I replaced my passenger side cv axle yesterday and afterwards had some whining noise coming from it. It sounded like when a belt (altenator, A/C, etc) is whining.....I drove the truck up to around 55mph for about 3 miles and it pretty much went away. This morning it did it for about 100ft, after I had been driving a few miles, and then stopped.

It sounds like to me that the rubber boots needed to loosen up and break-in, does this makes sense??? It didn't sound like bearing noise to me, more like rubber against metal than metal to metal.

When I lift the front end and spun the wheel by hand it sounds smooth and clean.

Thanks for any inputs.

Lance
1996 Tacoma
3" Lift
33's

It would seem more like metal to metal contact would make that noise. Maybe there isn't grease where there should be grease, or maybe something was damaged in the replacement process??? I think you should dig into it deeper and see if you can find anything suspicious. Maybe even see if there's actually CV grease in both CV joints, and then put new hose clamps on the boots to replace the factory clamps. Verify that the orientation of the dust shields at both ends is correct and nothing is scraping against them. I assume you have the more common permanent hubs, not manual hubs, right? Did you use a torque wrench during reassembly?

Well, I drove home at lunch yesterday with only a few feet of noise on a 35+ mile drive. Then this morning driving to work (17+ miles) I had no noise at all, very smooth. I'll give it a day or two and if I still get more noise I'll tear back into it on Saturday. Makes me a little nervous of course but I'll keep my eyes and ears at 100% to check things out.

Thanks Jeff,

Lance

I have had a couple of cv shafts do that to me and I always found it to be the dust shield right where the cv enters the back of the hub just barely rubbed the rubber boot for a few miles. It wears down after a few miles and did not cause any problems or damage the rubber boot.

Thanks John,
I'm about 99% sure I agree with you, today it barely made the noise at all, to the point where I think I heard it but I can't say for sure. Actually one time when I turned left it made the noise for a moment, but that's it.

I've checked it out twice today and can't notice anything abnormal down there so I thinks it's Ok. fingers crossed allways.

I'll keep ya'll updated.

Thanks for the inputs.

Lance

Well crap, I thought this thing had "settled" in and was doing fine. I went up to the Mtn's on Sunday and after tooling around at 20 - 30mph on some dirt roads for about an hour it started squeeling again. Wouldn't stop unless I could get up to speed 50+ and then it would get quiet again, either that or it changes frequency to the point that it's no longer audible. I've looked and looked at it looks very clean. I guess I'll pop the spindle back off this weekend and regrease everything.

Jeff, how long did it take your axles to loosen up? My truck is lifted 3"'s and it puts quite an angle on the two joints if that makes a difference at all. Now that I've driven hwy miles for a couple of days it's all quiet again.

I really hate annoying stuff like this.