High quality cars are always sought after in the market. Most of these cars pride themselves in their performance and stylish exteriors like what Volvo produces. Built with quality and safety in mind, their cars are designed to be fast but smoothly. How do these cars go so fast and so smooth? The car's drive shaft is the answer.
The Volvo drive shaft is essentially the carrier of torque, a device that transfers power from the car's engine to the point where work is applied. The drive shafts today have universal joints or U-joints, which are the devices that help them to move up and down during suspension. One type of U-joint is a Volvo CV joint. It is designed to create a smooth transfer of torque from the driven shaft to the driving shaft without any fluctuations in the speed of the driven shaft. They are primarily used in front wheel drive and all wheel drive cars. On the other hand, rear wheel drive cars with independent rear suspensions commonly use CV joints at the ends of the rear axle halfshafts.
The Volvo CV joint is packed with grease and protected by a rubber or plastic boot called CV boot. There are two commonly used types of CV joints, a ball-type and a tripod-type. The ball-type CV joints are used on the outer side of the drive shaft, while tripod-type CV joints are usually used on the inner side.
Since is made from high quality materials, it will not need any immediate replacing. In fact, it doesn't require regular maintenance, unlike other car parts. One may encounter some problems regarding the CV joints in case the protective boot gets damaged. When this happen, the grease comes out and moisture and dirt will come in. This may cause the Volvo CV joint to become defective. One can tell if he has a problematic CV joint once there is a clicking or popping noise when turning.