Hi I everyone. I'm new. I'm working on my mothers 2007 Honda Fit with at auto transmission. It has about 170,000 on it. I have a nice home shop with a lift and work out of it.

So this car, when you are driving and turn the wheel the slightest bit to the right, you hear this load noise that seems to be coming from the center gear box area. The faster you go, the louder the noise. The first thing i said to my mom was get it aligned. She said it had been aligned a couple years before.

I put it on the lift and everything seemed fine. No axle boots torn, no excessive play pulling on wheels from side to side. In my experience with other cars, vw, mercedes mostly, when an axle or wheel bearing goes out, you know it and can feel it in the wheel. Turning the wheel slowly felt more or less smooth on both sides. I tried turning ultra sharp at slow speeds to check the axles and there is no clicking or anything .

So based on this thread, https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/1st-...gs-help-2.html, and some other friends suggestion they said replace the wheel bearings. So I replaced the right wheel bearing but the noise is still there. It does'nt seem as loud though. Any thoughts? Should i do the left now? Its quite a bit of work to do a wheel bearing. I could probably do this other one in a couple hours though now that i did one.

Do you think the axles could be bad?

Should i take it to get aligned?
Anything else it could be?

Thanks

 

When turning to the right, you are shifting the load to the left side. I would suspect the outer left constant velocity joint. Since you have a lift, put the car in the air and then shift into low. If you have a friend helping, have them hold one wheel and then the other, and listen for the grumbling. Turn the wheels side to side and do the same. It is possible that it will only make the sound under load, in which case do some slow speed test drives.

Did you also look for play when holding the wheels in the 12:00 and 6:00 positions, perhaps even using a pry bar to look for play at the ball joint? You should be able to tell if the car needs an alignment by the wear pattern of the tires. However, although uneven wear may cause some tire noise, most people would not describe it as a grumbling noise. Have you looked at the end links and bushings, bounced on the right front corner to see whether there is movement on the strut and upper mount, and checked to see that the gland nut is tight?

 

Thanks Palos. I couldn't find any play anywhere. And i did slow speed tests but they were fine. So i pulled the knuckle and once i had it in my hand I could feel the bearing was bad. So i replaced it. Went to put the knuckle back on and i can't get it to line up with shock. The axle had popped out So i pulled the clamp off the boot and pulled it out to look at it. It looks pretty good. Bearings look good and and spin. I still need to clean the old grease off.

I always thought there was a lot of noise coming from the differential area too. So i think we had two problems -- bearings and axle slipped out a bit.


My question is now, how do you get the splined metal joint housing of the axle off the differential? My friend said the old hondas just slid out. But this seems to be catching on a circlip. I'd like to take it out and put the axle all together , cleaned and regreased and see if that fixes it before buying a new axle. Plus i think the autostore axles are not as good as the oem generally and i don't have time to order online.

In the meantime I'm trying to find the manual for this car. The auto store didn't have a haynes. Is that a cover plate on the right side of the diff you have remove and then get a circlip off?

Thanks

 

Couldn't get the images set in my flickr account. But i was able to download a manual from here and it says the axles just pry right out of the diff or with a tap of hammer. That is good. It also says you should replace the atf if you replace axles. I guess in case dirt gets in. I'll probably skip that for now unless its due for a change anyway. It says use Honda ATF-Z1 . Does any local Napa or somewhere sell that usually? Or what do people use? I have a lot to learn about this car. Thanks for the great forum.

 

I just used a pry bar to pop the inside portion away from the transmission, but I have a five speed manual. It should be the same for the automatic. When the axle is removed, partially insert a clean rag to prevent dust and dirt from going into the transmission. The fill level is probably just below the axle level, so you shouldn't lose fluid.

To insert the spline end, turn the wheel outward. Then you should be able to insert the spline end into the knuckle.

 

Thanks Just a little hard prying and came flying out like a torpedo. Lucky the A-arm caught it. I cleaned it and got it regreased and put back in. The loud noises are gone. I think that this thing was sort of popped out all along and that caused a constant noise like road noise but coming from the differential area. And then turning right made it really load. Plus the left bearing was bad. But i think the bulk of the noise was the axle. But can't say for sure. All good now though.

I've never worked with these kinds of axles that pop in the diff like that. One tip -- when putting it back in, get it in diff where the splines mate up and you feel the clip hitting , then slide it back just a bit -- a half inch or less -- and slide it into the diff hard. It just needs some momentum for that clip to snap in.

Thanks!