I noticed a vibration in my 2006 FEH and took it to the dealer. They found that the U-Joints were bad. Only 20,000 Km anyone else have issues with this ?

Seems a little bit soon for this type of problem.

 

The drivetrain of the FEH use c.v. joints not u-joints for both the drive shaft and the axle shafts. The AWD syst. on the FEH looks like the AWD syst. Ford uses on the Jaguar X-Type. I worked as a tech. at Jaguar and I replaced 2-3 drivesharts a week for NVH concerns on the X-Type so the failure dosn't suprise me one bit. just be happy it failed while under warranty drive and axle shafts arn't cheap.

 

Nope. 17,000 miles since July '06. Nothing yet.

Steve
Oregon

 

All I know that the invioce for the repair from the Ford Dealer clearly states 3 U-Joints replaced not c.v. joints. Not sure what do you mean by NVH concerns.

 

C.V. joint is an acronynm for constant velocity joint (a u-joint will tend to speed up and slow down every revolution, the greater the working angle the more pronounce the variations in velocity become, ie. non-constant velocity joint) Trust me there isn't a single u-joint on your vehicle. N.V.H. is another acronynm for noise, vibration, and harshness (buzzes, squeaks, rattles clunks, shimmies, ect...) N.V.H. is a classification of work at the dealership (I would have a full head of hair and a fatter wallet if not for N.V.H. concerns!) It sounds like the entire drive shaft was replaced, it has 3 C.V. joints and a hanger bearing. It is cheaper to replace the shaft then to service the joints (I don't think the C.V. joints are servicable anyway on this application)
Like I said before on a prior post be thankful it failed under warranty.

 

If your are right in what you are saying why would the dealer tell me U-Joints. If they are wrong what concerns should I have with the repair ?

Acording to you the dealer nows less than you and probally should not be working on my car. Do you have any links to backup the fact that there are no U-Joints in FEH. That would be great.

 

My guess...... the terms U-Joints and CV joints are probably VERBALLY used interchageably by some techs..... However you've got no problems with your repair. Whatever parts were required were installed. I don't think the tech would ever get the thing back together if he didn't use the appropriate parts... You just couldn't put a random U-Joint in where a CV joint belongs because the parts are very much individual to the drive train of a particular vehicle line.

Heck its the case more times than you think that the parts for a '06 of a particular vehicle won't even fit an '07! The air cabin filter on the Escape is a prime example.

 

IMHO the tech. who worked on your FEH Knows the differerence between a "u-joint" and a "c.v. joint". Now days the techs. time is too valuable to type out the repair sequence in the computer, in a lot of dealerships the service advisors enter in a second hand account of the repair, thus leaving the cust. with innacurate info. on the repair order.

It is good you don't believe every thing you read on the internet, but right now I have neither the time nor the energy to find a "link" about the lack of u-joints on a FEH. I guess you are just have to take my word on it, or maybe someone else could chime in to set the record straight. I have beter things to do with my time.
Now excusse me I have to go and watch some paint dry.

 

Go look them up on wikipedia. They'll have pictures.

Both joints deal with the engineering problem of allowing a shaft to rotate at the same speed as the shaft it is connected to at variable angles.

U-joints are the old school solution, cv joints are a later solution.
Same basic task.

U-joints bear on needle bearings, cv joints bear on rolling *****.



NVH stands for Noise, Vibration and Harshness.