Vauxhall Drive shafts / CV Joints

LinW13

Hiya all,

Don't know whether my local Masterfit is pulling a fast one or Vauxhalls.

My car needs new CV joints. Masterfit quote including labour is £486.45 (if they can get the parts). He says he will get back to me.

Next day, they phone me back and say they cannot get CV joints on their own - they have to get complete drive shafts. Quote for that including labour is £945.41.:eek:

After my eyes stopped watering, I told them I'd get back to them after I'd had a look around for a better price. But what a neat way to get nearly £460 more out of me!! As I say, dunno if this is down to Vauxhalls or the local Masterfit.

Anyhow, I've just gone to a local independent who is recommended in the "Good Garage Scheme", and got a quote of £150-180 all in. Parts £60, the rest labour. Granted these are not Vauxhall CV joints, but I'll be saving nearly £800!!

So... as always, be careful out there folks!!

Lin

dikvdyke

Hi Lin,

I had the same experience with Vauxhall. The justification from Vauxhall was that the drive shafts would need replacing. Other garages will change the joints, but not the shatfts. The further justification is that the drive shafts will need replacing or the cv joints will not last.
Did you go to an independent and was the work guaranteed???

cheers, dik

bigstevex

Wow!!! you could buy a small car for that!
What cars is it on? You might want to try ebay/scrap yards etc and just pay your local garage to fit them!

tc80tc80

It helps with the pricing if you understand what CV joints are and just how difficult some are to replace on some vehicles.

I have replaced CV joints on four of my own vehicles in my day and maybe a dozen other for friends. Let me tell you. Only one of the four was easy. Two were difficult and one was amazingly a pain in the _ _ _.

That last one required special tools (read only available from the dealer) to release it from the steering knuckle and the tranny. Not to mention that the shaft support bracket on the long side was so rusted in that I had to torch it off. On that car it took all day to change them out.

Third party CV joints are often no different from the car makers version. Just the label is changed. But third party joints are usually considerably cheaper. Go to the dealer parts section and have him bring out the CV joints for visual inspection. Have a good look at them. (Warning they are greasy). Pretend that you need to go get more money and that you will be back.

Now go to a third party parts supplier and do the same thing. Compare the quality of the parts between the dealer and the third party supplier and then make a decision based on what you see and the parts warranty. WARNING - Some dealers will only warranty for 30 days unless they install the parts.

When only the joint is changed. You can go two ways. First pull the entire CV joint unit out of the car and keep the shafts, but replace the bearings and center unit that comes complete in a kit. Then slip a new rubber boot over the joint. Fill it with axle grease and using the special metal bands that came with the kit seal it up. This is where most people screw up and don't get a good seal and the grease leaks out and your back to square one a year later.

The second method is to replace the complete CV joint/shafts as a unit The rubber boots are factory greased and sealed. You usually return the old joint/shafts to the dealer/supplier to get a refund on the "core" parts (the shafts) since these will be factory refurbished and resold in a new kit.

The second method is by far the easiest and safest, but still takes time.

One thing that can jack the cost up is the age of the car. You can get one price on a quote; but then once the vehicle is physically inspected, it may be obvious that because of the age of the vehicle, some other parts need to be replaced.

it is easy to find out if you actually need new CV joints. Go find a big empty parking lot somewhere. If that is even possible these days. After closing is usually best.

Turn off the radio and the air blower.

Open the drivers side window only first.

Turn the steering wheel over to the right all the way "THEN BACK a QUARTER TURN" (the reason for the quarter turn back is that power steering units like to fail if you keep the wheel hard over for more than ten seconds) Don't believe me.... look it up. Its in the factory manuals.

Start rolling slowly and listen for a ticking / clicking noise. This is a rapid ticking / clicking noise and can be very quiet or quite loud. The CV joints have four points of contact about three inches across so the ticking / clicking is different from that of a pebble stuck in the tread of your tire.

Do two or three complete circles.

Now do that again with the steering wheel all the way to the left and back a quarter. Don't forget to open the passengers window and close the drivers window. Changing the windows helps to determine if the problem is on both sides or one side only.

It is possible you will only hear the clicking noise on one side.

One last thing you have to do is prepare an excuse to explain to that Panda officer that just showed up why you are driving donuts in Tesco's parking lot after hours.

If someone is watching, It helps to get out of the car and push the front of the car down a few times, grip the tires and tug a few times. This is obvious to a bystander that you are having car trouble and are not some boy racer having fun.

You can also physically check the boots by turning the steering wheel all the way over, shut off the car. Set the parking brake. Get a rubber glove on and reach behind the brakes and feel for the rubber boot on the CV joint. It is inline with the center of the wheel and will have about a one inch rod coming out of it. It feels somewhat stiff, rubbery and squishy. A little larger than your closed fist. There is nothing else under there that feels like that. So you found the joint. Now feel all over the surface and see if your hand comes away covered in black grease. This is a the result of a failed joint boot and the grease has escaped. The joint is now running metal on metal and wearing away.

BTW, if the failed boot is caught early enough. The boot can be changed out and resealed. Either way, your major cost is the shops labor.

Checkout:

www.bntnz.co.nz/about_cv.htm

for pictures.

It shows inner and outer joints. I have yet to find a bad inner joint. In my experience helping friends with their cars, it is almost always the outer joint because it flexes the most in range.

Any questions.... just ask. I have been fixing cars for thirty plus years.

dikvdyke

Hi tc,
Did you find that it was necessary to change the shaftes when replacing the cv joints or is this an extra charge that the garage like to press on the customer when doing the job??

skintas_2

that sounds very expensive and a big rip off hope you find a cheaper garage

tc80tc80

dikvdyke wrote: »

Hi tc,
Did you find that it was necessary to change the shaftes when replacing the cv joints or is this an extra charge that the garage like to press on the customer when doing the job??

Actually the best method that I have found is to buy the complete CV Joint assembly (left, right or both) from a third party supplier and then have a garage install them. This way you get a factory assembled unit that is fully tested and put together by people that do nothing else but that.

I don't know what the current hourly rate is for a garage, but if for example it is £100 per hour than you are looking at about £400 minimal.

The car dealers have books that they look at that have numbers of units of time required to do a set repair job. You might want to go to the dealer and ask them how much time is required for this job if you supply the parts.

In some cases. The dealer's garage can come out cheaper since this is their car and their mechanics will have done this job many times before and know all of the gotchas involved in the repair and also have any specialist tools required to do the job.

No matter which way you look at it, changing out the CV joints is expensive.

dikvdyke

Thanks tc, for all the options. It looks like there are a good few ways of getting round this repair.
I was obligated to go with Vauxhall because I ordered the parts in haste to keep the car on the road. I need the car for my business. Next time i'll go with an independent garage as I got quotes for £150 when I'd got the time to inquire.

LinW13

Wow TC80, great reply

The joints definitely needed doing - were clicking like castanets.

My car is a 2001 reg bog standard Corsa. Due to be changed in 2011. If drive shafts/Cv joints need doing before then, I'll pay for it out of the £800 I've saved this time.

To be fair, the independent did make clear that the labour charge depended on how easy it was to get the old parts out. In the end I paid just under £160 (Parts, labour, VAT, the lot). The parts were exchange outer CVs btw. He belongs to the Good Garage Scheme, so his work was guaranteed.

Also, it was great as a woman to feel that I was being treated fairly by a mechanic. Guess I'll stick with this bloke from now on.

Take care all,
Lin

Just_Incredible

I replaced my CV joint on my drive myself at 5pm on a 3 degrees celcuis temperature

cost me a grand total of... £34.99

tc80tc80

Just_Incredible wrote: »

I replaced my CV joint on my drive myself at 5pm on a 3 degrees celcuis temperature

cost me a grand total of... £34.99

Well done. Did you draw any blood? A friend of mine who was a contractor used to say that you were not doing it right if your not bleeding by the end of the job.