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"I've heard of vibrations resulting from cheap axles on several cars, so those damper donuts must do SOMETHING. "
This. I had this problem about a year ago on my 07 in Indiana. OEM parts through the dealer were obscenely expensive. My indy shop did the job for under $400 (both sides). I now get a minor vibration that comes and goes. It is irritating. Irritating enough to triple what I spent on the repair? I'm still pondering that one.
Same happened to our 2012 Fit. My son and his pregnant wife just got off of a busy freeway. It's a scary thought of what could of happened had it happened at 70 mph. We filed a complaint with Honda and the Department of Transportation. This is a Honda problem and it has happened with Acura's.
My passenger side axle busted last week, luckily as i was entering the parking lot at work instead of high speed on the interstate. Had it towed to a local shop for replacement. i now want to do the drivers side myself, as it is probably rusted under the dampener just like the passenger side was. But a couple questions:
FIRST - is "left side" the same as driver side?
SECOND - i see the right side has a choice of manual or automatic transmission, but the left is just listed as "left" with no mention of auto or manual. Is the left side that same part for both transmissions?
THIRD - Which brand to get: APWI, Cardone, or Surtrack? (from Rockauto offerings)
The left side is the drivers side. Their should be different axles for manual and automatic transmissions. We just inquired at a Honda dealer about having our drivers side done since the passenger side broke and was replaced. I figure if one breaks the other isn't far behind. The first one was replaced at a Honda dealer not the one we usually go to because we had to be towed. We asked our normal dealer about replacing the other side and they said probably would be a good idea but you could go with an aftermarket brand. They didn't say what brand.
I do agree salt and winter is hard on those parts but there has to be a better design.
I ended up getting a Cardone from Rock auto for under $80 for the driver side. After getting the original off, I looked under the rubber boot and could see it was in the process of rusting as well.
Yes, an inherent defect for those of us in the Northern climate (Chicago) where the authorities salt the roads. My 2011 Sport passenger side axle cracked in my driveway last week. I was lucky. Someone is going to get killed. Going to change the driver side now after reading these posts. F!#@$& Honda.
Yes, an inherent defect for those of us in the Northern climate (Chicago) where the authorities salt the roads. My 2011 Sport passenger side axle cracked in my driveway last week. I was lucky. Someone is going to get killed. Going to change the driver side now after reading these posts. F!#@$& Honda.
please report this to NHSTA. simple process on the website.
Yes, an inherent defect for those of us in the Northern climate (Chicago) where the authorities salt the roads. My 2011 Sport passenger side axle cracked in my driveway last week. I was lucky. Someone is going to get killed. Going to change the driver side now after reading these posts. F!#@$& Honda.
H now stays for "harbor freight"
Such stupid stuff had never happen to 1978 Buick Skylark or 87 Toyota Camry
It's an issue, and it's the salt put on our northern roads in the winter. The salty road water gets into the damper and stays there, corroding the axle inside the damper until there's not enough solid metal left to handle the torque.
About ten days ago, I tried to leave a traffic light. BANG! SHUDDER! CLICKCLICKCLICK... No forward or reverse. I looked under the car, and there was nothing obviously adrift, but I'm in the middle of a busy intersection with a no go car. As I couldn't see anything adrift underneath, I started suspecting the transmission.
Anyway, two cops helped me get the car out of the intersection and into a driveway, and I called a local shop that I deal with when I can't do the work myself, and had it towed there. They called me later that day to say that the right half shaft had snapped inside the damper, and that was the reason for no go and nothing adrift. They asked if I wanted to replace both half shafts, and I said HELL YES, taking no chances on a repeat. A week later and $700 bucks lighter, I had the car back. The shop owner and the lead mechanic both said that they had heard of this issue, but my '07 Fit was the first one that they had seen. They also opined that this should be a recall issue.
The thing about this that scares me green is that I just came home from a 2000 mile round trip from home to a friend's place in Texas. I hate to think what the result would had been if this had let go on I-35 at 78 mph. That broken shaft would have beat the underside of the car to death. I'd say to anybody with a Fit driven in the north on salted roads (and I see everyone here so far deals with salted roads) and with more than, oh, let's say 75,000 miles on the clock to consider replacing both half shafts, especially if they show any rust near those damn dampers.
I had just opened up the forum to write up my experience and post photos, but the first thing I saw on the header for the 1st generation forum was "Axle Problems???"
Anyway, here's the photos of the remains of my half shaft.
Tom
Update: there are six cases of this failure that have been submitted to the NHTSA.
The whole thing. The silver areas was all that was still transmitting power to the right wheel at the end A look into the damper.
BilgeRate, few days ago I had similar situation: my 2009 Honda FIT just exited a highway, stopped at the traffic light and whenI tried to turn right, I heard some noise like if I hit a curb. BUt there was no curb! The car would not move neither forward nor reverse. It just would roll back. When I looked under the car I could not see anything underneath. Called Geico and requested the towing. Waited an hour for the towing to show up and confirm that the front passenger side axel is broken. Luckily, the guy was a tech so he towed my car to the shop and replaced the broken axel with the new aftermarket one. The guy checked the front driver side axel and recommended to replace it too as it looked pretty rusted.
What is this part? It is halfway between the hub and transmission on passenger side (auto trans). I had the passenger side axle replaced last year, and noticed this tonight. I can’t find the part on rock auto schematics. Does it look like I need to replace it too?
i wonder if it is just the grease that the installer might have put on he end when he slid the new axle in? The axle isn’t wiggling around in there or feel loose.
Last edited by okey0; 10-05-2020 at 09:44 PM.
Reason: Added a couple sentences
chances are he just greased the splines a lot and made a bit of a mess. If its not loose or loud its fine
To add to this thread my 2013 Fit Base AT broke its drivers side shaft under the vibration damper. I was pulling away from a stop sign and heard a ping then no movement.
There were none available locally for over 24 hours so I pulled the inner joint and inner half half shaft out by cutting the boot. I then used zip ties to control the wheel side shaft so I could flat tow it to a garage (kept it under 20 with the engine running)
it took about 6 days to get one from rock auto
Replacing it wasn’t too bad but I struggled a little with the ball joint.
I do plan on replacing the passenger side too next oil change. This is definitely new to me doing half shafts as preventative maintenance. 7 years or 100000 miles
If it happens to you please file a complaint with nhsta. If there was more traffic when mine broke it would have been a very sketchy situation. The car almost rolled away on me because without the halfshaft park does not work.
"I've heard of vibrations resulting from cheap axles on several cars, so those damper donuts must do SOMETHING. "
This. I had this problem about a year ago on my 07 in Indiana. OEM parts through the dealer were obscenely expensive. My indy shop did the job for under $400 (both sides). I now get a minor vibration that comes and goes. It is irritating. Irritating enough to triple what I spent on the repair? I'm still pondering that one.
I have NEW not reman axles from Carquest with no rubber donuts and have zero issues. I imagine dampers did something, but I notice no difference any speed up to 80. The OEM axles were too dang expensive. Ymmv. Stay away from reman axles.
Not only Fits but Civics as well. If the original axle snapped, it is most likely due to rust at where Honda install a rubber vibration damper at the axle. We got out daughter Fit for free because of a snapped axle and the previous owner thought the trans let go because it made a loud noise and afterward a banging noise and no forward or backward movement of the car. There's a Youtube video by South Main Auto in which a Civic was towed to the shop and once it was on the lift you can see the broken axle. Aftermarket axle does not come with the rubber damper so rust will not reduce the sectional area of the axle.
Yes! I had the same issue yesterday with my 06 honda accord. When i asked both of my local shops, I was told it is very common and happens a lot on all older hondas because of the damper in the middle of the CV axle. here’s some pics of mine.
Just had to chime in and let everyone know there IS a recall for this now. I can't get them to stop sending me the dang notices in the mail. Had a transmission pit into my 09 Sport way back when. During which the dealership said the passenger side cv was stuck in the intermediate shaft and I had to have new of both.
Thought about it, and then just bent over and took it.
Roughly three weeks later, from a stop light, car jerks, and then won't move. Like others, I thought it was the transmission, although I should have looked first.
Called the dealership raising hell and was humbled by the shifty salesman. Frankly, I was so happy that it wasn't the transmission, I got screwed on another CV. At least they didn't get me with the rediculous markup. I called and found one luckily, at Oriellys. I kid you not, they quoted me a price of nearly 200$ for the part I bought myself from the very same place they were going to get it, only I paid 80$.
In March of 2016 I had to have the passenger side front axle replaced (thankfully i had an extended warranty at that point) and was assured it was a freak occurance.
Fast forward for to this past Friday (of course the 13th) and my 19 year old daughter now has the car (she’s living away at college). She calls me crying Friday night it’s broken down in the parking lot.
Get it towed and sure enough, it’s an axle!! That Honda garage is working with the one that did the first to see if it’s the same axle and whatnot. Because neither can believe it happened once let alone twice. And if it is they want to speak to a rep from Honda about footing the bill.
And the first garage tells me they have had two other Fits in the past week... broken axle. I’m just wondering if it’s a wider spread issue?? Or what the heck is going on. This is an 08 with 114,000 miles on it. It’s not like it’s well over 200k and normal wear and tear from beating it up. Quite frankly my teenager drives like a granny lol!
Im on my 3rd cv axle for the passenger side. Honda even had a recall saying its a rust problem! (All CV Axles rust). My guess is that its a desgn flaw on the angle or geometry but Honda will never admit that.
11-13-2018, 02:42 PM
HONDA FIT and bad CV axles. Possible design flaw.
