The cv joint in my winter clunker is going out, you know the clicking around corners and the unpleasant thunk everytime you slam on the gas. I really have no desire to get this fixed as this will be the last winter i'll be driving this POS and I dont want to spend any money on it because in the spring im going to scrap it. My question is, can i let it go all winter and not die? I dont want the wheel to come flying off at 75 mph on my daily 35 minute commute. Any mechanics out there?

If you let it go (well, it's gone now anyway as shown by the clicking noise) it will break and your FWD car will become a 0WD car.

The R&R of a drive axle is typically pretty cheap.  Worth it, in my book, instead of being stranded in the winter.

-934

If you let it go..  It will fail, and you will be stranded.

A long time ago I read that if the joint wasn't too wrecked you could repack it with fresh grease and a new CV boot and it would last a while.

GunLvr

I have seen a front tire go sideways at low speed from neglected CV joints. Think about that at 50 MPH.  

Bob

I had one go out on me.  Wasn't as bad as you might think, but I was probably very lucky.

If you think that nasty clicking & thunk is bad, just wait until you hear the joint after it drops all the ball-bearings!  One awful grinding noise.

In my case it went out about 70 miles from home.  It was the slowest, most nerve wracking trip I've ever had in a car.  I did make it back home and had it replaced the next day.  It could have come apart entirely, and I would have had a major problem on my hands (expensive tow bill, not enough cash to pay someone in a different state to fix it, no choice of where it was fixed, etc.)

Think of it this way...

While you might wish you didn't have to spend the dollars on a car you are getting rid of, you would have to make a loan payment to buy a new or different used car.  I suspect the repair might be much cheaper than one car payment.  Therefore, think of the repair as being cheaper than buying a new car!

Good luck!

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