How to Tell if Your UTV or ATV Axle Is Broken (and What to Do Next)

What was that sound? Is that a rock bouncing around in your wheel, or is your axle about to explode? That’s a pretty important distinction to make, and if you want to be prepared for anything on the trail, you need to know your axles inside and out—what wears them out, what they do when they’re wearing out, and how to tell if your axle is broken.

That’s what we’re looking at today. So open your eyes and ears and take a closer examination of your axles.

Why a Healthy Axle Matters More Than You Think

Axles are important… obviously. They’re technically part of the drivetrain, and when part of the drivetrain stops working, your ATV or UTV just isn’t gonna do what you want it to.

Axles are especially vulnerable because they work with the suspension, so they have to move a lot and tend to get hit by debris and obstacles a lot.

So they take a beating, and recognizing when they’ve gotten a little too beat up is key to saving the rest of your machine from expensive damage.

The sound, look, and behavior of your axles are all clues to how they’re doing, and taking care of problems early can save your weekend and your wallet.

Why ATV or UTV Axles Wear Out or Break

Here’s the thing about ATV and UTV axles—they don’t like getting hot.

Typically, things that make your axles hot will wear them out quicker. Here are a few examples of things that heat them up:

• Letting your suspension fully drop will heat up your CV joints due to increased friction between the ball bearings, cage, and CV cup.
• Broken or cut CV boots will lose grease, and lost grease leads to more friction and more heat.
• Riding when it’s really hot can obviously increase the heat buildup in your CV joints.
• Riding for long periods of time at high speed on a road can overheat CV joints.
• Using a lift kit can increase the angle your axles need to operate at and increase heat buildup.
• Overloading your machine with cargo puts a strain on everything, including your axles.

Sid-by-sides are tough and built for all kinds of action, but when you pile on a few of these scenarios, your axles will start to feel the burn.

Unless you’ve fully wedged your tire and slam on the gas to snap your axle in a single moment, heat will slowly wear your axle down until it finally can’t take it anymore.

Signs of a Broken or Worn ATV or UTV Axle

The good news, sort of, is that your axle will let you know when it’s ready to go to the big scrap pile in the sky. It’ll start making new noises and perform a little differently too. So let’s learn the language of dying axles by looking through all the symptoms.

• If you hear clicking or popping noises when turning or vibration during acceleration, that’s your axle telling you the ball bearings in the CV are failing
• Grease on or around the axle boot tells you that the boot is damaged and CV temps will start skyrocketing
• Sudden loss of power to one wheel means your axle is broken

If you get any of these signals from your machine, it’s time to stop and inspect your axle.

How to Visually Inspect Your ATV or UTV Axle

Checking an axle is easy. Unlike your minivan at home, you should be able to get a good look at your ATV’s or UTV’s axles just by lying down with a flashlight.

Here’s what you need to look for:

• The first thing you should check (and it should be pretty obvious if there’s a problem) is if the axle is connected to the wheel and the differential or transmission. If it’s hanging loose in a bad way, then you’ve got a ride-ending problem.
• Next, check the boots. If you see dust and dirt caked onto and around the boot, that’s a sign that it’s leaking. If the boot folded up and twisted, that’s a sign the CV itself is broken.

Sometimes a break can be more subtle than either of these. If you suspect your axle is broken because of odd four-wheel or two-wheel drive behavior, you should remove it to inspect it.

Here’s how to do that:

• UTVs and ATVs have a lot of suspension travel, so you’ll want to use a floor jack to make sure you have enough lift to get them off the ground.
• Before you jack up your machine, chock your tires. Then get a flat, padded surface for the jack and find a good jack surface on the frame.
• Lift it slowly, and just enough to get the tires off the ground. Use jack stands to give your machine some extra stability too.
• Finally, remove your wheel, disconnect the top ball joint to give you access to your axle, and yank the axle out. Remember, stability is key.
• Once you have your axle removed, it’s easy to tell if its CV joint is broken because it will hang down loosely when you hold it by the axle bar. At this point, you can remove the boot to see how it’s broken and decide what to do next.

When You Should Replace the Axle

So you’ve got a broken axle. Now what?

It’s time to decide whether you need to repair it or replace it, and there are a few things to consider before you make your decision.

1. Is the axle shaft broken? Usually, the broken part of the axle shaft is hidden under the boot. If it is broken, you’ll have to replace your axle with a new one (like our Rhino 2.0 Axles).
2. Is the CV joint broken? If the spider, cage, or cup is broken, you’ll need to at least replace the CV joint. If your axle is popping and clicking, it’s highly recommended to replace your joint or axle.
3. If your boot is leaking, but you don’t have any other symptoms, you should replace your boot right away, no questions asked.

Now, back on that point number 2: you’ve got a broken CV joint, and now you have to decide if you want to repair your joint or replace the whole axle. The thing is, replacing a CV joint is a pain in the butt, and replacement CV joints cost around $100.

Our favorite solution: buy a new axle, and fix up the broken axle when you have time (i.e., winter), then you can save your refurbished axle for a spare during the busy riding season.

Know the Signs, Avoid the Breakdown

The thing to remember is that catching symptoms early gives you some time to solve these problems your way. You don’t want to end up with a blown axle 50 miles from nowhere.

So do your pre-ride checks, spot the problems, and fix them.

And when your axle does break, check out SuperATV’s axles for the fix you need.