Subaru Impreza CV Joint Replacement
The fiancee's 07 Impreza just hit 120,000 miles, and what better way to ring in the
milestone with a torn cv boot! We just recently went up to New York for a holiday
break. As soon as we got to our destination, we noticed a strange burning smell
coming from the heater vents. My first thought was that maybe we ran over a bag or
something that burned up on the exhaust, but after lifting up the hood and seeing some
smoke come from around the exhaust manifold, I saw what I was dealing with.
This project is pretty extensive, and in turn, requires a significant amount of
tools to make the job easier.
This job is somewhat difficult and will require an extra set of hands. The first thing you
will need to do is throw the car up on jackstands for safety. Depending on if you are using
an impact hammer or a breaker bar, you may be rocking the car quite a bit, so make sure it is
nice and sturdy! Once you get the car up on stands, you want to remove the wheel of the side
you are working on, and start to spray the large 32mm axle nut with some pb blaster. If you have
been using the car all year round, you will find that the nut is packed with sand/dirt/debris.
This step is very important, and may present some trouble if you dont appropriatly prep the axle
nut for removal. If you take a close look, you will notice that one part of the axle end is notched,
and you should also see that within the notch, the nut's lip is pressed in. This is done to prevent
the nut from turning once it has been torqued down. In the picture below, you will notice this notch
close to the 6o'clock position.
To unbend the clip, you will want to take a flat head screw driver, and a heavy rubber mallet. By placing
the screwdriver tip into the notch, and banging with the mallet, you should get the lip of the nut to start
bending back out.
Eventually you will get the bent lip unbent enough that the nut won't have too much trouble turning away from
it. Take note that if you cannot get the lip unbent, you will still be able to break the nut free, but
it will require a bit more work, and most certainly an impact hammer.
Once you get the lip unbent enough, you will want to grab your 32mm socket and either a breaker bar
or more preferably, an impact hammer. If you soaked the nut with pb blaster at the beginning you
will find that this step may go by a bit quicker than normal. A solid tip to help you is to grab a
screwdriver and slide it into one of the vanes of the brake rotor closest to the caliper. This will
help keep the axle stationary while you are trying to torque off the nut.
After repeated attempts with a breaker bar, I eventaully had to resort to an impact hammer, so
I highly recommend one!! Eventually you will get the nut to break free and you will be well on
your way to the next steps.
The next step will require you to remove the alignment cam from the spindle arm. These two bolts will
separate the spindle from the suspension which will give you some room to work on sliding the axle end
out of the spindle. Before you start though, you will want to do yourself a favor and mark/notch your
alignment cam so that you can place it back in the same way. This will save you from having to get the
car re-aligned after you are done
Next, grab yourself your 19mm socket and box wrench, and work towards breaking the nuts free from the
bolts. Go slowly and be aware that the spindle will drop down a bit towards you. Dont worry, it wont
fall off or anything.
Once you get those bolts removed, you will also want to unbolt the brake line from the shock tower. This
step isn't exactly necessary, but I found that it really helped make some room for me. Your mileage may
vary here.
This is probably the most time consuming part of the entire job. Luckily, with this MY of the Impreza,
the axles are both male ends, so there is no special pin that needs to be removed from the inner boot.
Your next task here is to try and get the spindle side part of the axle out of the spindle. To do this
you will need to grab your mallet, and start tapping at the axle end (where you removed the large nut from).
You will notice that as you are banging, the axle will start to go inwards, and eventually enough of it
will retract that you can then pull it out of the back of the spindle. Below is an illustration of what
I mean about tapping the axle end.
I wish I had some better images of this part of the job, but my hands were tied! I found that the best way
to remove the axle from the spindle is to turn the steering wheel in the opposite direction of
the wheel you removed and then push down on the spindle while removing the axle end
pulling it towards the rear of the vehicle
Soon you will be left with half the axle removed, leaving you with the task of removing the other end of
the axle from the front differential. I have heard of some people having so much trouble with this part
that they needed to grab a slide/hammer kit, but I was honestly able to get it out easily with just a few
push-pull plunging. Eventually that sucker will pop out and hopefully you didn't fall backwards.
Now that you have removed the axle, you will want to put it aside and eventually properly dispose of it.
Grab your new axle, and remove any packaging from the splined ends. Be very careful here
handling the axle, the last thing you want to do is damage your new one.
To install the axle, you will want to work the transmission side first. Before you install, make sure to
add some grease to the splined end to help the install process. Gently insert the differential end and take
note of the alignment. This is where it will be helpful to have a second set of hands / eyes. You want to
gently rotate the axle until it gets properly aligned and starts to slide in a bit. Eventually you will no
longer be able to press in the axle without some help from your trusty mallet. Gently start tapping the axle
until it sits flush with the differential.
Next, you will want to work the spindle end. Just like before, you will want to push down on
the spindle and get the axle to align with the bearing. Take note that it may very well not
slide in easily and do not force it. What you will want to do is get your trusty helper to
slowly spin the rotor while you gently 'wiggle' the splined end into the spindle. Eventually you will
properly align the splines, and you will be able to easily lift the spindle up towards the shock tower.
Once you have the axle installed, you will first want to torque down the alignment bolts on the shock
tower. This will help hold everything in place while you install the axle nut. Make sure to align
the alignment bolt (the topmost one) with the notches that you placed. Take note that the bolt only
goes in one way, so slowly turn it until it eventually slides in. Dont go bashing it with a hammer.
Next, grab your impact hammer and start to torque down to 160ft/lbs. And do not forget to bend the
lip of the nut with a screwdriver and hammer.
The Subaru service manual recommends that you replace the cv axle seals any time you replace the axles.
Unfortunately I didn't notice this tidbit of information until after I had started removing things.
Subaru Impreza CV Joint Replacement
Requirements
Getting Started...
Un-Bend The Axle Clip
Time to Break The Nut Free
Don't Lose Your Alignment
Remove the Axle
Time To Install The New
Finish Up In Reverse Order
A Few Notes