Front Axle(s) Replacement

[Jeff Breeden]

I would like to obtain some feedback from the Gen Vibe Community for this suggested repair.

I have a 2004 Vibe with the 1zz engine, auto trans and about 115,000 miles. I am the second owner and purchased the car with about 94k miles.

I have been chasing an intermittent vibration since we purchased the car two years ago. The vibration is mainly in the front of the car felt in the steering wheel. I installed 4 new tires when I purchased the car and have had them balanced several times. Each the vibration went away for a while but then returned. The major chain tire dealer after prompting to look deeper into the vibration said one of the rims were bent. After that, I took it to my local mechanic as I didn't have confidence in the major chain tire dealer.

We put the car on a lift, took off the front tires and accelerated the car to about 50 MPH. You can hear a rumbling in the front end and when looking at the front axles, they are not spinning concentrically which seems to be causing the vibration. You can also tug on the axles and there is a lot of play where the axle goes into the transmission case. My mechanic said the pinion gear ( I think this is right but not sure) appears to be worn or damaged and not holding onto the end of the axles which is causing them to vibrate. He also said the axles themselves may also be worn but he wouldn't know until he disassembled the front end and checked them for play. My mechanic also checked his auto database for any common issues with the Vibe / Matrix regarding this issue and while he saw a few cases, it wasn't a common problem. We also saw some signs after the car was on the lift that the vehicle may have been in an accident so I guess there is a possibility that it was hit in the front end or hit a curb etc which could have caused the play in the axles

So my mechanic is suggesting we pull the axles and transmission and he can rebuild the unit and also check the axles and if worn, replace them as well. I am trying to decide if it makes sense to put this amount of money into the car given the age and mileage. Other then this, the car runs great, the engine is tight and doesn't burn any oil and the interior is very clean.

Does anyone have any examples where they have pulled their axles and found play where the axles goes into the transmission and do they think this will fix the problem?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Jeff Breeden

[psiu]

Honestly, I have no idea if our tale will help, but here it is anyway:

We picked up our 2003 Vibe in late 2006 with around 80K miles. Next summer we had at least once incident where the wheels felt like they got cocked off to the right (steering wheel was pulled WAAAAAAY off center but was driving). At a stop light cranked the steering wheel back and forth and heard a pop/clunk. Seemed to resolve but had it looked at anyway, they didn't find anything. Fast forward that winter, on the freeway coming back from Grand Rapids and I forget what exactly the problem was, if I remember right a thumping noise. Actually that may have been the 3rd time, anyways, heard the click-click-clicking of CV joint, managed to get to a McDonalds, as I turned left to get in the whole thing bought the farm and made the most god-awful noise ever. I swear I thought the transmission fell off the car. Ended up having the whole right front axle replaced. Ever since then, it has never tracked right, always had odd vibrations...and have had a few mechanics ask, "hey...was this in an accident?". Well, most likely but I don't know.

So the moral of my depressing story is, good luck. And Enterprise WON'T come pick you up on Sunday in Grand Rapids.

[CharlesinGA]

I think you are going to find IN and OUT play in the axles, because the side gears in the differential are no loaded as they are when driving. The side gears are a type of bevel gear, and the spider gears are also, and under load, they tend to push each other apart, making the side gears (that the axle shafts are spring clip attached inside of) push out till they are tight.

To be honest, I think putting the car on a lift to do this is the wrong way. You need to jack it up, and set the lower control arms on jackstands, putting the suspension at ride height, not hanging down fully extended. I assume you either removed the brake rotors, or installed the lug nuts to retain them tight to the hubs. Doing this will make the axle shafts exit the transmission straight(er) and not have such down angle as you would have running it on a lift.

Did you verify the bent wheels, and possibly move them to the back of the car?

I had a Plymouth Breeze that had a shake to it that turned out to be a slightly bent rim (one flange, one area), I kept it on the back after that and you could not feel it. The car had a vibration in the front after installing new tires, I had the shop rebalance them two weeks later, but the vibration was still there. I thought it was the differential (same or similar problem to yours) as the car/transaxle had 234K mi on it, but before I sold it, I swapped the front tires off of it for the front tires on my '91 Ranger (exact same 195/70R14 Uniroyal AWP II tires) as the Ranger tires had 40K+ miles and the Breeze tires had 6,000 mi. End result of the tire swap to get ME the newer tires before I sold the car was that the shake swapped to the Ranger, we did balance it when it was installed on the Ranger rims (making a total of three balances on these two tires). One of the tires apparently has a shifted belt. I moved them to the rear and you really cannot feel it on the back axle.

If the shafts are whipping around, that is a different story, and there certainly could be a problem.

Charles

[SeattleJeremy]

You may be surprised by how much vibration can be introduced by a set of bent wheels. No amount of tire balancing is going to make up for this.

If the axles appear to be in good shape, and are not making any noise, then they don't need to be replaced.

[Jeff Breeden]

Thanks everyone for the feedback and I will let everyone know how it turns out.

[tgferg67]

Make sure the mounting surface between the wheel and hub is clean - remove any rust/corrosion with a wire wheel/drill.
Ditto for the pilot hub and hole in the wheel.
Rust jacking of the mounting surface can cause vibrations