Damsel in Distress

does the noise change as you are turning? sorry, i heave no idea what it would cost. a few hundred i suspect.
glad you had fun in boston, all the best!

 

Sounds like you're far from a damsel in distress. I would say you have the skills to change the CV drive shafts. You might not have the tools but from your skill set you have the talent. They have how too videos on YouTube. So the process is to replace the the right and left drive shafts when your CV joints start to wear out. Also since one is starting to wear in practice it's best to replace both shaft since these parts are cheap new. These parts can be found on ebay, Amazon, pep boys and auto zone. If you know someone with tools and with a helping hand it be done in couple hours. If you take it to mechanic they shouldn't charge no more then couple hundred $200-$300 for labor at most. Parts new are about $250 for the set online.

SM-A526U ?

 

hmmm....this sounds so familiar...

What symptoms made you feel like this?

the old girl did not seem right to me. When I finally got her going, I sensed there may be a tire needing air (even though that warning light did NOT come up on the screen).

I chased something similar to this and replaced both axles and both front hubs with no improvement until........

Prius won’t get over 30mpg after new engine installed | Page 5 | PriusChat

 

If it is only the CV axle, I as well would suggest you are selling yourself short on your mechanical abilities based on your other skill sets. CV axles are just nuts and bolts, no rocket surgery here. As was suggested take a look at some Youtube vids before you decide to shop it. Another word of advise, you can never go wrong with OE parts. Yes you will pay more for them but you get what you pay for.

02.

 

A slide hammer with a CV axle fork to pop it out of the transaxle might be the most exotic tool involved, but a local auto parts place might allow you to rent one (often for free, just leave a deposit that's returned when you bring it back).

 

Just out of curiosity - are these CV axles serviceable - like replace the wearing parts and keep the ones that don't wear, or does one have to spring for the whole assembly?

 

From Toyota you can buy clips, bands, oil seals for cheap, boot kits for like a tenth of the assembly price, or joint kits for around half of the assembly price. The kits come with tubes of the appropriate grease.



The labor to replace most of those things is enough that most shops where labor is a cost will opt to replace the whole assembly instead. That's especially the case when replacing with an aftermarket axle, which can be so much cheaper than the Toyota one that repair labor looks silly in comparison. Repair can look more economical if one wants to stay with the Toyota components.

For example, boot replacement is labor-intensive because the boots have to go on over the ends of the shaft, so axle removal and disassembly has to be part of the job. I've heard that in the aftermarket there are 'split' boots available that can be put on over the intact axle. I've never used one in person and I don't know how well they hold up.

 

Good to know, thanks.

For me personally, doing a "rebuild" is pretty easy work and could probably even be therapeutic - perhaps even "fun". It's bench work and not nearly as demanding as the removal and installation of the assembly itself. Especially since I likely have all the tools I need to do it. (Except for that band-tightening gizmo and the thing that dimples the band once it's tight.)

But no, it would be silly ($$$$$) to have a shop rebuild your old CV axle as the labor would be a killer. (I also would feel more comfortable knowing that I did the rebuild)

 

How's your hearing?
How is your.......ah......'contact patch' between you and the car?

Are they both acute enough to localize the problem?

Where I'm going here is that it might not be the front of the car.
G2's are somewhat notorious for arthritic rear brakes.
be sure that your wrench looks at the back of the car before trying to figure out how much of his or her next boat payment that they want to make off of your little girl.

Good Luck!

PS.....I haven't had a good sticky bun since my last submarine (we call them 'fat pills') but the last time I was in Woods Hole, years ago, I got some really great scones in a little place across the street called the Food Buoy.
It was....LITERALLY...closer to my desk in the lab than the gedunk (junk food) machine in our engineering facility back home.

I do not know if food is better in Bastan...but it's a pretty good place to get REAL Italian.

 

I had cv done. Quoted between 300 to 450. It’s a relatively short job but grease as hell lol. Good as new.

 

If you are lucky, the dealer might show the outer joint and housing as a separate assembly, but that's really rare. Most times they just have boot kits (great if you have a leaking boot and catch it early) - or the entire axle. If your axle makes noise due to a worn joint, then you need to replace the axle.

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You will want to have that diagnosis confirmed before throwing parts at the car. CV joints can make clicking / snapping / popping noises when they are worn, but that usually shows up when making a really sharp turn and getting on the throttle (think parking lot manuvers). Can't say that I have ever heard a bad axle make noise while braking.

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Ours (70K miles) makes a very quiet, light "tick" when gently decelerating going straight. I figure that's a CV joint starting to wear. It's dead silent around corners and parking.

I'm guessing that it's more likely to make noise when doing regen than when using service brakes, since brakes don't really put any stress on the driveline.

I remember the older ones would positively grind when going around a sharp turn or in parking lots.

 

NOR can I!!

(a) I'm happily married and (b) I spent quite enough time sleeping outdoors when I was working for dot.navy.dot.mil.

Good Luck with the car!

T-SB-0300-08 Abnormal Metallic Knock Noise from Front of Vehicle | Page 2 | PriusChat

Stern shot: (pun almost unintended!)
See if your mechanic can weld, and how much they would charge you to weld some square stock onto some of the likely places in your car where some miscreant would cut off your cat.
If they weld, and they have some scrap stock laying around they should be able to do this cheaply and you may not have to join the stolen cat club.

 

If its the CV boot its super super simple for any mechanic to do to any eye gouging of prices should be called out. Its just lift the car, loosen the metal clamps, slip the cv assembly out. Super easy. 2 hr job tops.

 

On a scale of 1-10, it is a 1

Directly below the glove box (above where your feet would be if you were sitting in the front passenger seat) there is a plastic trim piece which covers the entire area. It can be popped off by hand. Removing this cover will expose the module. The module is held in place by (2) small bolts, each with a 10mm head. Remove these two bolts and the module will slide right out. Just unplug it and disconnect the wire harness. The module is available for about 15-20 bucks on ebay.

 

If you do, please do report the outcome! I still haven't figured out why that worked for TMR....

A CV boot job might be that easy if using the aftermarket split boots that can go on right over the assembled shaft.

Toyota's boots aren't split that way, so they have to go on over the ends of the shaft, so the one end has to come out of the hub and knuckle, and the other end out of the transaxle.

Getting the old boots off, you can take a knife to them and treat them like the split kind, if you like.