Busted CV Joint... any chance the dealer will try to void b/c of coilovers?

[DistantTea]

I think one of our CV joints is toasted. Is there any chance the dealership is going to claim it was busted due to our ground control coilovers? Thats a stretch right?

Just covering my bases here.

[DZnutz]

YES! i strongly suggest u reinstall the stockers

[BOOSTR]

No doubt. They will say that the coilovers changed the suspension geometry and caused added stress to the CV axle, and thus to wear prematurely.

Good luck.

[DistantTea]

Well crap.

[BOOSTR]

If it does not work out from a warranty standpoint, just get the original one rebuilt. Do not buy a remanufactured one. Any local CV rebuilder could do it for you. It should not take more than 2 days to complete.

Thats my opinion. I learned the hard way with rebuilt CV axles!

[celdridge]

If it does not work out from a warranty standpoint, just get the original one rebuilt. Do not buy a remanufactured one. Any local CV rebuilder could do it for you. It should not take more than 2 days to complete.

Thats my opinion. I learned the hard way with rebuilt CV axles!

Replace with the stocks ... or the dealership is going to do this to you:
(fu)

[DistantTea]

What if I adjust them to OEM height? That hasn't changed geometry... I have a pretty good relationship with this dealership. I doubt they'd try to piss me off on purpose but I also doubt they'd pass on a chance to void something they don't want to work on.

I don't have the stockers anymore.(dunno)

[eddy]

nope...having camber onyour car due to lowering springs CAN affect the CV joint and may have even been the cause of your cv joint problem..if you leave the aftermarket ones in..they are just going to say you readjusted them after the cv busted,,trust me..i owned a civic before

[celdridge]

nope...having camber onyour car due to lowering springs CAN affect the CV joint and may have even been the cause of your cv joint problem..if you leave the aftermarket ones in..they are just going to say you readjusted them after the cv busted,,trust me..i owned a civic before


If your dropping the car any more than about an inch i would suggest you getting a good set of Ingalls camber kits. They are relatively inexpensive, and will save your ass from alot of tire and joint issues down the road. My Eclipse-GST was lowered 4.00" and i had tons of camber issues. Ingalls kits will save your butt.

For the issue at hand though... if you take your car to the dealer with aftermarket springs/coil-overs they are going to void your shit right out.

[DistantTea]

I run -2.4 degrees of camber for autocross... and I always will. Did that do it? I'm so unfamiliar with CV joints...

[celdridge]

I run -2.4 degrees of camber for autocross... and I always will. Did that do it? I'm so unfamiliar with CV joints...


To be honest ... its completely possible ... that amount of camber ... although not incredable, is still going to put a lot of strain on the CV joints. Not to mention the lower control arms and the strut braces. (i think our MSP has those... my Eclipse did).

[AutoBox]

have u smacked any hard pot holes or anything?

[DistantTea]

I live in ohio... so yeah

I went under the car last night and inspected everything CV related... couldn't find jack wrong with it. So I took it for a test drive and the noises were all gone.

Now I'm thinking that autocross heats up the tranmission fluid so much that it starts to make my LSD go coocoo for cocopuffs and the LSD is the source of the noise. The tranny fluid in there was put in by my dealership... its Mobile 1 and I farking hate it. I'm putting in the synchromesh tonight. Then I gotta heat that tranny up and see if I hear any noises again.

Stinking noises...

[mspdfreak]

This is the first complaint I've heard about our CV joints. Since you adjusted ride height, camber, AND autox, you probably screwed it up, and shouldn't try and cheat the dealer into fixing it for free. That kind of shit is why it's such a pain in the ass for many of us to get honest warranty work. I would do as posted above and look into getting it repaired. Of course, since you said you don't know much about the CV joints, that may not be the problem at all. What are the symptoms?

[girth]

What are the symptoms?
Yeah, what are the symptoms? It's a stab in the dark but maybe it's just something simple, like I just went through here:
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65045&page=1&pp=15

Everything for me looked just fine too, but I tightened those bolts and all is well again.

[DistantTea]

This is the first complaint I've heard about our CV joints. Since you adjusted ride height, camber, AND autox, you probably screwed it up, and shouldn't try and cheat the dealer into fixing it for free.
Yeah, whats your point? If they show that it was my camber (which I didn't know could cause issues) then yeah, my fault, my bill. But I will never accept autocross as a point of failure for anything on this car since it was directly advertised as an autocross car in multiple magazines. This has been argued before and won in cases with the Integra Type R and the BMW M3.


That kind of shit is why it's such a pain in the ass for many of us to get honest warranty work. I would do as posted above and look into getting it repaired.
Calm down. Honest warranty work problem? Since my dealership is also my racing support center and actively knows I race and knows my mods I don't think my situation applys to the general population. I was curious to find out if coilovers could be pointed out as being the cause of CV failure. And now I know that the more likely culprit would have been my camber bolts. It dosn't really matter now though since its most likely not the a CV joint.


Of course, since you said you don't know much about the CV joints, that may not be the problem at all. What are the symptoms?
I think we have it figured out now. After an autocross we'll get a bad grinding noise that sounds like its coming from the front right (but not so far that I think its coming from the wheel well) especially when turning hard left in a parking lot. Its only at slow speeds. We were also having ABS issues which made me think it was the CV joint. But the problem is once the car gets completely cooled down there is no noise whatsoever.

A while ago I complained to service about the notchy shifting... they replaced my OEM tranny fluid with Mobile 1 and it sucked ever since. Now I think the Mobile 1 is totally incorrect for the car and once the tranny and LSD heat up to racing temperatures the Mobile 1 becomes innefective. Since we first had the sounds and grinding I've been studying up on CVs and the layout on the MSP and I'm fairly certain this is the issue. Luckily my wife got me three quarts of GM Synchromesh for my birthday so we'll know for sure after tonight.

[AutoBox]

i got redline tranny fluid and my shifter is still notchy and shit.....i think the protege has got the worst tranny i have ever driven lol

[celdridge]

i got redline tranny fluid and my shifter is still notchy and shit.....i think the protege has got the worst tranny i have ever driven lol


No ... the Mitsubishi Eclipse GS has the worst tranny ever made ... and dont you forget it. HAHA

[Leigh]

What kind of ABS issues? Mine's been kicking in like mad the last 2-3 events, its driving me nuts. Someone also commented to me last weekend that they thought the pedal is feeling a bit soft too.... (dunno)


i think the protege has got the worst tranny i have ever driven lol<!-- / message -->
I learned to drive a manual on an integra GS-R.

The MSP's not bad after that. :D

[DistantTea]

What kind of ABS issues? Mine's been kicking in like mad the last 2-3 events, its driving me nuts. Someone also commented to me last weekend that they thought the pedal is feeling a bit soft too.... (dunno)
Well at the last event I went into some sort of ice mode several times and it came on really fast and blew the corner. I don't mind ABS... I actually rely on it at the end of long straights. But with barely any steering input the ABS was just releasing all stopping power and the car wasn't slowing down... very frustrating. Thats one of the reasons I thought the CV was going because it contains the ABS sensor ring at the end.

Now I'm starting to think that my rear brake pads are much more effective than my fronts... a very strong rear bias in other words. I took my ABS fuse out and did some testing and had the rears locking up waaaaaay before the fronts even tried to bind. Maybe I glazed those fronts?

Soft Pedal can be worn pads or air in the lines... I run SS brake lines from Corksport so its pretty immediate when I touch that pedal. Good Stuff.

[celdridge]

Well at the last event I went into some sort of ice mode several times and it came on really fast and blew the corner. I don't mind ABS... I actually rely on it at the end of long straights. But with barely any steering input the ABS was just releasing all stopping power and the car wasn't slowing down... very frustrating. Thats one of the reasons I thought the CV was going because it contains the ABS sensor ring at the end.

Now I'm starting to think that my rear brake pads are much more effective than my fronts... a very strong rear bias in other words. I took my ABS fuse out and did some testing and had the rears locking up waaaaaay before the fronts even tried to bind. Maybe I glazed those fronts?

Soft Pedal can be worn pads or air in the lines... I run SS brake lines from Corksport so its pretty immediate when I touch that pedal. Good Stuff.


Do they make a big brake kit for our car?

[DistantTea]

Corksport dosn't... others do. I do not want a big brake kit... I worked hard on my brakes and my OEM setup is about half the weight of a big brake setup... because I worked hard on lowering my unsprung weight too. No thanks.

Anyways for autocross... big brakes just aren't useful. My car can already come down from 60 in under 100ft, but more importantly can go from 60 to 30mph like its hitting a wall and can do it over and over at an autocross event.

My OEM brakes are almost perfect.. just too much grab in the back right now. I need to check those front pads.

[celdridge]

Corksport dosn't... others do. I do not want a big brake kit... I worked hard on my brakes and my OEM setup is about half the weight of a big brake setup... because I worked hard on lowering my unsprung weight too. No thanks.

Anyways for autocross... big brakes just aren't useful. My car can already come down from 60 in under 100ft, but more importantly can go from 60 to 30mph like its hitting a wall and can do it over and over at an autocross event.

My OEM brakes are almost perfect.. just too much grab in the back right now. I need to check those front pads.


I dont know about autox since i have never done it ... but i always had really good luck with MetalMaster pads ... the semi metalic ones ... or EBC pads.

[Leigh]

Mine just seems like its been kicking in at kind of low speeds/low braking (or at least less braking that I'd have expected it to kick in)... It may just be a perception thing though, I'm not used to the new MXs and they don't ever feel like they're going quite the speeds they are. I was coming to the end of runs on sunday thinking "damn that felt really slow" and the timer was saying it was an ok time.

The event before there was just 0 grip to stop with. So I had been thinking the ABS was working overtime to try and compensate.

Checked the pads last week while the wheels were off. They're still at at least 60% and didn't look bad. I'll probably take her in to get the system bled and see if that helps (I don't suppose replacement brake lines are legal in stock ;) ).

Do you have the same pads on front as back?

I'm really impressed how fast these cars will stop bone stock. We had a practice event awhile back and one of the exercises set up was a braking test. They had these pylons set up so you could tell how far it was taking you to stop. I never made it to the first marker pylon(15ft? abouts...). I wish they'd have let me take a moving start like I wanted, I was only being able to get up to about 20-30mph from launch.

ABS is nice at the end of straights, but its been an adjustment to get used to. I only kicked it in once or twice in my last car, and it didn't work very well when I did.

[DistantTea]

I'm running Carbotech Engineering Bobcats in the front and Axxis Ultimates in the rear. Right now the Axxis seem to be stopping alot harder than the Bobcats, but I think that could be a weight distribution issue... I don't know. All I know is that without ABS the rears lock up pretty damn easily.

[Mashi Maro]

the axxis ultimates are nice pads and i suspect thats why your rears a locking up first, they supposedly have a good bite hot or cold, and don't fade until 900 degrees....thats all info i got from my web research, never had them however

[xelderx]

I'm running Carbotech Engineering Bobcats in the front and Axxis Ultimates in the rear. Right now the Axxis seem to be stopping alot harder than the Bobcats, but I think that could be a weight distribution issue... I don't know. All I know is that without ABS the rears lock up pretty damn easily. My brakes are rear biased right now too. I'm running Hawk pads up front...I can't remember if the back ones are stock or not. Hopefully we can find a solution since bias adjusters aren't legal for us.

[celdridge]

the axxis ultimates are nice pads and i suspect thats why your rears a locking up first, they supposedly have a good bite hot or cold, and don't fade until 900 degrees....thats all info i got from my web research, never had them however

I am running them right now on my other car ... they are excellent pads ... great initial bite even after mashing them hard a few times. I would recomend to anyone.