99 S70 Mild Clicking, Can I save my CV axle?

[bootkast]

It will cost you a new axle bolt each time you take it apart. That's a torque to stretch bolt which should not be reused.

Good to know, thanks for the heads up. I should also be replacing the seal (between axle and transmission), yeah?

[mecheng]

It will cost you a new axle bolt each time you take it apart. That's a torque to stretch bolt which should not be reused.

Good to know, thanks for the heads up. I should also be replacing the seal (between axle and transmission), yeah?

If it is not leaking no; some people do anyway. I did not. I just lubed the shaft so it doesn't damage it

[renns]

I replaced the driver's side axle on my V70 AWD this winter with a replacement from the local auto wreckers. The part from the wreckers was in nice shape, with oem Volvo sticker on it, and boots intact with no signs of cracking. For $50, that was clearly the better option than messing about with messy job of repairing the old shaft. I also think that's a better option than buying one of those cheap aftermarket shafts.

[misha]

Used oem part which is in good working order and shape is always a better option than new aftermarket part.

[bootkast]

I replaced the driver's side axle on my V70 AWD this winter with a replacement from the local auto wreckers. The part from the wreckers was in nice shape, with oem Volvo sticker on it, and boots intact with no signs of cracking. For $50, that was clearly the better option than messing about with messy job of repairing the old shaft. I also think that's a better option than buying one of those cheap aftermarket shafts.

Yeah...this is the route I'm now taking based on everyone's feedback. It's a slow search up here for parts, so far I've been able to source the driver's side. At what point do these cv joints need to be repacked with grease (does the grease have a lifetime)? The boot on used axle looks pretty good.

[cn90]

The CV joint itself will last 400K, only if the boot is never cracks open.
I know a VW driver with 400K in stock CV joint, simply b/c he routine replaces the boot every 70K-80K, at the 1st sign of minor cracks (which will turn into major open cracks in a matter of weeks).

The grease in the CV joint is packed for life. In contrast to wheel bearing grease which is subject to constant rolling motion and usually dries out at 150K+, the CV joint big ball bearings don't move much, just back and forth in the grooves.

Whenever I reboot a CV joint that is not violated yet, all I do is remove old grease, pack new grease, and new boot on.

[Brucebo]

I would keep using it until all the little ball bearings roll out.

[misha]

[bootkast]

It's been a little while, so I figured I might post an update and share a little information that might be interesting for folks. As part of the cv repair I decided to compare the cv joint pulled from my car (with the busted boot) to a used cv joint from a salvaged car with over 100K miles (purchased from ebay).

....boy was I surprised.

When I opened up the ebay joint, grease was everywhere, it looked a little worn, but it wiped clean super fast. Like Eric the car guy says...."if your cleaning it more than 5 minutes, your playing with it."

Now with the busted joint, it was night and day. The grease was stiff and goopy. It clearly had tons of dirt and metal shavings in it. The stiff grease made hand rotating the joint a little tough (later I would have to use a hammer to rotate the joint to get the ball bearings out).

First opening of the busted cv joint. Dirt embedded in the grease. Tough to rotate.

With a bit of patience, I was finally able to remove all the inner parts. Nothing cleaned easily like with the ebay joint. Here are the ball bearing after rolling them around on a paper towel.

These balls just won't get cleaned.

After hitting all the parts with a simply green, borox/bathtub powder, and steel brush I got as much of the melded on debris off the parts as possible (it took an hour or so to get to this point). Here is a little comparison.

Comparison between ball bearings

You can see the ball bearing from the busted cv are pretty messed up. They look cratered like the moon in some places. In other places they look like someone hit them what a hammer.

Comparison of the inner race

The races look pretty bad in comparison. Scaling, and cracking.

Cages

I'm not sure how important the cages are...but its more of the same.

Busted joint

ebay joint

For me the coup de grace appears with the cv joint housing. It's night and day here. The busted joint make the ebay joing with over 100K miles look like it's brand new!

So, yeah it's probably possible to rebuild a rattling cv joint, but I now understand why it's not really worth it. The pitting and scaling will always be there. And no amount of new grease will ever stop the noise.

[paredown]

This pertains to my interest.

I just got a set of the GKN Lobro boots from Pelican for my 1999 V70--they were the only ones that I could find who had them. The boot kit (outer I'm guessing) #303420 (marked Volvo) has boot, grease and new stretch bolt. Inner is marked Opel/Vaux #304966 and I hope to heck that is the correct item.

I have my original driver's side that failed and I investigated purchasing a new CV joint from information in some previous threads. The most promising I found was on UK eBay:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GKN-Outer-Dri ... 35dc04ad28
Around 90 GBP shipped so probably $120/130.

Misha, I'd love to know where you found GKNs for $100