CV joint / axle issue on 2008 Civic GX

[Adrian]

My wife's 2008 Civic GX started making the usual CV joint type clicking sounds when making a turn. Took it to the Honda dealer and they replaced the outer joints under warranty (car has 42k miles and I have the 120k warranty). A week later, it started vibrating very badly above 60 MPH. Back to the dealer. Now they are replacing both axles; supposed to get the car back by Thursday.

On my way to work, I noticed my '08 GX exhibiting some subtle vibrations that grew worse while on a twisty road at about 50 MPH. Probably CV joints again (only 34k miles), taking it in to the dealer when my wife's car is done.

Both my wife and I are mild drivers so these failures are very frustrating and make me wonder if I'll have to replace CV joints or entire axles every 40k miles. Once the warranty is up this would get old very fast.

Anyone else have similar issues out there?

[freedml]

Re: CV joint / axle issue on 2008 Civic GX

06 doing fine at 80k...

[Adrian]

Re: CV joint / axle issue on 2008 Civic GX

Got my wife's car back today. Changing both complete axles seems to have solved all vibration issues.

Dropped my car off at the dealership to check for CV joint issues as well. Will know more tomorrow hopefully.

[Adrian]

Re: CV joint / axle issue on 2008 Civic GX

Got my car back today. It turns out it was a poorly balanced rim that was causing the vibrations in front. Driving well now and I feel a bit better that only one of our GX's had to have CV joints replaced at 40k miles. Of course I was expecting no mechanical issues of this sort for at least 100k miles.

[edo]

Re: CV joint / axle issue on 2008 Civic GX

I have an early '09 GX w/ aprox 15k mi. Ever since new I have detcted high speed vibration/pounding felt in the steering (not side to side) above 65 mph, under light throttle load. I took it to two dealers and they replied that the car was 'normal'. Also, ever since new the car makes a distinctive 'clack' type of noise after 1) backing the car, 2) shifting to drive, and 3) releasing the brake. The noise occurs just after I release the brake and has become more predictable with milage. I plan to take the car in again, but not sure Honda is interested until major failure occurs. I'm not sure this problem is the same but it sounds very close to my experience, and since our models are of similar basic vintage I thought I'd bring it up. Thanks for your report.

BTW, I'm was surprised with Honda dealers' lack of responsiveness to my concern, as I was even told that since they service warranty on a flat rate basis, they has taken enough time with my complaint. I also have a Chrysler product where the local dealers have been extrememly helpful and very pro-active the few times I've taken the car in for a service issue. Maybe Honda, like we're seeing recently with Toyota, after many years of success, don't feel the need to provide high service satisfaction levels to customers.

[Adrian]

Re: CV joint / axle issue on 2008 Civic GX

I have an early '09 GX w/ aprox 15k mi. Ever since new I have detcted high speed vibration/pounding felt in the steering (not side to side) above 65 mph, under light throttle load. I took it to two dealers and they replied that the car was 'normal'. Also, ever since new the car makes a distinctive 'clack' type of noise after 1) backing the car, 2) shifting to drive, and 3) releasing the brake. The noise occurs just after I release the brake and has become more predictable with milage. I plan to take the car in again, but not sure Honda is interested until major failure occurs. I'm not sure this problem is the same but it sounds very close to my experience, and since our models are of similar basic vintage I thought I'd bring it up. Thanks for your report.

BTW, I'm was surprised with Honda dealers' lack of responsiveness to my concern, as I was even told that since they service warranty on a flat rate basis, they has taken enough time with my complaint. I also have a Chrysler product where the local dealers have been extrememly helpful and very pro-active the few times I've taken the car in for a service issue. Maybe Honda, like we're seeing recently with Toyota, after many years of success, don't feel the need to provide high service satisfaction levels to customers.

I would try a different dealer. Your experience might be indicative of a dealership attitude, not necessarilly Honda. My local dealership has been pretty good.

[Curtis]

Re: CV joint / axle issue on 2008 Civic GX

Adrian makes a good point. Dealers are like any other business. There are good and not-so-good out there. Your experience may be indicative of that dealer, or the service writier/director for that service dept. Try another dealer. The vibration sounds like an out of balance tire or a rim that isn't true. Sometimes a pothole or a curb is all it takes to create a slight vibration if it changes something slightly. I would check the 2 things I mentioned... at another dealership... or even a tire store.

[Adrian]

Re: CV joint / axle issue on 2008 Civic GX

One more suggestion. Find a large empty parking lot. Then turn you steering wheel all the way right and make (drive) a complete circle as fast as you can. As you accelerate, if the CV joints have issues, they will click nastily and/or vibrate very badly compared to driving straight. Now repeat for a left turn. If you discover issues, find a similar parking lot next to the dealership that you choose for service and invite your friendly Honda service advisor for a ride. Then duplicate the problem. That is how I got them to change my CV joints (twice), until they got it right. Apparently they try to save money the first time by changing just the outer or inner joints and then if the car comes back they change the entire axle under warranty. Hey, I don't blame them, they have to run a business. I do think that when something is wrong with your car and the issue is not really clear it is up to you to get the dealership on board. Once they see the issue and understand it, my experience has been they will help you.

[siai47]

Re: CV joint / axle issue on 2008 Civic GX

To member "edo" I also had a vibration issue with my 2006 GX right about the same speed as you reported. I put aluminum wheels on the car and had the oem tires remounted. The tire shop had a terrible time balancing one of the wheels. They thought they might of had a defective rim, removed the tire and ran just the rim on the balancer. The rim was perfect. Turns out that I had a bad tire. The car had about 10k miles and you could see and measure a slight difference in tread depth. The tire was replaced, and now there is no vibration in the car. Dunlop adjusted the tire giving me full credit for the cost of the replacement tire.

[Green GX]

Re: CV joint / axle issue on 2008 Civic GX

BTW, I'm was surprised with Honda dealers' lack of responsiveness to my concern, as I was even told that since they service warranty on a flat rate basis, they has taken enough time with my complaint. I also have a Chrysler product where the local dealers have been extrememly helpful and very pro-active the few times I've taken the car in for a service issue. Maybe Honda, like we're seeing recently with Toyota, after many years of success, don't feel the need to provide high service satisfaction levels to customers.

Unfortunately my '07 has the rough idle/stumble problem and I came to the same conclusion you did. After 13 trips to two dealers they go through the process of hooking up the car to the computer, reading the codes and concluding that everthing's normal. They won't do any more troubleshooting than that. I'm tired of taking time off from work and renting a car only to hear, "It's normal." (Gee, none of the rental cars do this!) Now when a stranger sees the car runs on CNG and asks, "How do you like it," I give them the unvarnished truth. And it isn't just the GX's with this problem, the gasoline models do it too. (8thcivic.com)

Now with less than 45K miles on the car I'm hearing the tell-tale clunking noise while doing a u-turn with the wheels up against the stops. Luckily, I've got an extended warranty, too.

Bill