Best way to fix axles

[White95Cam]

Quick question, my car has 102,000 miles and the original front axles. The boot ripped within the last week. I had just changed the oil last Friday and it was good then I saw the grease on my rim yesterday. There is no clicking or anything. The repair shop that do the jobs that are out of my physical/skill level is owned by an ex Toyota ASC tech and he uses only OEM parts. Would it be to have all the boots replaced with OEM ones on the original axle or should I just have them put in remanufactured ones? I figure that the labor and parts to fix/reboot mine would be about the same as just purchasing a remanufactured. I did not know if the remanufactured ones had the same quality parts as OEM.
W95c
BTW, I am going to have both sides done.

[Kenny_McCormic]

Last I checked its usually only a few dollars more in parts(after core exchange) to buy a remanned axle then it is to do new boots and grease. I would imagine labor would make new boots more expensive.

[White95Cam]

Originally Posted by Kenny_McCormic

Last I checked its usually only a few dollars more in parts(after core exchange) to buy a remanned axle then it is to do new boots and grease. I would imagine labor would make new boots more expensive.

I did not know if the remmanned ones were rebuilt Toyota ones that had been exchanged. Do you know if they give as good of service as the OEM ones? Before my back surgery I would have jumped on this project, but I am now an older one !
W95c

[Kenny_McCormic]

Just from a quick lookup, autozone axles are all lifetime warrantied. I don't buy into a lot of the "go OEM" stuff.

[White95Cam]

Originally Posted by Kenny_McCormic

Just from a quick lookup, autozone axles are all lifetime warrantied. I don't buy into a lot of the "go OEM" stuff.

Thanks Kenny. I have had to do so little to my car in all these years that it still has all OEM parts on it. I figured that axles were axles, but I would love for new remanufactured ones to last 14years .
W95c

[bcp477]

By definition, ALL remanufactured axles are remanufactured OEM axles..... that is where they come from. In the reman. process, the only portions that are saved are the axle shafts themselves - everything else is new (bearings, boots, snap rings, grease, etc.). There is NO "danger" whatsoever in using reman. axles - they are every bit as "good" as the original OEM ones. In fact, they are now the standard for repair.....VERY few people opt for brand new OEM axles, as they cost FAR more (as much as three times as much). Frankly, anyone who insists on NEW axles is being foolish - and just wasting money. Any shop that insists on new axles is just wasting the customer's money.....or trying to rip off the customer.

[dmkinsey]

I'm in a similar situation. I bought a Camry last week, the seller told me that the dealer had informed him that the CV boot was torn. OK, I checked it but it's not torn, the clamp broke. The boot is intact and on the axle. There was still grease in the joint.
I bought a new clamp at AutoZone, spent over an hour wrestling with that. The latching mechanism on that clamp is difficult to operate and the clamp just came right off as soon as I started driving.
I'm going to take it to a shop and see if they have a better clamp/are they willing to do just the clamp.

[White95Cam]

Originally Posted by bcp477

By definition, ALL remanufactured axles are remanufactured OEM axles..... that is where they come from. In the reman. process, the only portions that are saved are the axle shafts themselves - everything else is new (bearings, boots, snap rings, grease, etc.). There is NO "danger" whatsoever in using reman. axles - they are every bit as "good" as the original OEM ones. In fact, they are now the standard for repair.....VERY few people opt for brand new OEM axles, as they cost FAR more (as much as three times as much). Frankly, anyone who insists on NEW axles is being foolish - and just wasting money. Any shop that insists on new axles is just wasting the customer's money.....or trying to rip off the customer.

Thanks for the extra information. I was just considering the options. Being an older one, I remember when reman. axles were junk and did not last very long. I am glad to hear that they have improved so I will be using them.
W95c

[JohnGD]

Most reman halfshafts used to carry only a 1 year warranty. But these days they're limited lifetime warranty.

Under 200K miles I'd only repack if you have the tools to remove the (removable) outer joint and properly clean and clamp them. I do. And I use Redline CV-2 synthetic grease. It takes time and isn't much cheaper than a reman (with LLT warranty!) But it's a way to get Redline CV-2 in there for those who care for that.

Otherwise it may not be worth your time and effort re-booting. I suppose companies like A1 Cardone won't stay in business long if they have to give out LLT warranty halfshafts all the time. It's really the backyard rebuilders you have to watch out for.

I installed Cardone Select new halfshafts when the remans had only a 1 year warranty. But the new halfshafts are not OEM. And now that remans are LLT warranty, just get them I suppose.

Originally Posted by White95Cam

Thanks for the extra information. I was just considering the options. Being an older one, I remember when reman. axles were junk and did not last very long. I am glad to hear that they have improved so I will be using them.
W95c

[BMR]

I had an awful experience with Cardone reman'd axles on my Cam. The first pair, the driver's side was good, but the passenger side made clicking noises right away on sharp turns. Got a second reman'd Cardone from Carquest, put it in, and it was worse than the first, making LOUD crunching noises on turns, and also had a vibration at speed. The third time, Carquest gave me a new Cardone axle for no extra charge, and it was fine. I got pretty fast at R&R'ing those!

Somewhere in there, I stopped at a NAPA store to see if they had another brand, and they did, but for like 4X the cost. The counter guy told me they wouldn't even carry reman'd Cardones anymore because of too many returns due to crappy quality control.

[mazdaverx7]

look, you'll want to remove the axles to replace the boots..why not order a set of reman axles from a local auto parts store. if someone told me that something was beyond my skill level ,i'd spit in their eye and make sure i did the job myself. i do not let ANYONE work on my cars. i restore one car per winter. there is nothing i can't do on a car..well, other than rebuild an automatic trans..never tried that.. and i never went to school for it. i read books and got my hands dirty and tried and failed and succeded...but the point is, do the job yourself. grab a service manual and get to work. you'll learn a lot about your car in the process and you'll have more pride in it when the job is done. and we're here to help should you run into a problem.

[White95Cam]

I just picked up my car from my Toyota Tech and the total for repacking & rebooting both axles with OEM boots was $281.64 (93.40 parts + 118.00 labor). We were talking about the job and I told him that I had read on TN about what a bitch it is sometimes to get the passenger side axle out of that center bearing. Much to my surprise he told me that if you had good axles and only a torn boot the best way to avoid this headache was to disassemble the tripod joints and leave the ends sticking in the center bearing / transaxle case. After the outer joint is fixed and a new boot /grease is put on the tripod it is put back together on the car. I could see how this would be easier especially if you had clamp pliers. He said this was the procedure he learned when he was working at the local Toyota Dealership. I thought that I would pass this information along for members who might find it helpful.