The broken aftermarket CV-axle issue

[brokencase]

Ed has had several aftermarket CV axles break after low mileage. Sadly, one broke while he was at Carlisle.

There was some discussion about the possible inferior quality of the Asian manufactured axles.

I'm not yet convinced of this. I've done a search on the brand in question and I am not seeing much mention of failures on other vehicles outside of those running hi performance and are doing burnouts.

Indeed I think I have the same axles in my car and have not yet had any issues (knock on Scorpio burly dash wood!).

I would hope that Ed would post some pictures of the failed components.

Ed did not indicate if it was always happening on the same side. But I was wondering what else (besides poor quality) could be causing pre-mature axle failure.

Some things that come to mind are:
Intermittent Rear caliper lockup
Bad wheel bearing
Very loose mounting of the differential carrier causing bad geometry
Failure to install the cork gaskets that come with the CV axle that hold the grease in at the flanges.
Failure to apply grease to the ball assembly before installation.
Some kind of weird ABS failure that causes abrupt and uneven application of the rear brakes.

What are your thoughts?

[Ed Lijewski]

20210607_105606_copy_652x582.jpg (82.86 KiB) Viewed 5210 times

YMMV

[Ed Lijewski]

Sent today to Pat Goss.

Pat, on Motorweek you always encourage us to drop you a line if we have questions or comments.

I own four 1988/89 Merkurs, two XR4Tis and two Scorpios.

Over the last two years I've installed six new CV axles from Rock Auto as that was easier than replacing torn boots or rebuilding each joint if grease was lost.

All six have failed. All six within few miles (hundreds, not even thousands). And I drive sedately, no burnouts/racing/rallying/drifting.

On one of my Scorpios, a Rock Auto axle failed two weeks ago, and a replacement Rock Auto axle I installed failed last Saturday.

Attached is a photo of a recent axle failure, and every other failure was identical.

I believe Rock Auto needs to know if this, and the manufacturers also need to know of this. These axles also fit a model of a Volkswagen vehicle.

In my car club, the failure rate of CV axles from Rock Auto is very high, so my experience is not random or unique.

The manufacturers of the axles that failed include Trackmotive and Cardone.

Rock Auto does not provide Customer Service contact info for matters such as this.

I and others would appreciate your bringing this issue of defective CV axles to Rock Auto's attention, so that it could also bring it to the CV axle manufacturer's attention.

Sincerely

[Ed Lijewski]

I say Class Action lawsuit time.

YMMV

[Fresh Air Inspector]

Hello Ed et al,

Didn't realise that rebuilt CV axles were such an issue. It would be interesting to understand what actually causes the failure. My assumption is the surface hardening was compromised causing the ball or the spider to fatigue. Please let us know.

I came across this supplier (SurTrack), for 'new' CV axles for our vehicles. To me, new is better than rebuilt assuming the quality is - they say 'built to OEM quality'. The parent company is a Chinese one called Wonh Industries, which explains the low price. Has anyone used these on their vehicle?

https://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/1988/ ... embly.html

Hope it helps.

[Ed Lijewski]

The CV axles I purchased were each new, not rebuilt, per the script on the boxes for each.

Most if not all Merkur owners with these issues were XR owners. I'm not aware of other Scorpio owners who had this issue, as there are more XRs around and few Scorpio owners Daily Drive them as I do.

YMMV

Edit: For what it's worth, on Rock Auto's site only a Cardone rebuilt unit is sometimes available, but at about three times the total cost (price plus core charge) of other new units including from Cardone.

[brokencase]

Trying to understand from the pictures Ed...

Is it the case that the stubbed splined portion of the CV axles broke off?

Which flange are we looking at in your photos? is it the out bound side or the side close to diff?

Also... has every broken half shaft been on the same side of your vehicle?

[brokencase]

There is something weird here.

I can't remember where I got my replacement axles. I think I changed them around 2018. It was either rockauto or ebay.

But they had a recess around the flange interface that accepted a cork gasket. I don't see that recess in the pictures of your axle's flange.

Now, this being said, I have not put too much mileage on. Maybe around 5K miles.

But I must point out Ed, You have had many failures. Are you sure that the failure is not caused by something else?

[Ed Lijewski]

Trying to understand from the pictures Ed...

Is it the case that the stubbed splined portion of the CV axles broke off?

Which flange are we looking at in your photos? is it the out bound side or the side close to diff?

Also... has every broken half shaft been on the same side of your vehicle?

I don't know what broke-I don't like messing with axle grease so I refuse to dig into them-but it seems either a C-clip or two let go, or the bearing cage (Cardan joint) did.

Out of the boxes CV axles will not release from the bearing joint as did the broken one (et al) in my photo; the joint can be pushed to slightly protrude the outer casing but then stop

Two broken axles on my '89 were on the left out side, one was on the right out side. The broken one on my '88 was on the right out side. Memory fails on the others.

YMMV

[Ed Lijewski]

None of the axles I purchased had a gasket recess. Maybe two came with thin paper gaskets. Cardone units had no gaskets. All failed units were full of grease.

I've had more failures than others probably because I kept buying from Rock Auto's selection as average price plus shipping was always attractive compared to other sources, and I made a calculated assumption that prior apparent product defects would be random if not rare and not continuous down the assembly line. In the XR community, others having been burned by a bad unit or maybe two have gone to rebuilding OEM axles, buying GKN joints for OEM axles which were made for some Porsches but fit the XR bolt spacing and thread pattern on diff and hub.

The Service Manual on replacing CVs shows 5/6 simple basic steps, and I followed the only emohasized instruction to not let the axle side you will bolt in last droop of its own weight, by supporting it with a jack stand e.g.

YMMV

[Ed Lijewski]

Search XR4Ti for "CV Axle", many posters experienced failures.

I remembered this post especially as Brennan's experience and exasperation was paralled by my recent ones.

http://forum.merkurclub.net/forum/viewt ... it=CV+axle

YMMV

[Ed Lijewski]

I'm certain that each axle (from whichever manufacturer) came in a box with "New" prominent in the script.

20210608_111152.jpg (69.93 KiB) Viewed 5168 times

YMMV

[brokencase]

RockAuto has a nice feature of sending you a list of your last 10 orders. Pretty nice. I printed them all out to put in my Scorpio receipts folder.

Anyway, I just went through my rockauto orders and I have TRAKMOTIVE VW8063 (right) and TRAKMOTIVE VW8045 (left)
That was in early 2018.

But who knows, they may have changed things. I do know that I had to manually grease these axles. They came with packets of grease.
They also had a recess and cork gaskets at the flanges.

I have probably about 5k-8k miles on them. I did not put much mileage on the Scorpio in 2020 and early 2021 due to COVID.

[Ed Lijewski]

Just searched "All" purchases. I purchased eight CV axles. D'oh!

So with 'only' six failures it seems I have more uh excitement--does excitement bring to your mind what I've experienced?-- to look forward to.

You're right re Trakmotive recessed flange gasket edge. I think I overlooked that as other manufacturer's axles didn't have that and included thin paper gaskets, a true pain to deal with on installation.

But for the record, gaskets or no gaskets played no role in the excitement sent to me. No grease was lost in those defective axles.

YMMV

[brokencase]

Ed - You are making me concerned that my axles are going to fail.

What kind of mileage did your failures occur at?