quit driving. There is no other way to avoid vehicle problems.
Sometimes CV axles can snap in half like on this Honda Civic.CV joints is a more common failure.
I’ve heard of someone spraying some kind of lubricant on his CV boots to keep them from drying out. I’ve never done it myself, but a mechanic told me he has a customer who does it. If there was a product made and marketed for this purpose, I might use it, but I know that if I spray tire shine or some other type of lubricant on some types of rubber (such as motorcycle tires), it will ruin them, so I’m not willing to chance it.
With all respect, I don’t consider it a wear item, such as brake pads or windshield wiper blades, but I do consider a CV joint malfunction to be common and far from catastrophic. They’re not really designed to wear out as they’re used, like wearable items are, they just tend to wear out faster than many other components.
Someone else addressing this specific question inspired me to add that my advice is to keep a close eye on the other three CV axles.
Actually, inspecting the CV boots is supposed to be a part of every oil change. When I change my oil, it’s one of the things I always visually inspect to make sure they’re not damaged or leaking. It’s likely on your car’s maintenance schedule to inspect them at each oil change, so that is my advice.
Scotty Kilmer recommends AT205 for rubber parts.
Yes, its a good thing to check them from time to time.They usually split inside the folds.
I appreciate the suggestion, but I’d have to have more than the word of a guy who makes YouTube videos out of his home to use a product for a anything other than its intended and marketed use. It appears to be a leak-stopping product, not a rubber conditioner/lubricant.
…and the title of that video is total click bait.