Have you ever been in a car that went “click, click, click, click, click, click, click…†every time you turned the steering wheel to go around a corner? More often than not, that sound is a drive shaft calling out to the car owner “Notice me! Love me! I’m in desperate need of repair.†A word of advice: listen to it.
Front Wheel Diagnosis
Let me just start by saying that if the clicking sound has already started on your car you could have detected the problem much earlier. The next time you take your car into the shop for tire work ask the shop to have someone check the CV boots to see if they are torn. The shop should then have someone check to see whether grease is splattered on the suspension or the back side of the tires. When a CV boot tears, grease is slung out of the boot and onto the car’s suspension or back side of the tire. You can also check for CV boot tears yourself by turning your car’s wheels all the way in one direction. Then get out of the car and look behind the wheel with the exposed back side. If you see grease on the suspension or the tire, you need to replace the boot as soon as possible. Next, turn the wheels all the way in the other direction and check behind the other wheel. If you let it go to long you will start hearing the clicking noise described above.
When the car starts making that clicking noise it is telling you that there is no longer any substantive amount of grease in the CV boot and that now the boot have to be REPLACED instead of repaired. In fact, once the clicking starts you are better off having the whole axle replaced with a new one.
Rear Wheel Diagnosis
Instead of the “clicking†sound, rear wheel drive vehicles will start making a “squeeking†noise when the car is put in gear to drive. This is because rear wheel drive vehicles have U-Joints that no longer have grease in them. The joint should be replaced when the “squeeking†sound begins. If you don’t replace the U-Joint when it starts to squeek, you will next hear a “clunking†sound when you shift the vehicle from park or neutral into forward or reverse. Not changing the u-joint at this time could result in serious damage to the drive shaft and other parts of the drive train.
I know this post sounds like a song from the Sound of Music, “Ray a drop of golden sun…Soh, a needle pulling thread…click, a CV boot slinging grease…†but it is very important that you listen to your vehicle for possible problems. The earlier you catch them the more likely you are to save yourself major repair bills down the road.