Technical Car/Motor Issues > Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts Miscellaneous
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 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - -
Hopefully the new trolley jack discussed in main forum will turn up quickly as its already got its first major job.

Sons CRV has had vibrations, it apparently has worn front drive shafts according to Honda dealer report following full service, it appears from the 'net to be a common fault (inner joints mainly which is a little surprising but i have found this with other makes too) at 80 to 100k miles, theirs has done about 105k and the vibrations have been there for some time puit down to wheel balance problems.

We're going to try repacking the CVs with the correct grease if the dust covers are the type to play ball with and see if they'll last till the inevitable shaft refurb later in the year when convenient and warmer, this is my suggestion but open to yours please.

New genuine shafts around £500 each, so that will be last resort anyway.

What do yer reckon lads, few of those small packs of CV joint grease or a large tub of Castrol Molybdenum (speeling..;) grease?

The repacking is only meant to give them a few months respite, i used to repack CV joints for my regular customers as a matter of course in my kerbside cowboy days when they aquired a new used car, in practice catching them before they wore badly usually ensured they lasted the lifetime of the car, doubt this will be permanent as there is obviously already some wear but we'll see.

If you chaps should know of somewhere good to send the shafts in due course, please recommend away.
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - bathtub tom
Have you done the full lock, accelerate, decelerate, first, reverse check?

Just to ensure it ain't the CVs?
Last edited by: bathtub tom on Fri 4 Jan 13 at 23:35
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - Lygonos
Common cause of "steering" noises on the CRV is degradation of the oil in the rear differential.

If that's not been changed get a couple of litres of Dual Pump fluid and change that (messy job but not difficult with a bit of tubing).
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - carmalade
Seems to be a known issue,mainly on high mileage diesel models.It is often the centre coupling on the longer (right hand )shaft that gives trouble.
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - Manatee
>> Common cause of "steering" noises on the CRV is degradation of the oil in the
>> rear differential.
>>
>> If that's not been changed get a couple of litres of Dual Pump fluid and
>> change that (messy job but not difficult with a bit of tubing).

It manifests at low speed on full lock as a groan, or did when I had it. Caused by water ingress and rust on the plates of the clutch in the case. There's a TSB for the procedure that I have written up either here or on the other forum, I'll see if I can find it.

gb, is your lad an "enthusiastic" driver? I don't think heavy acceleration or quick launches with any lock on (e.g. when turning right across traffic) are good for UJs. Since trashing the drive shafts on a couple of VWs in the 80s (in 25,000 miles) I make a point of getting the wheels straight before applying full beans. This problem is potentially more acute with the torque from a diesel.
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - Manatee
>>There's a TSB for the procedure that I have written up either here or on the other forum, I'll see if I can find it.

Not the post I was thinking of, but this more or less covers it.

www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=129926&v=e
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - -
Righto lads i'm home fed and watered.

Tom, i've never even sat in the car, not aware of any suspect noises as such but there has been a vibration for some time which my lad put down to wheel balance, i haven't had any input whatsoever but i'll ask him to do those movements.

Lygonos, they've had the car serviced by Honda since they bought it a couple of years ago as it was before they owned it, whether the rear diff oil would be changed by the main dealer i haven't a clue, but investigate that we shall.

Carmalade, hmm centre bearing known issue, i imagine this is a big sealed bearing then and not much to be done with apart from replacement (no doubt integral part of shaft), would it be replaced during refurb if the overhaul is carried out properly?

Manatee, is my lad an enthusiastic driver?...ho ho ho, do ducks swim does the Pope pray?, he's a flippin 'ooligan who stripped complete gear sets from Subaru gearboxes twice.
When he first got the Honda was hard on it but he didn't like the sounds the transmission made when the rear diff tried to fire up during clutch drops, so he's not so harsh now but that doesn't mean the car has an easy life like it would with most of us.
Much obliged for the link provided re rear diff oil change instructions, we'll follow that up in due course.

Many thanks for the replies so far chaps, very much appreciated.

We'll wait till the new trolley jack turns up, that will make it easier to raise all 4 wheels.

I know he's looked online so may well have somewhere pencilled in for shaft refurb, but does anyone have a gem of a chap they use please?
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - carmalade
Thses people may be able to help.www.reco-prop.co.uk/
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - -
Thanks Carmalade, added to favourites, only an hour from us too.
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - corax
Recoprop are good GB, had my Mk2 Escort propshaft done there. That's a clue to how long they've been in business, although the car was getting on at the time, 1976 and I owned it in the 1990's.

I drove the car there and watched them balancing the shaft on a machine that looks like a glorified lathe and welding the weights to it. It certainly sorted out the vibration I had.
Last edited by: corax on Sat 5 Jan 13 at 21:12
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - -
Thanks for the recommendation Corax, i like old established workshops.

Using the internet to find specialist services can have mixed results without genuine sensible feedback, i found out the hard way when searching for someone to fix my errant MB ECU's that a really impressive website can lead you to people who know what they are doing and worth recommending, but also to those who you advise anyone to avoid like the plague despite hearty recommendations from virtual customers.

My second ECU failure ended up going to two other 'net found specialists (who talked the talk and little else) before sending it to the one who repaired the previous one well but i thought expensively, that mistake trying to save meself a few quid nearly cost me very dearly circa £1500, valuable lesson learned hopefully never to be repeated, one of them even suggested he didn't return the ''scrap'' unit to save some cost, quite obvious he wanted the increasingly rare parts, the one i should have gone back to following previous good work repaired that same ECU without a moments problem, idiot i was.
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - corax
>> idiot i
>> was.

I've had the same, funnily enough I had my BMW propshaft done at Recoprop too, not before I paid for a supposedly good used propshaft from some murky scrapyard based in Kent. When I unwrapped it, it was in worse condition than mine and the centre bearing mount was bent. I sent it back complaining of damage and they blamed rough handling due to courier, but it looked more serious than that. Luckily I got my money back, and I sent my own shaft through the post to Recoprop.

It never sorted out the vibration I had running through the car, but I can be sure that the remanufactured propshaft wasn't the problem (new joints, centre bearing and balanced) and had I kept the car, the driveshafts would have been the next thing on the list. The thing is I had polybushes on the suspension and this amplifies any wear in the drivetrain, making it feel worse. Also it's very hard to pinpoint where the vibration is actually coming from. By then I had had enough throwing money at it, and I fancied a change anyway, although there are aspects of the car I still miss of course.

I should have looked at driveshafts first in hindsight - BMW propshafts are actually very strong after doing some research, even to the point of them using specialised universal joints that allow them to use bigger bearings than would normally be used.
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - -
Update.

He's got two exchange basis new driveshafts from local commercial factor, circa £150 each, we have pencilled in next Sat morn to do the deed ourselves, appears simple enough...how many times have we regretted saying that?

The OS shaft is a two piece with a short extension housing the large centre bearing, referred to above, that short intermediate shaft is a separate item.
He didn't get the intermediate because Honda only quoted for 2 x driveshafts, so trusting their diagnosis, both same price circa £700 each..gulp.

What we intend to do is remove that intermediate shaft and check the bearing as best we can whilst the main shaft is out, if it needs renewing it will be simple enough to do so the following weekend.

Will renew manual gearbox oil at the same time but leave the rear diff etc till better weather arrives.

Update hopefully not full of woe to follow next weekend, any good Pagans out there could you do a sun worship or fertilty dance or summat for next Sat please.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Mon 11 Feb 13 at 09:18
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - Dave_
Oh gawd... And I was toying with getting a diesel CRV or similar too :(
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - -
Update.

Success, not too bad a job, weather perfect...thanks to whoever did the business with the Sun.

Easy enough with two of us but would have been hard work for one, assistant needed for levering down on wishbones with 3' bar to get bottom ball joints back in.

Worse job was removing and replacing undershield, about 20 clips which had they been French would have mostly broken.

Honda were only going to charge about £120 labour for this which would have been a bargain, however the £1000+ for the drive shafts wouldn't.

Drive vibration now gone.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Sat 16 Feb 13 at 16:52
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - medic961
Hi Gordon,

im about to undertake the same job next time home.
could you tell me where you got the exchange drive shafts from.
Im looking online and I can find used ones but dont wanna buy from a breakers yard as I dont know anything of the donor vehicle and could be buying junk.

Shaftec make replacements but unsure what they are like and dont wanna pay £230 each if I can help it.

Thanks

Ian
 Honda CR-V II - 20 2.2d worn front drive shafts - -
Hi Ian...sorry i missed your post for some reason.

My lad got the driveshafts from a handy little motor factor in Corby Northants, AVP (all vehicle parts), address The Grove, should be lookable up for phone number if you can't find locally but remember these were on exchange basis.

I suspect any decent motor factor will have access to the same suppliers as AVP.

If you decide to change the gearbox oil at the same time note you have three plugs to undo, obviously the drain plug, but you refill via a large plug but a smaller plug half way down is the level plug, not that easy to spot them in situ and the Haynes pics we looked at could have been better.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Sun 13 Oct 13 at 10:46
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