Last week, right on the heels of discovering that Lilly had a completely shot CV boot, we had to make a trip to OKC. I'm not to keen on driving a car that I know needs repair (particularly to a driveline component) but, I had no choice in this situation.

The dash to OKC was uneventful and I never heard a peep out of that joint for the 6 days that we were there. However, when we hit the road heading home Tuesday evening we'd only gone about 100 miles when the telltale clicking and rumble started. For a while, I could ease-up on the throttle to unload the joint and it would silence itsself but, another 40 miles and even that wasn't doing any good.

From the brief pre-trip inspection, I knew that the boot was completely torn into two pieces so, I thought that if I could get any sort of viscous lubricant forced in there I might just be able to make it to Fort Worth or maybe even close enough to home so that AAA would haul her to the house in the event of a total failure.

We pulled into a Love's truckstop somewhere just north of the state line to look for cup grease or anything to lube that joint...the only lubricant I could find in a dispenser was, get this, fifth wheel lubricant! This stuff comes in a what looks like a tire sealant bottle and is the consistency of runny peanut butter.

I squirted about a tablespoon into what was left of the boot, trying my best to force the gook into the joint.

Guess what? It worked! We made it home and I never heard another sound out of that axle the remainder of the trip. Whew!

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

I forget who pulled it off but somebody drove a few thousand miles with their CV axle failing and it still never failed. I think he said he had to reposition the axle once or twice but it never totally gave out. Myself I believe my boots in the 84 were torn when I left VW, a week or so after getting home I noticed they were torn. The axles were still repairable! One axle was bone dry and the other was still damp from oil.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

i purchased my 80 300sd in 1994.just shortly after i experienced a metallic grinding noise from the right rear wheel.upon inspection i discovered both axle halfshafts had lost their oil and were totally dry.i repacked with a quality cv joint grease both innner and outer joints and never heard from them again until this winter when i started to hear some knocking again.this time i noticed one of the boots was torn in several places on the outer joint.i beleive these are the original as i have most service records on this car from previous owner.speaks volumes about mercedes quality.i have repacked the joint again and plan to install a new half shaft.meanwhile the noise has disapeared.

I think that the original joints had oil in them... as compared to grease...
However, there is also the possibility that if you backed up it stopped the noise temporaraly. My wagon had a bad CV joint .. and I thought one time it was going to EXPLODE on the road... I drove home at 15 mph.... took a long time.. but I found that if I stopped when it made the noise and backed up... it would stop it for anywhere from 100 to 400 miles...
I drove it 4,000 miles doing that... LOL

what kind of sound do they make? is it a humming sound that changes pitch when you accelerate or let off the gas?

Randy,

What was the worry? To the best of my knowledge isn't OKC north of Austin. Look at any road map. All you had to do was put the car in neutral and coast home. Duh! I assumed that is why I always come back to Corpus from Austin and SA faster than I go there.

The sound is a 'snapping', 'popping' or 'clicking' which happens at the same frequency as the rotation of the wheel. It can be faint or quite loud. Sometimes the noise can be silenced by reducing power and allowing slack in the driveline, by making a sharp turn or by backing up for a short distance.


Har, har!!! To me, traveling towards OKC always seemed faster; I always just assumed it was because OKC sucked so bad.

But, I will say somethings in defense of OKC:
1) OKC=good steaks, cheap
2) The place has a decent highway system, OKCs idea of rush hour gridlock is 6 cars...all with sight of each other.
3) When you return to OKC and go to your favorite restaurant, it is still there and, still has the same name.
3) Did I mention good steaks that are cheap?
4) Big Steve's Tools on Rte 66 - far better than Harbor Freight and home owned too.
5) Charcoal Oven has great burgers!

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

RLeo, I would rather go to Oklahoma any day of the week than Arkansas..

I was heading back toward Virginia from a summer seminar at UC Berkeley via Seattle (visit to wife's Swedish kinfolk) and the homefolks 23 miles northeast of the mythic site of Lake Wobegon in Minnesota, but when we reached Glacier National park, I discovered that the outer boot on the right side Löbro axle on my rusty '66 Porsche 911 had split open. After leaving the park, I found a small town garage that had a couple of tins of old fashioned Model A Ford water pump grease, which was very resistant to water, for obvious reasons, so I started packing the joint with that stuff when we stopped every evening, and sometimes at lunch. We made it all the way back to Virginia without any strange noises developing, then I gave the axle a new boot and repacked it with proper grease. I sold the car in '76 or early '77, but for all I know, it may still be running with that axle.