Hi. I just got my left front axle replaced on my Toyota (1993) and my engine mounts as well. The car is in great shape and has been driving well.
Drove it away, and it was running great. It is still running great (after driving all the way home) but, I noticed it is making a loud clunking, metal on metal kind of noise on the front left axle when in first gear, happens more when turning (I think right, but maybe both right and left).
Any thoughts? I just paid a lot of money and trust the mechanic, but this does not sound right at all.
Thank you!
Most “new” CV halfshafts are remanufactured rather than being new. And a surprising number of those are bad out of the box. Just take it back and have the mechanic drive it and check it all out again. It once took me four - yes - four trips to a shop over replacement halfshafts.
Thanks, I will call him tomorrow…
cigroller is most likely correct, you got a bad rebuilt half shaft.
There is the off chance tho that the mechanic failed to replace all the bolts that hold the engine and transmission to the mounts. He had to undo these to replacde the engine mounts.
At least on Corolla’s there are several bolts you need to undo underneath the transmission that would be easy to forget to re-install. This could cause a clunking noise, especially when making an accelerated turn from a dead stop. Cross your fingers it is this, because this is easy to check and to fix. Re-replacing the half-shaft is more complicated and time consuming.
check the front motor mount also. Mine was out on my car and made alot of thunking noises.
All these ideas are great. Thank you.
My mechanic said the axle was brand new. Also, he said he checked the car thoroughly so don’t know what it could be, he said if it was the axle it would be more of a clicking noise.
I can’t go back there right away, because it is about 2.5 hours away. But, they have a 90 day warranty, so I will take it there soon. In the meantime, I will take it to someone here, but I am wondering if it could be dangerous to drive it locally.
I think the first symptom of a damaged CV joint can indeed be a clicking noise, usually when making a low speed turn, especially on acceleration; however, the problem could easily progress to more of a clunking noise as the internal CV joint parts-- which are supposed to be in close contact – work themselves further apart. It’s like if you dropped a medium size rock from 1 inch onto a cement patio, it might click, but you dropped it from 10 feet, it might clunk.
Faulty axles do not always click or knock. Sometimes they have an odd wear pattern which can produce an on again/off again vibration or shudder or a thunk type noise as it binds. Sometimes the only way to know this is to have the axle out of the car and on the bench for hands on inspection. The same procedure should be used at the parts store on a rebuilt or remanufactured axle before even leaving the store.
This would not apply if the axle is really a brand new, never previousy used part.
The question for me here would be knowing whether brand new means brand new as in never been on a car in a past life or a brand new remanufactured unit that may be iffy.
There’s also the issue of whether the axle is seated into the tranmission, whether the axle shaft nut is tight, etc.
Before chancing a 2.5 hour drive I’d get it looked at locally.