How big of a problem is this ?

don't know about the aftermarket CV's for my tacoma as I am still on my original shafts and boots...
but i went through 5 sets sets of napa and autozone CV's on my dodge dakota and I shattered the joint bearing housing 3x twisted the tripod-joint off 1x and replaced one cause the boot tore... before I went and spent the extra cash on a really good set that have had for 2 yrs now... although the dakota dakota does have a front locker and I off-road it regularly on roughly the same size joints...

 

Like anything it comes down to how it is used or should I say abused

I have found some people have a real talent for being able to break things not really trying .

It comes down to just what works for you .

 

I just replaced my cv boot the other day in my schools auto tech class and it went way smoother than expected. I'm fortunate enough to have a father that works at Toyota and got me an oem cv boot kit that comes with new grease, a boot, and every snap ring you'll need all for under $20. Took me about an hour to complete. I'm not sure about your truck but on my 04 sr5 I only had to disconnect the lower control arm which is only 4 bolts and then I could just slide the cv out. The most time consuming part of this process is just getting the grease cleaned up then reapplied and installing the actual boot. Everyone says just get a new axle but if you don't want to spend that money then just take the extra hour to replace the boot. Worth it in my opinion..

 

Thanks Trevor, I went with one from Napa. I'm going to be replacing it as soon as I get back home from this hitch (Work on ships) I'm most likely going to reboot the one I take off and keep it as a spare.