Passenger CV Joint Binding, Unknown Reason, Help?

[ProjectAsics5789]

Looking to cure my confusion.

I am the proud owner of a 2000 QX4. Currently have 155K approx. on the vehicle ( don't want to walk out to the garage to get exact milage, forgive me). Bought it with 108k on it 3 yrs ago.

Note, if I am using the wrong terminology anywhere when describing things I apologize. I am not a car guy really. My Dad is the car guy and helps me with all the maintenance on my QX4. I have learned a lot working with him, but I might use a wrong term now and again. But please throw all the technical jargon at me you guys have when responding because it will help my Dad out a lot in remedying this problem of mine.

Anyway. This takes place over the course of a year or so.

The boot seals on both the driver and passenger CV joints were torn. Flinging grease. Decided they needed to be replaced. Bought two Cardone CV joint/axel assemblies (the whole kit, not rebuilds, brand new, any thoughts on the brand?). Driver side one installed no problem. Bolted up nice and easy to the drive flange on the front differential. Turning the axel by moving the wheel studs was snug but not impossible. It could be turned by hand. All was fine essentially.

The passenger side CV joint was a different story. It was difficult to get the 3 pairs of bolts to bolt up flush to the passenger side of the differential's drive flange. There was about an 1/8 of inch gap or so. A car jack was placed gently under the control A-arm right where it joins up near the back plate/rotor, to help move the CV joint closer to the drive flange so it would bolt easier. And it did bolt up real easy after that. Note, a jack was not used on the driver side to help raise the the whole rotor when bolting it into place.

Back to the passenger side. So after bolting the CV joint to the passenger differential and removing the car jack, the rotor and suspension obviously fall a bit. Turing the axel/CV joint at the wheel studs now becomes impossible. The CV joint binds up. And if steel breaker bar is used and placed over one of the wheel studs to give leverage to turn the wheel, the CV joint/axel will turn, with a large application of force. In fact, there are hard spots where it binds while turning, and then it relaxes again after you've given it some force and turned pass the binding spot. Obviously this is not normal. Not good. The CV joint was unbolted from the differential and removed from the car. We chalked the binding up to a bad CV joint. A defective part. The worn, original CV joint was put back on the car and I exchanged what we believed to be a defective and binding CV joint for a new one of the same brand.

A year passed before we revisited this problem. A year with the original factory CV joint in place on the passenger side of my vehicle, giving me no issues. No binding. No noises.

It is now present day. The 2nd CV joint that was exchanged (a year ago) for the supposed defective one has finally been put on the car, two weeks ago in fact. So for two weeks, I drove around with a brand new CV joint on my passenger side. And then the issues arose. I would hear this thumping nose at times on the front passenger side. Would hear it mostly when I was making harder right turns, especially downhill. Wasn't sure what it was. Only seemed to come about with the right turns and not on a straight-a-way or rolling down the freeway. Sometimes I would hear it with a little more forceful braking at a light or stop sign. Then a couple of days ago, the thumping started occurring on the straight-a-ways, basically whenever I braked.

We get the car in the garage. Put her up in the air (no tires on the ground). I sit in the car and put it into 4 HI, because we wanted all 4 tires to turn. We thought it might be the breaks at first, but we were wrong.

Putting the car in 4 HI, moving it into Drive and letting my foot off the brake revealed the origin of the banging/thumping noise. It was the front passenger CV joint binding. The whole front of the car, including the front differential was shaking and thumping. You could physically watch the pumpkin in front move side to side. We thought that the newly installed passenger CV joint was defective again. So we unbolted the newly installed passenger CV joint away from the differential. Put the car back into 4 wheel HI. No thumping or banging. So we deduced that the CV joint was the issue and not a bad bearing inside the differential.

We then exchanged position of the CV joints on the car (newly installed passenger CV went to driver side and the year old driver side CV went to the passenger side). Newly installed passenger CV installed fine on the driver side allowing for the seamless turnover of the axel and rotor. No binding. No carjack was needed So we knew that the CV joint wasn't defective (although it could have been damaged because of the binding it incurred on the passenger side over the past two weeks). The year old driver side one was installed and just trying to turn it over by hand was impossible. It bound up. But with the aid of a car jack lifting up on the control A arm, just behind where it joints the rotor's backing plate, the year old driver side CV joint turns over seamlessly again. But once the jack is removed, the CV joint will bind.

What is different on the passenger side of my car? What has sagged or fallen now over the past year that makes the CV joint bind? Because now putting the original, factory CV joint on it with 100k plus miles sees little binding and if we put the car back up in the air on put the car into 4 HI there is that same movement of the pumpkin and thumping, which becomes more pronounced at higher RPMs.

Any ideas though where to start with this issue? Are the bushing on the passenger control arm failing?

Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[4xq]

The front differential mounting brackets would be my first suspect. The part numbers are 54730 and 54710m in the front drive mounting here:

http://www.courtesyparts.com/pathfinder ... _4798.html

Those brackets have anti-vibration neoprene type mountings much like a front control arm bushing. I suspect they have failed. That would let your front diff / axle assembly move around. Pretty rare problem, but I have seen a couple postings on it. My guess is you will need both sides if things have been able to move as you describe.

But on a car 10 + years old I would still verify that your front control arm bushings and ball joint are ok. This could be a two part problem.

[ProjectAsics5789]

I appreciate the info and will definitely look into those things. Thank you. :-)