Cv shafts keep popping out

[Jac]

It seems like there is a quite well defined set of issues with not many more outside that group. I imagine that once Rivian correctly fixes those issues (in a permanent manner) the truck should be good to go for a very long time. It's really overbuilt for it's intended purpose and should hold up quite well.

As a non-engineer, this CV/half-shaft failure issue sounds scary bad and has me concerned. Am I wrong to think one of these failing at speed could potentially be dangerous? I assume, while the reported failures so far have been on R1Ts, R1Ss share the same front end assembly and likely will be equally prone to current-design CV failure?

Can you speculate what the possible/likely permanent fix will be to make the R1 vehicles as robust as we‘d expect our adventure vehicles to be (at least with regard to their half-shafts)?

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[NY_Rob]

^ I wish I knew what the problem is... I'd love to see this problem solved. My gut says it's a combination of a few issues that manifest under certain conditions. Rivian needs to conduct a complete review of failed units as it's just unimaginable that brand new trucks are blowing out CV-Joints within weeks of delivery... and then blowing out the replacement CV-Joints too.

 

[jebinc]

^ I wish I knew what the problem is... I'd love to see this problem solved. My gut says it's a combination of a few issues that manifest under certain conditions. Rivian needs to conduct a complete review of failed units as it's just unimaginable that brand new trucks are blowing out CV-Joints within weeks of delivery... and then blowing out the replacement CV-Joints too.

Sure is. And equally baffling as to why Rivian is staying silent on the matter. Hmmmmm; feels like another thing they copied from Tesla…. Next, they will claim it’s “normal”…

 

[NY_Rob]

Sure is. And equally baffling as to why Rivian is staying silent on the matter. Hmmmmm; feels like another thing they copied from Tesla…. Next, they will claim it’s “normal”…

They've already done that with the "tock" sound coming from the half-shafts telling one owner "it's normal...all the other trucks make the same sound". That is not how you solve problems.

 

[anotherburrito]

My drivetrain noises (tonks, clunk, etc) have been looked at in my driveway (twice) and at the service center. To Rivian Service's credit after the home visit, he said "I want to get this up on the lift so I can run a few more tests." Of course, on a cold morning, I dropped the truck off the drivetrain was as quiet as can be. It's a little quieter now, but not much. The "tonk" continues to worry me that at minimum we're going to have some early wear on the drivetrain, somewhere.

 

[jebinc]

They've already done that with the "tock" sound coming from the half-shafts telling one owner "it's normal...all the other trucks make the same sound". That is not how you solve problems.

Well, there ya go… Tesla copy complete.

 

[jclicky]

I don't have a problem at all discussing issues and problems. Like I said, I'm concerned about this particular issue and changing how I plan to use the truck for now by avoiding the highest setting because of what I read here. But getting tired of page after page of those declaring the company is going bankrupt and failing on a large scale for issues that really aren't any better or worse than just about every other car manufacturer. Bash any one of those and someone is sure to chime in they have had a great experience with that same company
And Rivian's service team for me has been far better than the prior Ford dealership I had to deal with that essentially committed maintenance malpractice so bad it was only exceeded by even worse totally inept communication skills over 2 months. The few times I have had to contact Rivian they have far exceeded that experience. Like I said before, I'm not minimizing anyone's real individual problems and experiences they have had. I just have a problem with those generalizing those individual issues with a declaration that Rivian is failing. I have much more faith in Rivian being able to improve on their expected growing pains than the dealership model.

This, 100% true.

It’s like the morons on CNBC when they were discussing Rivian’s stock, Joe couldn’t be moved off of his idiotic take. IMO a company proactively issuing a voluntary recall & executing it quickly is a sign of strength, not weakness.


Rivian makes cars so at some point in their life they were going to have a recall of some kind.

They showed their stripes vs. other manuf. who resist & obfuscate at every turn or worse, deny it (“it’s within spec!”).


I mean, this CV joint issue is not great, but I see signs they are working problems. They aren’t putting out more broken auto tonneau covers, they are pushing software fixes, they are building out service center capacity, etc.

It’s tempting to grade Rivian on the corporate curve of incompetence, but ramp-ups & first-gens always have problems, the fact they are transparent & addressing problems is a good sign, so I don’t agree that they will necessarily follow Tesla (who wouldn’t have backtracked on price increases, IMO), and avoid/ignore build-quality issues.

we don’t need to be cynical to be realistic here.

 

[Offgrid]

So to circle back on this. The cv shaft popped out twice in the same shaft. First time they said they replaced the shaft and the cv disconnect (the side it popped out of ) and the hub end due to damaged splines. A week later it popped out again on the disconnect side. It went back into the sc and they reviewed the last work order and realized they didn’t replace the disconnect. That apparently was the issue. So the second time they replaced the shaft again and the disconnect. It’s been a month now and it hasn’t given me any other issues.

 

[PappaBolt]

So to circle back on this. The cv shaft popped out twice in the same shaft. First time they said they replaced the shaft and the cv disconnect (the side it popped out of ) and the hub end due to damaged splines. A week later it popped out again on the disconnect side. It went back into the sc and they reviewed the last work order and realized they didn’t replace the disconnect. That apparently was the issue. So the second time they replaced the shaft again and the disconnect. It’s been a month now and it hasn’t given me any other issues.

While it’s still too early to call this a success, I’m glad to read the fix is still in a working state.

There are seemingly lots of reports on the “tock”. The loaner I currently have has the same symptom.

But collectively how many actual failures have been reported and can they be tied back to repeated change in drive height? All we have are anecdotes. Seems we’d need more data and/or a tear-down after repeated suspension cycles to fully assert what is (or Isn’t) going on.

This is above my pay grade but I’m curious to hear from other engineering minded folks who might comment on design concerns and suggested mitigations.

 

[Mandarin]

My car was in the SC for 19 days already addressing that toking noise. Also, my car was doing a grinding noise at acceleration in HIGH suspension settings.
Just got a call and service re-cap. They were not able to reproduce the tocking noise per documents. However, during the test drive, the tech was telling me he can feel and hear that tocking sound.

Regarding the grinding noise that was coming from the front left corner at HIGH suspension settings on the video:
In the documents that said the rear passenger drive shaft popped out. Seems like the same issue as the thread's author showed us...

Another interesting thing, they gave me the R1T loaner vin 114** and it makes the same grinding noise as in my video. The car had less than 1000mi when I got it as a loaner

 

[Jac]

This, 100% true.

It’s like the morons on CNBC when they were discussing Rivian’s stock, Joe couldn’t be moved off of his idiotic take. IMO a company proactively issuing a voluntary recall & executing it quickly is a sign of strength, not weakness.


Rivian makes cars so at some point in their life they were going to have a recall of some kind.

They showed their stripes vs. other manuf. who resist & obfuscate at every turn or worse, deny it (“it’s within spec!”).


I mean, this CV joint issue is not great, but I see signs they are working problems. They aren’t putting out more broken auto tonneau covers, they are pushing software fixes, they are building out service center capacity, etc.

It’s tempting to grade Rivian on the corporate curve of incompetence, but ramp-ups & first-gens always have problems, the fact they are transparent & addressing problems is a good sign, so I don’t agree that they will necessarily follow Tesla (who wouldn’t have backtracked on price increases, IMO), and avoid/ignore build-quality issues.

we don’t need to be cynical to be realistic here.

I agree with your sentiments, but how many of the tens of thousands of still pending preorder people, if aware of the CV/half shaft issues owners are experiencing, would still fork over their $80,000 —- especially as months of Rivian engineers working the issue pass by without any communication about a real fix?

I was going to say I never bought a new vehicle knowing it was going to have problems, but I once bought a new Peugeot many years ago.

 

[dleewla]

So to circle back on this. The cv shaft popped out twice in the same shaft. First time they said they replaced the shaft and the cv disconnect (the side it popped out of ) and the hub end due to damaged splines. A week later it popped out again on the disconnect side. It went back into the sc and they reviewed the last work order and realized they didn’t replace the disconnect. That apparently was the issue. So the second time they replaced the shaft again and the disconnect. It’s been a month now and it hasn’t given me any other issues.

they forgot to replace the disconnect and it says it was replaced? did they do the work to replace it and accidentally put the old one back or just forgot? either way, not confidence inspiring.

 

[mini2nut]

This may turn into another powered tonneau fiasco where they need to fix thousands of trucks once a redesign is validated and a vendor is ready to roll. The noise owners are hearing is definitely abnormal.

The drivetrain technology Rivian is employing to get electric motor rotation to the wheels is not new (half shafts and CV joints). I do believe they use a slightly different half shaft design that uses ball bearings to allow the shafts to extend and contract for different suspension settings. Someone can chime in if I am incorrect.

 

[R1Tom]

I believe they are sticking their heads in the sand enough it may cost them success. Not escalating issues from service to engineering and finding solutions post haste and rather figuring they will fix in field. But they forgot about the internet and it is starting to build up.

I have a clunky front. Went in clunky...came back clunky. Had every opportunity to dig into it and find cause and escalate, but instead, wrote it off as normal.

Now maybe they did escalate, but then why they still cranking them out apparently the same, 6 months later?

Also reported screws were mostly all lose and in some cases almost falling out, on front and rear shield. Again...just kept cranking them out...same way, at least in some cases.

I would think that in the beginning, you would want to really look for what it comming back and closely look at reports from field, and fix it immediately. But seems not how it works...

 

[Mandarin]

My car was in the SC for 19 days already addressing that toking noise. Also, my car was doing a grinding noise at acceleration in HIGH suspension settings.
Just got a call and service re-cap. They were not able to reproduce the tocking noise per documents. However, during the test drive, the tech was telling me he can feel and hear that tocking sound.

Regarding the grinding noise that was coming from the front left corner at HIGH suspension settings on the video:
In the documents that said the rear passenger drive shaft popped out. Seems like the same issue as the thread's author showed us...

Another interesting thing, they gave me the R1T loaner vin 114** and it makes the same grinding noise as in my video. The car had less than 1000mi when I got it as a loaner

Just as proof that the loaner having the same issue. Here is the video from the loaner which at the moment when I took this video had 1005 miles on it
However, it does NOT have a tocking sound.

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