nmes300

hello all,

first off id like to introduce my self im frank im from albuquerque,nm
im 23 and i own a 95 lexus es300 . now for my problem

today i was driving my vehicle on the freeway and the steering
wheel started to shake and it felt like i was driving over a cow grate
(very bumpy and shakey). so i got off the freeway and pulled in to a
gas station looked under the car, in the wheel hub and found nothing !
to be honest i didnt know what to look for but look any way ! so i pulleddd
out of the station and heard a metal clunk ! so i stopped and put the car
in park and went to get out and it (the car) kept going ! i had to use the
E-brake to stop got out again looked under the car and found a broken
metal ring and about 6 ball bearings after that i tried to put the car in
drive and heard a horrible metal scratching sound ! and the car wouldnt
move. so i turned off the car and towed it home which was about a block
away and still the scratching noise was there. any ideas of what could be
wrong with it . i was thing it is the wheel hub or the wheel bearing and maybe possibly the cv joint or cv halfshaft ! any advise is appreciated
thanks for your time

frank

nine3es

iTrader: (3)

sounds like cv shaft

nmes300

@nine3es

thats what others have told me as well
thanks for taking the time to read and reply !

frank

philex

didn't know a cv joint had ball bearings. I'm betting on a wheel bearing....

KLF

Yes, there are ***** in a CV joint, they should be about 3/8"-1/2" in diameter. Each shaft has 2 joints. This is what they look like when you pull the boot off and wipe all the grease off:



The CV joint has worn to the point that it fell apart. With only one wheel connected to the transaxle now, the differential won't transfer torque to the remaining axle, so you can no longer move.

It's not hard to replace, but you do need a tie rod puller and a 30mm deep socket. You also need a big torque wrench to re-install the big nut on the end of the shaft, I can't remember the torque setting but it's pretty high.

renatodato

Nice picture KLF, worth a thousand words.

nmes300

thanks KLF !

tomf

My son drives my 95 v6 camry (Similar to an ES300) and its cv axle fell off. the axle is held onto the transmission by 6 bolts which worked their way out. Luckily it happened at the end of our driveway.

I can attest that it is not hard to replace. And if you do it yourself not too expensive either.

westdallas

it seems like the bolts undid themselves or came off my es 300 96 i had to order the bolts but did your bolts strip the cup ? if so how did u fix it was it expensive

tomf

The bolts did not strip out. However, the bolts came out a second time. When I replaced the axle a second time I used some locktight blue on the bolts. So far, so good.

If the bolt holes are stripped, the first thing I would consider would be to re-tap the holes and replace with with bigger bolts if needed.