My girlfriend has a '01 Honda Accord EX with a 2.3 Liter four cylinder engine and 5 speed manual tranny. The car currently has 90k miles and about a year ago started making a growling sound on take off in first gear which has gotten progressively worse. Recently we replaced both front CV axles to correct a violent vibration at 50mph during acceleration. This cured the vibration at 50 but then about a week after the axle replacements, driving home in the rain, we noticed a strong vibration and growling noise in the right front side around 20 mph in second gear during acceleration…vibration and growl ceases when I let off the gas and it doesn’t do it at all if I take off smooth and slow. It doesn’t do it every time, but consistently growls in 1st on take off on a hill. We took the car back to where we had the axles replaced and they replaced both axles again using different suppliers…problem still persists and seems to be coming from the right front side. Any suggestions?
As posted on this forum several times and my experience CV joints “click” when worn,mostly in tight turns.When I hear the words “growling” and “vibration” my mind goes to bearings and tires.When you replace axles you loose some gear oil,make sure this is at the correct level (I dont think low gear oil is your problem)Did the shop give a reason for thinking a second axle replacement was called for? (what did they say was wrong with the first replacement set)
You might want to have them check the bearings in the right front steering knuckle, where the outer part of the axle comes out.
We took the car back to the shop and they kept it all day after which they told us they had checked it and found nothing wrong with the CV axles. A week later after talking with another trusted mechanic (ASE Certified family member)we took it back and insisted they check it out again. They did tell us it was rare, but that they do sometimes get a bad rebuilt CV axle. After saying they replaced the axles again (Of course we weren’t there watching) the problem persists.