Is this a built in problem, one that really has no permanent solution? I have 0 mods and as such have never tracked it, I have my occasional “spirited driving”sessions but few and far between. Car came from somewhere on the east coast, got some service records from Florida, and I think the initial records were from Ohio so I have a crap ton of rust. Didn’t see it on initial inspection when I got her about 5 years back. Man oh man.

 

I think it's a Nissan quirk. There's a separate TSB for Nissan-branded cars, and the list of affected cars is quite long. My uncle's Versa suffered from the axle click.

Did your axle have an actual castle nut, or a regular nut with a flimsy castellated cover over it?

 

It’s a stupid castle cover. I put the order in for the Kawasaki nut, so fingers crossed on that front. On a side note, I think I’m going to torque the crap out of it and hope my wheel bearing doesn’t wear out quicker.

It says that for units equipped with standard nut, cover, and spring washer, torque to 77, but for units without the cover setup, to hit 130. Weird.

 

Just an update. Did the TSB, did not fix the issue. Tried it with a helper with the wheel off and decided it wasn’t coming from wheel area at all. Leaning towards inner cv joint as Bull had mentioned.

I got some off Napa new, both driver and passenger rears for about $270 out the door. Not terrible, and lifetime warranty (I plan on keeping my G for many more years).

I do prefer OEM, especially for axles, so I propose a question, likely technical.

Looking at the diagram, they don’t sell the bearing itself, so I’m screwed on that front. I could buy the whole inner side but we are looking at close to cost of new axle, doesn’t make sense. There are some things inside the cv joint itself, such as a locking ring, that can in fact be replaced. I’m getting the new axles in on Thursday. I will pull the axle again on Friday, and start a tear down to see if anything jumps out at me as fixable. For example that snap ring is like 12 bucks that somehow attaches the cv joint bearing to the housing.

Stay tuned, I’ll update on Friday.

 

You did the the best thing you can do for these real world problems. An aftermarket axle is something many folks dread however it can yield good results.
FYI most of these axles will require diffferent hardware to work.

The OEM axle has threads for the bolts to catch on to, many aftermarket axles do not which will require you to purchase the nuts for these bolts or new bolts and nuts. Pay attention to this prior to install so you're not stuck.
Use some Performance grease on the outer spline/shaft and make sure to take a wire brush to the inside of the hub to make sure these surfaces are as clean as possible. A nice glob of grease will ensure proper lubrication, any excess can be wiped off.
If you find a torque wrench adapter feel free to torque the axle bolts. I have 2x 14mm extended wrenches that I use to tighten by hand(tighten until exhaustion) and you'll be good. The Kawasaki nut can't hurt.

 

I decided that I might as well replace the differential bushings at this time as well, I’m going to have both axles removed, and this rustoleum rust remover stuff is working great to salvage rusted out old nuts and bolts so I’m not as concerned with rust on the hardware when I unbolt it. My differential cover is all rusted out as well, so I’m going to take the time to drop the cover into the rust remover as well and inspect the differential for tolerances. I don’t have a transmission lift, but I think I can get away with some makeshift hangers to get it out without falling on me. 100 pounds isn’t bad, reminds me of when I manhandled the transmission out of my first car (a Hyundai)

I think I will be going white line bushings and I’m also debating getting the z1 subframe bushing collars while I have this stuff off. I have some sylglide, moly77, and stp ep moly grease available. If there is anything else that might be good, let me know. I’m also a little concerned with the fact that if i stiffen up the subframe, I do realize my suspension components will “absorb” that shock factor. So I’m under the assumption that I may be looking to replace suspension components sooner than later if failure occurs. Not sure if the trade off is worth it. I’m trying to keep some cash saved up in my burnable cash pile incase I run a galley gasket leak. I know that i will likely be doing much more than just the galley gasket if it ever fails. (Rusted out Harmonic Balancer, water pump, timing chain and tensioner, various pulleys and the cost of specific tools to get the job done)

 

The diff can be bench pressed/finagled in there. Bushings can be a pain depending on your tools.

You can always replace just the back diff bushing and collars, keeping the front bushings will add some flexibility.

 

That is a thought, but I tend to take a long time to do things, so much so that I think I'll forget the collars for now. I got the whiteline bushing on order, should be here tomorrow. While prepping my mind for the project at hand, I decided to try to get some stuff out of the way for tomorrow. Unfortunately, things didn't go well as I snapped a few studs holding the muffler on to the rear of the car. I hit the stuff with some rust remover prior to attempting but it didn't sit long enough so I snapped the damn threads with my breaker bar. I think I will grind down those studs tomorrow and drill the rest of the stud out. See what I'm working with, either a steel plate tapped out or if I can tap the frame where it mounts to. Ah, the sweet joys of life. On a side note I'm proceeding to take off what I can to remove the rust and anodized the steel prior to reinstall.








Update:

Took the day to remove the sway bar links and bar itself, driver side axle, and rear portion of the exhaust. Couldn't get the bolts/nuts out of the y, they seemed welded so hit em with a flappy wheel and drilled a portion out of the remainder to pull em out. Taking the rest of the day to fix the 3 broken muffler studs and figure out a solution for it, think I'll tap em out with a 5/16 x 24 bolt for some SS bolts. Will do the same for the y pipe, but will likely use grade 8 bolts there with copper antiseize. I'll pull the passenger side axle and drop the diff tomorrow if the cards are in my favor. Thinking about hitting the entire exhaust with black high temp paint after I do a rust conversion on it. Should be okay.

 

Got the differential off, that was easy but difficult at the same time. Took some strategy. Ended up using a strap and a jack. Lowered the strapped front together with the jack. Came out alright. Strap was put in place to allow movement to free the bushing stud and the driveshaft but worked out for removal altogether.

So now I got my darn diff out, and I'm spinning the gears and it's grumbling. Anyone that has done anything with the diff before, Id appreciate some input as to if sound is normal or if I have a failing bearing.

 

I think you found the source of the clicking. When under load, the sound would be louder and more pronounced.

How did the gear oil look when you drained it, in terms of quantity and quality?

 

Boy that's concerning! The diff should not make any sound as it spins, make sure you confirm there's nothing close to the stubs or flanges or ABS tone ring as you're spinning it.
Looks like your diff is done which is a real bummer. Though it looks like it was the diff and not the axles you have a few options to try.

Axles are good core items to have, as much headache as it will be to to utilize the stock axles again I would recommend you do that. It's really possibly the axles were never bad and this could save you some money now.
Axles are something you can install later if money is tight. Concentrate on getting a good diff and do the bushings on that. The new diff and added bushings will decrease the movement in that area and hopefully closes the loop in this issue.

 

We noticed the axle was not shifting with the differential when we tested. It lead us to believe that the axle was shot for sure. The inner joint had enough play to clink when in the differential and wheel hub, just not enough to do with it off and moved by hand. I opened the boot up and saw no issues whatsoever, but I also don't exactly know what I'm looking for. No metal, plenty of grease, smooth movements, no etching of the joint housing.

One thing about the differential is that if I spin the spline for the driveshaft, there is no noise at all. It's only when I spin the axle side where it makes that sound. I would love to get my hands on another diff to see if there were any differences. I'd also be up for doing a swap if I could get taller gears, like the 3.6 but I don't feel like swapping the front out to match. Or maybe an LSD, but the thread about the LSD was inconclusive and more or less leaning towards no.

Would it be worth it to open it up and check it out, rebuild if necessary or do you think a swap would be better. I know differentials are not really known to fail.

Also I drained they fluid and it was black. Gunk on the mag, but nothing abnormal. I had the fluids swapped at 100k and it's pushing 140k (I did the diff fluid about three weeks ago). Haven't drained this new batch of gear oil, but I likely will.

 

Just took the differential in to Hoopers up in Sun Valley (Los Angeles), they checked out the diff and said it was good to go. Axles carriers sounding like that when spun is part of the way spider gears work. The clicking in the video I posted was normal. Bushings were a massive pain to remove on both the subframe and on the diff itself. One of the differential Bushings had rusted itself on, and that required me basically Sawzall grinding out a quarter inch channel and taking a cold chisel to the lip to pop it out. The other one came out no problem with a few swings of a sledge and a 35mm socket.

Hoopers checked the tolerances of the diff, and at 142k miles, everything was good and still in spec. Backlash of ring and pinion was .004, which was still close to minimum brand new. They said that my pinion bearing seemed a tiny bit tight which might represent a problem later down the road but in regular driving, should be perfectly fine for the remaining life of the vehicle (another 150k miles). They pulled the axle carriers and dropped new seals in for me.

Time to clean out the gasket material, and reapply gasket maker in the channels and near the screw holes as the manufacturer did. I have two new rear axles, kawasaki castle nut, Spring washers, cotter pins etc ready to go. I intend to use the passenger side oem axle upon reassembly to test the new drivers side axle, make sure I don't have any excessive vibrations or wobbles or anything funky. Once it tests okay, and if there are still clicking noises coming from passenger side, I'll drop the passenger axle and replace that unit as well and test again. If there are no sounds at all after replacement, I'll leave the oem axle on passenger side.

I also have the m77 lube for the axles as well. So I will be performing the clicking tsb upon installation. Stay tuned over the next couple of days.

 

Come to think about it, many of the diffs I've checked have fluid.
Never crossed my mind to ask if there was fluid in there and if there was not any then it makes sense.
Though the sound gives a worry and many times it can be an indicative pointer it might not always be the case.
You cant debate checked tolerances.

 

There was gear oil in the diff for a long time. I drained it before taking it in, but in the video it was full. One thing I did not check and I know the guy didn't check was the total distance from flange to flange. It's supposed to be 12.83 - 12.91. Unfortunately that's both a large number and a tight tolerance. Most digital calipers go up to 6, maybe 12. Anything past that is in the realm of quite expensive.