CV Joint Pitting

[5String43]

When I bought my car a couple of years back, I had everything I could think of serviced. This meant, among other things, repacking the CV joints and putting new boots on.

The tech showed me that the surfaces of the CV joints were pitted. He recommended just repacking them and going forward. "Save you a little money," he said.

I appreciated that at the time - less than 8,000 miles ago. But now I'm wondering.

Any thoughts on the level of risk I'm running by keeping those pitted CV joints on there? I'm hearing a bit of a quiet, hushed "rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr" at low speeds, and I think that may be what I'm hearing. Note that I can't hear this with the Targa top off. Again, thoughts? Am I at risk for a catastrophic failure? This important because this is my daily driver.

Thanks - Jon

[timmy2]

Time to stash the cash for new replacement axles. ( complete with CV joint assemblies, boots etc.)

[Tidybuoy]

I'm not sure how pitting will technically contribute to catastrophic failure but I will share my own experience. My cv boot was torn and so I decided to replace it. When I took the cv joint and axle off the car, the cv joint was not pitted but had a very glazed look to it. I asked a mechanic friend and he told me that the metal is most likely glazed due to the extreme heat that was caused from no grease. I repacked and put back ont the car. However, I could hear a howling sound coming from the transmission and it was very annoying. I saved my pennies and replaced the entire axle with both cv joints - sound went away.

[Joe Bob]

I would get the complete axles....I had two failures. Luckily in first gear leaving from a standing start.

Try Eric at PMB Performance. He posts here. The price was very reasonable.

[Jesse16]

Some pitting on the outside of the joint is not a problem. Whats going on inside, who knows ?? Axles don't normally fail "catastrophically" in normal service. Of course if your're concerned, you should take a look periodically and don't let the bolts fall out or the boots go bad.

[RWebb]

pitting will start stress cracks, so the service life will be reduced if this is on the inside

roll the dice or replace now

[Tidybuoy]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

I would get the complete axles

+1

The complete axle is almost the same price as two individual CV joints and they are greased, boots attached, and ready to install.

Vern