May have bad axle, replace shocks and struts too?
 

I have a 2005 Civic, 115k miles.

Recently it started making a "click" noise when I release the clutch and start accelerating, it clicks once every time I shift gears 1-3. It doesn't click when I turn and accel like my old civic did when the CV boot broke. The boots look fine, no leaking grease.

Can the axles go bad without the boots going first? The car has a lot of hard city miles as my job requires lots of running around.

I'm not sure about my shocks/struts either. The car doesnt feel into the road like I used to, feels top heavy and loose, especially at 65+. I know my tires have a softer sidewall compared to my old ones. It doesn't get all bouncy over bumps at speed like my old cars, tread wear is perfect, I'm not sure if its tires or shocks/struts.

I'm pretty confident I can replace the axles, not sure about the shocks/struts though.

Thanks in advance.

I dont think it's your axles. I had that same single click problem around the 100,000 mi mark and it went away when I changed my clutch. From what I could tell, it was an issue with the little spring/clip that holds the clutch fork onto the ball. I did not change the axles at that time and the click never came back (50,000 mi and counting).


If your handling is mushy, I would first look at the tires. I have noticed even certain tire manufacturers have a significantly larger amount of sidewall flex, like yokohama. Every BF goodrich ive used is like riding on rails, but are loud. If you want more precise handling, consider a summer tire for the warm months, and a winter or performance winter for the snowy months.

Does it click when you just press the clutch pedal in and out staying in neutral? If so it's something with the clutch mechanism. Another thing you can try is start off in first, step on the gas hard, then release it, let the car slow down then accelerate again (without pressing the clutch or shifting gears). If that makes the noise each time you may have a bad motor mount.

There's one click when I'm coming off the clutch and the car starts to move forward, then one click every time I shift up to 3rd gear, It clicks when I start reversing as well. It dosen't seem to click when I shift from 3rd to 4th or 4th to 5th, it may be I just can't hear as well because of road noise. It doesn't click when I'm sitting still and moving the shift lever.

There are never multiple clicks, it's always just when I start coming off the clutch and begin to accelerate.

I was afraid it was something else. When I've had bad axles in the past the CV boot broke then shortly after there was the clicking during turns. CV boots are fine and there is no noise when I turn, that's why I wasn't sure.

Will it do any damage if I ride it out for a few months? Or should I just fix it now?

I've never done a clutch on a FWD car so it should be interesting.

When I first got my tires I noticed a difference in handling right away, I guess I'm just noticing it more now because my car has 115k and I know things are gonna need replaced soon. How long do factory shocks/struts usually last? I know the shops say every 50k miles but I don't trust what they say.

Not sure if waiting it out will be ok or not. Hard to tell.

Few words of advice if you do change the clutch: make sure you know how to loosen lower balljoints without damaging them, how to deal with the shift link pin, and have a 12 point socket set for the compression plate bolts.

Everything else is pretty straightforward once you wrestle it off the block.

Factory struts last a really long time. Look to see if one is maybe leaking, but I doubt you've blown them all. If anything, worn control arm bushings would be more likely. And if you have swaybars, maybe those bushings/endlinks too.

Yeah I'm gonna do a lot of research to make sure I can do it.

I did a 4 cycl to v8 swap in my '93 Mustang, only thing I had ever done was alternator/starter before that. It was a learning experience but was a lot of fun. I kind of look forward to gettin my honda fixed up.

New noise I noticed today.

https://www.hondacivicforum.com/foru...31/#post758919

Quick question to boiler:

Did you replace your transmission mount when you replaced your clutch? My transmission and front motor mounts are broken, I was told this could also make the click sound.

Right on, I didn't change the big transmission mount, but I did change the torque mount that is mounted to the underside of the frame rail on the transmission side.

Well, umm, yeah maybe it could... Or maybe Honda just puts a bunch of extra parts on their cars which really don't actually do anything so you can just let them break and nothing is going to go wrong...

You should replace those mounts first, as it's very likely there is nothing wrong with your clutch. What happened in the tests I suggested?