I need my two CV joints replaced. Will I also definately need a front end alignment as well?
Considering that the axles are being taken out and replaced, often with a lot of heavy beating, I’d like to think that an alignment is included with the job.
Removing and replacing a axle should not upset the alignment, however doing an alignment is not a bad idea. IMHO a fair percentage of the cars on the road are not in correct alignment. Correcting the alignment will help fuel mileage, make your tires wear long, and make the car easier to drive.
If it were me, I would spring for the alignment.
My Toyota Corolla Haynes manual makes it clear that after replacing the CV joints, drive the car very carefully to an alignment shop. Definitely not an option there. With other models, YMMV.
Let’s see. The procedure for removing an axle in a front wheel drive car is:
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Remove wheel.
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Remove hub nut. Typically involves either a breaker bar, a cheater pipe, and much swearing, or a Snap-On air impact wrench and a little more line pressure than Snap-On recommends.
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Unhook swaybar. This typically involves removing a bolt from a bushing and then yanking on the swaybar to get it out. Time for an alignment there… and if I were really consciencious probably a new swaybar.
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Separate spring attachment from lower control arm (on double-wishbone cars), or lower balljoint from control arm (on strut cars). This usually involves a large “picklefork” and a hammer. Definitely time for an alignment and maybe a new lower control arm and bushing.
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Slide splined driveshaft out from hub. Not very violent most of the time but if it’s an old car that’s been through a lot of winters and not simply an overaggressive driver busting the driveshaft, it may be rusty and need some hammering which will do the alignment no good.
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Remove driveshaft from transmission. This is often “picklefork and hammer” time again. Since I don’t like replacing transmissions because the casing cracks when I hammer on it, I just use a picklefork and a cheater pipe so it doesn’t have to absorb impact energy.
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Installation is pretty much the reverse of removal, but we typically don’t have to do much hammering etc as the parts are already apart and just have to be put back together. A lot of the difficulty here I find is removed if I throw away all the fasteners I used brutal measures on. I define “brutal” as using measures that cause plastic deformation of the bolt being removed. That way, I don’t have to try to slide some old, deformed, rusty bolt through a damaged hole and try to screw on a rusty, rounded off nut onto old dirty threads.
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If your car hasn’t been aligned for a “season”, it needs to be in northern states. In the south and west, the roads are less heavily potholed and you can get away with an annual alignment.
I would say, depending upon how long it’s been since the last alignment (and whether you’ve had any good curb/pothole encounters), that this can be a convenient time for an alignment.
When I raced front-drivers, I would get an alignment that I liked and then not touch it (the alignment). Changing swaybars, axles, shocks, even a transmission, didn’t effect the attachment geometry of the critical parts for the alignment (caveat: on the cars that I had). If your mechanic says that your car is different in this regard, and if you trust him/her (which hopefully you do, since you took the car there for service), then you might as well spring for the alignment - maybe you can get a discount if it’s bundled with the other service.
It depends on the car and the disassembly method. On FWD Chrysler cars I’ve owned in the past (all with 2.2-L 4-cyl. engines), you can either
[ul]
[li]unbolt the steering knuckle from the MacPherson strut and the lower control arm, or[/li][li]loosen the top of the strut from the strut tower and disconnect the knuckle from the lower control arm, which gives enough room to pull the driveshaft out.[/li][/ul]
The first method requires re-alignment, since you lose the adjustment of the cam bolts that hold the strut to the knuckle. The second method doesn’t require re-alignment, since the cam bolts aren’t touched.
That said, re-alignment is cheap. Cheaper than tires, for sure.
You drove a Golf GTI, right?
I dunno about not wanting to lose alignment settings. I’d rather write them down so I can get them back there.
Thanks for asking - since you insist ( ), the front-drivers were a Honda Civic and a Toyota Celica. I did a lot more work on the Honda, which had a torsion-bar/strut front-end. Breaking apart the ball joints was always a pain, and always tore the rubber grease cover, which I would replace. But the work that I would do never effected the steering geometry, unless is was a consequence of the general banging around down there. The exception was lowering slightly the front ride height, but I didn’t mind the small increase in toe-out beyond that of the original autocross alignment (about 1/8" toe-out). But don’t get me started - I still miss that car.
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It will vary with the car and the disassembly method, as One Day Fish Sale said. Most front-drive cars have strut-type suspensions, and the typical disconnect points are ball joints and tie rod ends. Tie rod ends have tapered spindles, and removing and refitting them will not affect alignment. If the ball joint is disconnected at its spindle, alignment will likewise not be affected. If the ball joint is unbolted from the control arm, or the knuckle is unbolted from the strut, or the strut is unbolted from its tower, alignment could be affected but probably only very slightly except in those casess where the attachment is designed for adjustment (e.g. the cam bolts mentioned above).
It is very seldom necessary to disconnect a swaybar in order to remove an axle. The only situation where it might be called for is if it prevents one from separating the ball joint due to its spring effect on the control arm. It does not in any way affect alignment. Swaybars are not replaced unless they’ve been bent in a collision – they’re pretty hefty steel and do not wear out. Sway bar bushings and/or links may need replacing depending upon their condition.
Spring attachment from lower control arm? If there’s a drive axle in the picture, there can’t be a spring going to the lower control arm. There can be a torsion bar to the lower arm, but there’s no need to disconnect it. If the ball joint is detached at its spindle, alignment will not be affected.
It won’t do the threads on the stub axle any good, but it won’t affect alignment.
I’m sitting here thinking why in the world you would re-align the front end or replace a sway bar if you disconnect it. Sway bars do not affect any alignment angles that I can think of. The only sway bars I have ever replaced have been for breakage, better handling, or if they were bent (As Gary T said).
Also if you disconnect the lower control arm at the strut, there is a fairly good chance that you can force the arm down far enough to get the strut free of the ball joint without disconnecting the sway bar.
I’ve had to replace a couple sway bars due to the bar being completely rusted out and breaking when it was removed.
I’m thinking about an older Honda Civic, where the spring acts on the top of a fork which goes around the drive axle. The fork has to be separated from the control arm because the CV joint’s outside diameter is bigger than the inside diameter of the fork.
Alignment wouldn’t be affected by detatching the balljoint if it separated cleanly and easily. It doesn’t. A balljoint separator is a very substantial piece of metal for a reason - it is meant to transmit very large forces and impacts.
Yes, the swaybar doesn’t affect alignment at all. However, it usually prevents the lower control arm from going far enough into droop to unload the spring. You often need full droop in order to get the axle out. In addition, it doesn’t always unhook cleanly and pulling, yanking, or pounding on the bar ends while the bar’s still attached is a nice way to knock everything around.
Yes, it won’t affect alignment if the hub and upright were sufficiently rigid and robust to withstand the hammering without flexing or bending.
Sounds like you’re talking about sway bar links. A sway bar is damn hefty. In 30+ years of professional auto repair experience, I’ve seen lots of rusted links with seized nuts that couldn’t survive disassembly, but I’ve never seen a sway bar rusted through.
Well first off living in sunny Southern California (caltrans motto = Salt if for food, not for roads) we don’t have things rust. Secondly if the sway but breaks, I believe I covered that in my post
Again sometime you can get the lower control arm down far enough without disconnecting the sway bar other times not. In neither case is this a reason to realign the car. Even if the sway bar breaks, it is not a reason to re-align the car.
Should have previewed, in other words what Gary T said.
Take a look at the little, tubular, one-pice, ungalvanized ones on old Hondas and watercooled VWs. I admit that a broken swaybar may not happen that often, but they do fail sometimes.