Has anyone replaced the oem output shaft/axel?

My inner driver cv boot was leaking and caused by a faulty clamp, boot was fine. Repacked the grease and put a new clamp on. Had to bang on the clamp clip to get it to set into place.

Either cv joint has been trashed, or I bent the shaft when hitting the clamp.. As a small vibration under load (acceleration) has gotten progressively worse, which I am pointing to the inner cv joint/bent shaft.

Has anyone replaced this? Seems the only option is a whole new shaft, I don't see a pn for a replacement cv joint.

Any aftermarket choices?

$450 for a new axle is a bit steep.

 

So the vibration completely goes away when you let off? I would just be sure that is the case before you start spending $$ on something other than a wheel balance problem. Inner joints rarely go bad, but if the boot has been off for months, it could be worn out from dirt/water/lack of lube.

I find it hard to imagine you hit the clip hard enough to bend the stub axle.

Check with Way Motorworks on inner stub axle/CV replacement if you are convinced it is bad.

DOC

 

Vibration does go away once I let off. I noticed today it is worst at like 3rd and 4th gear between 2-4k rpm, and subsides towards redline. Let me give you a quick rundown.

Three weeks ago I was under the front of the car and noticed grease was splattered over the subframe and transmission, investigated and found grease leaking out of the inner cv boot. Upon looking closer it was seeping out from under the clamp/end of the boot. Didn't hear any clicking or anything very noticeable. I did start feeling a very very slight vibration in the car, but figured maybe a bent wheel. The vibration was nothing bad, just a slight feeling in your foot on the floorboard (dont recall if it was only under acceleration or not).

A week later (about 400 miles) on Sunday, I had time to repack the grease replace the clamp on the inner CV boot. Figured I would try this first instead of removing the whole shaft to replace the whole boot. Well the generic clamp ended up really sucking, and in order to clamp it down, you had to feed the aluminum clamp through a clip, and then "flip" the clip backwards over the aluminum to crease it, which proved to be VERY difficult with limited space. Pliers and vice grips could only pry so much. Eventually, I started banging on the actual clip with a hammer to try to get it on. This was about an hour and a half in trying to get this stupid clip to flip over. Based on my frustration levels, I could have been hitting this hammer substantially forceful.

While I know the axle is pretty beefy, its possible that all the smacking was hurting the inner CV joint. Also, the grease I repacked in there was a generic grease, which, in hindsight, may not have faired well with the original OEM grease in there.

Monday, I had a 100 mile commute to work. About 15 miles in (6am), I was on the highway in 6th and had to slide past a semi. So I rolled into the throttle and boost. I instantly noticed the RPMs climb while not accelerating. I let out a huge sigh and knew my clutch was slipping. I repeated this a few times to make sure, and sure enough, it was. Throughout the trip I noticed that acceleration in the lower gears proved to show a worsening vibration as well. I attributed this to the flywheel/clutch chattering, since my mind was on a slipping clutch.

However! Tuesday/Wed/Thurs, I was careful with driving the car, but wanted to make sure the clutch was slipping. I COULDNT reproduce it! 6th gear now holds perfectly fine and accelerates. But, the vibration while accelerating in lower gears has gotten worse, to the point that the dash would vibrate and if you watched the "horizon" of the dash and hood, it looked like the car was jumping up and down slightly. They were quick vibration pulses.

Since the clutch is holding fine now (and I've read stories of possibly having a little silicone grease from the dual mass flyspeel spin onto the friction surface and needing time to wear off), I could only start to think something happened while replacing the CV boot clamp.

Thats where I stand today. After looking up clutches and seeing about $13-1500 in just parts, I was happy to realize the clutch wouldn't slip anymore. But an output shaft is $450 on parts.com (650 everywhere else from vendors), which is much better than a new clutch, but as you said, I don't want to jump into buying parts without being completely sure thats what is causing the issue.

I checked all wheel lugs and everything is tight.

Also, the clamp was never put on tight enough, so grease is still spinning out now. So at the minimum I need to do a new OEM boot kit ($50).

Sorry this is so long, I'm hoping someone has had experience with this in at least another car, as I know it doesn't seem too common in the R56 yet.

For the record, I am tuned and running more than stock torque (235+ wtq vs 195).

 

So you have ruled out wheel balance. If you have an open diff and you are not getting drive to one wheel, it will act as if the clutch is slipping. However, it is unlikely that you would have intermittant drive from a stub axle/CVJ. Clutches can slip/not slip sometimes, though.

Since you have access to a dyno (your sig) you could use it to help pinpoint the problem.

Otherwise, I would go to an independent shop that specializes in Minis.

DOC

 

Thanks for the input.

I haven't actually ruled out a wheel balance, but seeing that its only under load, I would assume its not a wheel balance issue.

I may have to bring it up to Greasy at some point... =x

 

So you are near Worcester?

DOC

 

So, seems that the vibration now happens during constant velocity highway cruising too. Can be felt at 50mph, as well as 75mph (two speeds I was cruising this morning), so again I don't think this is related to the wheel balance. The vibration while cruising can be seen/felt in the steering wheel as well as the rest of the car, so I don't believe it to be engine misfiring or anything either. No codes.

 

Supercuper,

if you're still on here did you ever resolve this vibration?