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Symptoms of a bad halfshaft?


white4d96

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Okay, so my car's developed a hard pull to the right, like, let go of the wheel, meet ditch hard. On left turns and hard throttle it develops a click/clunk that increases with vehicle speed. I also noticed at higher speeds that it sounds almost like I have a flat tire, and I feel a steady vibration in the floorboard, but not the wheel. I jacked the right front up at work and it seems to be solid, not loose like a ball joint or wheel bearing failure. CV shaft?

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Okay, so it would be a fair bet to replace the halfshaft? I do believe it is original to the car, and at 150k the actual joint popped apart in a ball joint failure, but I was able to reassemble it. Recalling that, I am surprised it has lasted another 22k.

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I would go ahead and replace it... However, Im am not seeing a way that the halfshaft could cause a pull to one side, the noises you mentioned though and vibration both sound like a bad shaft

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I would go ahead and replace it... However, Im am not seeing a way that the halfshaft could cause a pull to one side, the noises you mentioned though and vibration both sound like a bad shaft

 

Worn/dry halfshafts love to cause binding issues, which cause a pull.

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Not necessarily. Both front wheel bearings in my GP are so loud I have to crank the radio up just to ignore it. I can feel it in the pedals, floor, and steering wheel. Neither one is loose at all, not even a little, and I've checked them several times since I got the car.

 

Mine doesn't pull either. You need to give it a good shake down and find out what's really going on under there. Half shafts aren't exactly common on GM cars unless something punctures the boot or it leaks out the grease between the boot and the end of the half shaft.

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Mine would viberate slightly with heavy acceleration. After a while it started making a clunk over bumps and around turns. And finally it started to shake violently and make the car wobble like a mf. By the time I got around to changing it it was pretty much holding on by the chucks of metal being held in by the boot ah hah

 

Click/clunks over bumps and around turns are almost always ballpoints though. Balljoint knock is quiet but very dangerous.

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I learned about ball joints the hard way. Last time I took my dad's advice. "It's just a strut bushing, you'll be fine." Not 10 miles later I was calling for a tow.

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