What causes front axles to fail repeatedly?

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Old 06-22-2015, 04:16 PM
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What causes front axles to fail repeatedly?

What is the root cause of failure of front axles and wheel bearings? My 2012 TL base version has had the front axles and wheel bearings replaced under warrantee due to horrible vibrations at highway speeds. The original vibration problems are slowly returning and it appears to be the left axle again. Same crap from two Acura dealers who cannot find the problem or pass it off as vehicle characteristic.

One thought from an independent mechanic is the sub frame is not aligned properly with the main chassis. The subframe mounts the engine and transmission and thus establishes the initial drive train alignment to the wheels. The axles are the point of wear. I have insisted the problem is the half shaft from the transmission to the axles as the only other potential source.

Any thoughts?
Old 06-22-2015, 04:24 PM
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fwd vehicle.

the axles fail on the 3rd generation TL as well.
Old 06-22-2015, 04:52 PM
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Old 06-22-2015, 06:13 PM
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Originally Posted by G01581
What is the root cause of failure of front axles and wheel bearings? My 2012 TL base version has had the front axles and wheel bearings replaced under warrantee due to horrible vibrations at highway speeds. The original vibration problems are slowly returning and it appears to be the left axle again. Same crap from two Acura dealers who cannot find the problem or pass it off as vehicle characteristic.

One thought from an independent mechanic is the sub frame is not aligned properly with the main chassis. The subframe mounts the engine and transmission and thus establishes the initial drive train alignment to the wheels. The axles are the point of wear. I have insisted the problem is the half shaft from the transmission to the axles as the only other potential source.

Any thoughts?
The way I understood it, axles only cause vibrations during acceleration and toying with the steering wheel usually helps the vibrations out:

Sometimes inner CV joints have issues and cause vibrations. These can be very hard to track down. The symptoms usually occur driving at speed, say 65 to 70 mph, and sometimes as low as 55 mph (but not often at that speed). You might notice that if you turn the wheel slightly to one side or the other, the vibration gets worse (or better if it's an inner CV joint problem). Once you turn the wheel straight again, everything’s fine. This normally tips me off to an inner CV joint problem.

Finding out which side it’s on gets a little tricky; I'll admit that it's mostly a guessing game. You can push up on the axle near the inner CV joint to check for play. The side that has the most play is likely to be the bad CV joint. However, this is not always the case. You can't repair these; you need to replace them. I'd recommend replacing the entire axle before attempting to replace just the inner joint. Axles, for the most part, are inexpensive these days, and replacing just the inner joint, if you can even find one, just isn't practical. If you replace one side and your vibration is still there, replace the other side and recheck. I did say this turns into a guessing game; I wasn't kidding.
Are you 100% certain that it's not a balancing issue, bent rim or another issue?
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