2003 Accord CV joints

On 2/9/2010 6:19 PM rjdriver spake these words of knowledge:

My '03 Accord has just over 140,000 miles. No problems yet.

RFT!!! Dave Kelsen

"rjdriver" wrote in news:mXmcn.141975$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe08.iad:

That /is/ really odd.

Are the joints US-made? The Jap-made ones last 250K easy.

Highly unusual for a 7-year old Honda unless it has been driven very aggressively.

BTW, are you sure it is the CV joints? What symptoms are you experiencing?

Japanese made.

is this the v6?

this is common on after-market cv joints, but us old school honda drivers get great mileage on oem if the boots are maintained properly.

my suspicion would be that honda have switched to heat treated vs case hardened componentry. heat treated is cheaper and what i suspect was the problem with their failed transmissions of this era also.

How do you know? 03 Accords have mostly US parts.

Car was assembled in Japan. Would assume the axle/joints were also.

It's the 4 cylinder engine, and these are the original joints. I will be getting a new car before this one hits 200,000 miles, so I got non Honda replacements, but I was still shocked at how cheap they were. USA Industries - $110.00. $212.00 installed. Something is definitively different about this axle/joint assembly. Previous quotes for this type of part on other cars have been as high as $400.00, installed.

The CV boots are fine on my '01 Civic with 295K miles (95% highway), but I've had some occasional clicking in my CV joints for a couple years. Given that most of my driving is in a straight line, I live with it.

You are very lucky. All the cars I have owned have torn cv boots around

"Bob Jones" wrote in news:4b75ec47$0$24392$c3e8da3 @news.astraweb.com:

Honda has changed its boot chemistry. The newest boots (from about 2003) should pretty much last the life of the car.

My experience with boot failure other than time/mileage is encountering road hazards. A small branch can raise holy hell with boots and I've even seen splits from rocks tossed about. Really irksome after a recent boot replacement!

JT

Grumpy AuContraire wrote in news:BN6dneOTHaprQuvWnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

I've never seen that myself. Boots are made of some sort of unbelievably tough rubber. I can't imagine /anything/ being able to tear into a CV joint boot, even an aftermarket one.

bouncing rocks and stones do it easily enough. it's just rubber sandwiched between two hard things - the sharp edge of a stone and the driveshaft internals. it's not that common, but it happens. barbed wire works great too.

The boots may last the life othe car. But it doesn't much matter if the joints don't. Mine were only good for 150m miles. But aftermarket replacements were surprisingly affordable.

Bob

///snipped///

I agree that Honda's boots, as well as several other mfgrs', with the new formulae are worlds better than those that went before. However, even Honda's boots in my vicinity are lucky to last more than two winters before they crack/split... Has something to do with temps in the -40F and colder...

DaveD

-40F, wow!! Where are you located, north Alaska?

No. Actually, interior Alaska. Just outside Fairbanks...North Pole (no kidding) Alaska. DaveD

Too cold for me now but power to you. I wonder how cold (sustained) the average car (Honda included) can handle if properly maintained? And what is the proper maintenance for negative temps for a Honda car? What about the battery? Does the extreme cold shorten the life of the car battery?