Bad axles...

[polskamafia mjl]

+1 for the reman ones. Sorry btw for leading you astray and suggesting Raxles. I didn't realized they only did up to 98 model year.

[FlyingVolvo]

It's fine, Marty and I had a good chat. And nothing about axles! He mentioned something about robots using saws on the oil pipe that's spewing in the Gulf, so we both were watching the live feed and commenting on it for a few. Very nice guy, haha!

The guy I've spoken to at Axles Unlimited is very easy to talk to as well. He knows his stuff and I think he's got a good little company going there, similar to Raxles.

[FlyingVolvo]

Bingo!

Just replaced both axles this morning in under 2 hours with some borrowed tools. It was WAY easier than expected. I did NOT have to take off the lower control arm, the tie rod end, or the brake caliper. I simply took off the wheel, took off the axle bolt, took out the spindle bolts, pulled the spindle away from the wheel bearing, moved that whole assembly a bit out of the way, used a pry bar to pop out the axle then worked it out. Put new one it, CLICK, and threw it all back together. The passenger's side was even easier despite the long axle. It didn't need to "click" in, just needed to be seated right and that was it.

After I tightened everything down to specs, took it for a good drive and I'm very happy to report that my acceleration shuddering is completely gone!

Question though, do I need an alignment after this? I took the car on the highway and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. The neighbor who supervised me (mechanic) said it was not necessary because there were no bolts to adjust camber/caster or whatever. I'd really like to save the $70 if I can...

[jblackburn]

Woot! Good job, it took me about an hour and a half to replace one...I couldn't get the dumb thing out.

No, you don't need to have an alignment.

[FlyingVolvo]

Awesome!

We found that a nice big pry bar put gently between the transmission and the axle did the job very well. We just gave it one good tug and out it went. The axle on the passenger's side was still in decent shape, but the driver's side was SHOT. The boot was still intact, but the grease in there was hardly grease all all. It had the consistency of water or a light motor oil. The inner joint had a huge amount of play in it going side to side.

[jonl]

Hi Ed,

When you were driving your car back in May, when you were experiencing the "shaking/shuddering" (I call it wobbling), did you find that when your acceleration leveled off and you were in a high gear that you could still feel the shudder but it was much less? Almost gone but not quite?

My 2000 V70XC has 105k on it and while reading these posts it feels like you've been looking over my shoulder while I'm troubleshooting my problem.

[FlyingVolvo]

I would say yes, to a certain extent. Before I changed my axles it would "wobble" a lot when accelerating, most notably on the freeway on-ramp. Once I got to speed and maintained it, the car no longer wobbled like it did. The wobble turned into more of a slight vibration I think, but nothing majorly noticeable.

If you're worried about your axles, it would definitely be a good idea to inspect the boots. You have 2 boots per axle, one covering the outer CV joint (nearest to wheel) and one on the inner CV joint (nearest to transmission). When the outer joint fails, it tends to make a clicking noise, especially around corners. When the inner joint fails, it produces the wobble you're talking about while accelerating most noticeably.

Check the rubber boots for any damage or grease loss. In my case, my boots were OK, however the grease was fried and had leaked out and been slung all over the place (driver's side). It was easy to see in the circular pattern where it was flung around from the axle. When I did the change, the driver's side obviously had a huge amount of play in it. I did also replace the driver's side which seemed OK after removal, but I changed it out anyway. Good project to do in pairs!

[jonl]

Thanks for your advice. I'll look around the boots for excessive grease/oil/grime. Probably do that on Friday or over the weekend.

I the CV boot(s) are ok, I wonder how the grease manages to degrade?

[FlyingVolvo]

Yeah, I'm not sure either. But the stuff that was left in the boot was about the consistency of a thin motor oil. I think maybe because some of it was starting to leak out, the rest got overheated and lost its lubricating properties rather quickly.