Rebuilt Driveshafts

[Zachius]

I had a noise coming from one of my front driveshafts on full lock (clunk, clunk, clunk) that did not happen unless I had driven for some time beforehand. The boots are undamaged.

So I bought some new driveshafts off ebay and suffered the common vibration issue (which I found out about after buying the ebay driveshafts). I now need to return these to get my money back.

Are my original CV joints okay given the noise and is it a simple case of regreasing and rebooting? If so where can I get parts at a half decent price?

Alternatively, where can I get decent (reconditioned or otherwise) OEM driveshafts?

[kiahatsiu]

Center diff?

[BillyCorgi]

Ditto
Centre Diff?

You mention "did not happen unless I had driven for some time beforehand"
The centre diff needs to be hot and up to temperature before showing symptoms.
Centre diff generally will not have noise when cold.

CV Joints will generally not make clack-clack-clack noises in reverse? Try that first.
Centre diff will make terrible clacking noises when turning from both front driveshafts in forward and reverse.

I have replaced centre diff in No.2 Son's MY09 2.5i wagon (I stuffed it, sigh!)

[Zachius]

It is not the centre diff, firstly because the aftermarket driveshafts made it go away and secondly because it only happened on full steering lock. The aftermarket front CV driveshafts solved the the clunk, clunk noise but introduced vibrations (from my research this is because they are cheap versions that use a different type of inner joint, namely something like a 6 ball sliding joint as opposed to a tripod type joint in the OEM shafts).

I have ordered some reconditioned OEM front CV driveshafts from A & L driveshafts in Sydney.

[BillyCorgi]

Sounds good!
The centre Diff is not fun to change anyway.
Cheers!

[teh_mechanic]

Your correct on your theory of the cheap drive shafts causing vibration. We did both fronts on a customer's car, using off the shelf Repco brand shafts as that's what they could afford.

Caused a terrible vibration through the car like broken engine mounts, but it was traced to the cheap CV joints using the incorrect joint design (used by most other manufacturers) and becoming too loaded, transferring engine vibes through the shaft, hub and up into the strut tower. Had to send the original OEM shafts off to Australian CV's to be rebuilt at around $150 each or so, so still a reasonable price.

[Zachius]

Yep, replaced with OEM CV shafts that had outer joint replaced with an aftermarket one and the vibrations are gone.

The recond. CV driveshafts were cheaper (from A & L driveshafts in Sydney), will be interested to see how long they last.