I see a Cardone (new) right side axle on rockauto for $70. For the left side maybe pick up a NAPA or the Trakmotive on rockauto for $36. Both with lifetime warranty.

Was the junkyard axle's boots intact before the rebuild? Was the axle nut torqued to spec with the wheel of that corner off the ground?

 

Hi John, the boots on all of the Camrys, Solara’s, and ES300’s had small tears or cracking on the boots at the junkyard and I grabbed the one that had the least… As you can tell that meant nothing as I incurred a new issue lol. I torqued the axle but to 217 ft lbs (cold temp). My torque wrench is a CDI unit.

 

If only going to keep an old junker going for a few more seasons the low cost aftermarket half shafts are an option.
If aiming for getting another 100 or 200k out of the car, rebooting OEM will do far better.
I've had two aftermarket ones fail on me, each at around 50~100k miles. Each time the tow home, lost time and buying another one far outweighed any savings using the cheap substitutes.

One of the failures, the LH shaft separated at the inner joint and cracked the transmission housing.

 

If only going to keep an old junker going for a few more seasons the low cost aftermarket half shafts are an option.
If aiming for getting another 100 or 200k out of the car, rebooting OEM will do far better.
I've had two aftermarket ones fail on me, each at around 50~100k miles. Each time the tow home, lost time and buying another one far outweighed any savings using the cheap substitutes.

One of the failures, the LH shaft separated at the inner joint and cracked the transmission housing.

I’ve been down that road before but with my f150. The front u joint c-clip decided to fall and the u joint came out while I was driving about 70 mph on the freeway. Grenaded the back half of my transmission. $3500 later I was back on the road with a lighter wallet..

I don’t know if you read the part when I mentioned that I rebooted an OEM unit and it caused a wobble condition in my car at certain speeds… I wish I knew where to source Rzeppa rebuild kits for these cars or if they even have one

 

I grabbed an OEM axle from the junkyard for $35 from a car that was a clean title California car with 134,000 miles on it. Spend $60 on a new boot kit from Toyota and did the deal and now it makes my car wobble at 40 mph until around 60 mph.

Junkyard axel, that was not even known to be good. That’s the “yard” for ya, nothing but a crap shoot.

 

As you can see I purposely took that gamble due to the lack of GOOD options for axles.

If I may clarify, does rebooting OEM assume that the original CV axle is in good condition? Although not an issue on my car, I am planning on making my car run for another 100k and thought that if you had to reboot a CV axle, it would be better to replace it all. My CV axle boots are good, but my tie rod boots are a bit torn so I'm definitely planning on going in there and changing the tie rods and boots, just wasn't sure about if the CV axle had to be replaced.

If you’re not hearing any clicking while turning or when driving over bumps, you should be fine.. I am actively looking for replacement Rzeppa parts for our axles so that I may do a true rebuild..

 

The severe test for CV joint health is to roll the windows down and turn in tight circles (steering rack at full lock one way, and then the other way), in both forward and reverse direction. If there is no clicking during any of these tests, you can rest assured the joint is ok.

 

Agreed. Although the hardware on my front brakes like to make noise when I move in reverse 😒

 

I just had Cardone remans (PNs #60-5168 and 60-5169) installed on my 99 Solara. They are remanned on OEM cores. I've only driven about 10-15 miles on them so far, so too early to tell how they'll hold up. So far they seem fine.

Paid $40 for the driver's side, $70 + 20 shipping for the passenger side, from RockAuto and Carparts.com respectively. No core charges for either. The rear motor mount had to come out with the passenger side axle. Bushings were completely worn out on the rear motor mount anyways.

Have the old ones in my storage unit, if I can get the rear motor mount off the passenger side axle I may look into getting them rebooted as spares in the future. One of them is definitely original from factory, even has a green band wrapped around it with the original part number. Pretty sure the other one was too. I didn't figure I'd save any money on labor having them removed and rebooted versus just having remans put in, with extra labor I reckon it'd have cost me the same, so I went the replacement route.

Prior to ordering from where I did, I tried getting 43410/43420-06170-84 reman axles from various Toyota parts sites. Repeatedly had my credit card transaction refunded over the course of 10 days from all of them, as these just don't seem to exist anymore. Also emailed every dealer within 50 miles of me, they all reported these axles as out of stock/discontinued. I'm pretty sure the "official" Toyota -84 remans were just Cardones in a Toyota box anyways. On another forum someone did an unboxing and detailed photos of -84 remans, they had Cardone stickers and tags on them in a Toyota box.

 

I just had Cardone remans (PNs #60-5168 and 60-5169) installed on my 99 Solara. They are remanned on OEM cores. I've only driven about 10-15 miles on them so far, so too early to tell how they'll hold up. So far they seem fine.

Paid $40 for the driver's side, $90 for the passenger side, from RockAuto and Carparts.com respectively. No core charges for either. The rear motor mount had to come out with the passenger side axle. Bushings were completely worn out on the rear motor mount anyways.

Have the old ones in my storage unit, if I can get the rear motor mount off the passenger side axle I may look into getting them rebooted as spares in the future. One of them is definitely original from factory, even has a green band wrapped around it with the original part number. Pretty sure the other one was too. I didn't figure I'd save any money on labor having them removed and rebooted versus just having remans put in, with extra labor I reckon it'd have cost me the same, so I went the replacement route.

Prior to ordering from where I did, I tried getting 43410/43420-06170-84 reman axles from various Toyota parts sites. Repeatedly had my credit card transaction refunded over the course of 10 days from all of them, as these just don't seem to exist anymore. Also emailed every dealer within 50 miles of me, they all reported these axles as out of stock/discontinued. I'm pretty sure the "official" Toyota -84 remans were just Cardones in a Toyota box anyways. On another forum someone did an unboxing and detailed photos of -84 remans, they had Cardone stickers and tags on them in a Toyota box.

Thanks for the heads up! I always heard that the Toyota/Lexus reman axles were either Detroit Axle or Cardone. Thanks for confirming which one they are. I wonder how many comebacks the dealerships get after those axle have issues down the road..

 

Except I'm not sure dealers carry reman for that year any more. At least I didn't see it adding "-84" suffix to the part number for "reman". Subaru at least years ago used Cardone remans. I don't think Detroit Axle does remans, I think they just rebrand aftermarket axles??

Subaru remans by Cardone:

 

They don't carry them. All these listings are forwarding the order to some warehouse that fulfills the order.

Most dealer sites still list them as available, but I'd bet anyone who tries to order them will have their order cancelled and get a refund. Every site I tried ordered from marked them as discontinued after I got refunded. No Toyota dealership in the Twin Cities area is able to source these, confirmed via phone and email.

https://parts.lakelandtoyota.com/p/__/Shaft-Joint-Axle-Left/15931511/434200617084.html

https://parts.lakelandtoyota.com/p/__/CV-Axle-Assembly-Right/15931171/434100617084.html

At any rate, I'm pretty sure the Cardone remans are exactly the same as what the various Toyota sites were selling as remans.

ToyotaPartsDeal listing them as discontinued, they updated their listing 2 days after they refunded me:

43420-06170-84 Genuine Toyota Reman Cv Axle, Left

ToyotaPartsDeal.com offers the great deal for genuine Toyota parts 43420-06170-84 (434200617084) Reman Cv Axle, Left. All parts are backed by the Toyota's warranty.

www.toyotapartsdeal.com

43410-06170-84 Genuine Toyota Reman Cv Axle, Right

ToyotaPartsDeal.com offers the great deal for genuine Toyota parts 43410-06170-84 (434100617084) Reman Cv Axle, Right. All parts are backed by the Toyota's warranty.

www.toyotapartsdeal.com

 

While we are on the topic, has anyone changed out the pilot/carrier bearing that is on the passenger side axle? I have a humming sound that transmits from that bearing and will change it when I re-boot the OEM passenger CV axle.

 

Last time I did this, I had to remove the carrier assembly and bring it to "Local Trusted Shop" which also does heavy equipment repair, for help / to press the bearing out, after spending hours (of grief) .. trying to remove myself.

A torch, a 50 ton press, and 10 minutes later .. it was out.

 

Thank you for the heads up! We’re there any C clips holding it in besides the giant one that clips into the rear motor mount? Also, how did you remove the smaller dust shield?

 

This was on the '00 4 cyl. model, so it may be a bit different vs. the 6 cyl. -

I "cheated",

the replacement CV axle was a Cardone-A1 complete assembly: the axle that was being replaced was not original (est. 12 years old), and was "junk" (from torn boots / destroyed joints),

the passenger carrier assembly was "bound" and/or "racked" by the existing axle,

attempting to remove the carrier assembly bolts was proving "problematic", they were binding / felt like they were going to "cross-thread or strip" on removal,

so I / cut / the inboard axle shaft, between the carrier <-> and transmission: using a 4" diamond-blade saw w/ adaptor -> mounted to a 4 inch electric grinder,

which then provided enough strain relief .. to finish removing the bolts / carrier assembly from the motor.

^^ (*) - Not - what you want to do, if you plan on R&R of the axle. ^^

After "taking a bow" and congratulating myself on the innovative and time-saving method of getting the carrier freed / and the axle pieces safely out of the hub and transmission: I then spent hours (of grief) "beating that bearing with a hammer", trying to remove .. figuratively an literally. That's "Karma" for you, LOL.

That's why I love "Trusted Local Shop", sometimes "you need a bigger hammer: or a 50 ton press."

re: Circlip - correct, just the one holding it in, on the outboard side of the carrier. * I ended up "re-using" the circlip that was previously installed (it looked like the original to the vehicle - the Circlip supplied w/ the Cardone replacement axle, did not want to seat.

Hoping your foray w/ the carrier assembly goes smoother there.

 

This was on the '00 4 cyl. model, so it may be a bit different vs. the 6 cyl. -

I "cheated",

the replacement CV axle was a Cardone-A1 complete assembly: the axle that was being replaced was not original (est. 12 years old), and was "junk" (from torn boots / destroyed joints),

the passenger carrier assembly was "bound" and/or "racked" by the existing axle,

attempting to remove the carrier assembly bolts was proving "problematic", they were binding / felt like they were going to "cross-thread or strip" on removal,

so I / cut / the inboard axle shaft, between the carrier <-> and transmission: using a 4" diamond-blade saw w/ adaptor -> mounted to a 4 inch electric grinder,

which then provided enough strain relief .. to finish removing the bolts / carrier assembly from the motor.

^^ (*) - Not - what you want to do, if you plan on R&R of the axle. ^^

After "taking a bow" and congratulating myself on the innovative and time-saving method of getting the carrier freed / and the axle pieces safely out of the hub and transmission: I then spent hours (of grief) "beating that bearing with a hammer", trying to remove .. figuratively an literally. That's "Karma" for you, LOL.

That's why I love "Trusted Local Shop", sometimes "you need a bigger hammer: or a 50 ton press."

re: Circlip - correct, just the one holding it in, on the outboard side of the carrier. * I ended up "re-using" the circlip that was previously installed (it looked like the original to the vehicle - the Circlip supplied w/ the Cardone replacement axle, did not want to seat.

Hoping your foray w/ the carrier assembly goes smoother there.

I appreciate the thorough response! I have actually already removed the passenger axle once when I installed new Toyota engine mounts. It was easy for me for two reasons: 1.) my car is a local Northern California car and always has been and 2.) I sprayed Kroil around the bearing and let it sit for about 20 mins before I used two pry bars against the rear engine mount housing and walked it out. Maybe I was just lucky but it didn’t fight me much.

Looks like I’ll have to find a shop with an adequate press as well 😎