Is this CV axle play normal?

So I was under my truck just looking around and doing some preventative maintenance and I was checking out my CV axles and I noticed that my drivers side axle is very loose, especially compared to the passenger side one at the same point. I made a video and sorry about the quality since it was done with my phone (I dont have a camera or video camera, all my money goes to my truck, and girlfriend I guess ) You will see at the end that I am able to pull it out quite a bit, it comes out maybe about 2 millimeters or so from that lip on the differential when the passenger side one does not even come out past that same lip on that side. Is this something I should be worried about? Is my cv axle already shot? It only a 4 month old 2009! Or am I just being a big baby and worrying about nothing?

 

Whew, you were just the person I was hoping to hear from Thanks for taking the time to watch and help out Chris. Glad its normal, I was just surprised how big of a difference there could be between the two sides.

 

Chris to the rescue! again.

 

Again.

 

Well that was the reason I was under there. I just recently lifted my truck about 3" and I put the diff drop on at the same time. And I got the small take of shudder at 5mph. So I wanted to take a look under there and see what I see and I decided to try taking out the diff drop and see if the shudder is still there and it got a little worse without the diff drop, so I just put the diff drop back on and I guess I will have to live with the 5mph shudder.

 

Mine shudders and I dont have 4x4. hmmmm

 

Mine does too. I think we have bad u-joints from the factory.

 

yours lifted? I have a 3" up front. But mine didnt start doing it til i put my 33's on

 

Mine did it when I had the 3" lift and still has the shudder with my 1.75" lift.

 

Here is mine. Dealer says its normal. It has been like this for over 25k miles, still no problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEjqtDg9gUs

 

Looks exactly as loose as mine. Glad to hear you havent had any problems after all those miles, i'm at about 6500 right now when I noticed this.

And I know that my shudder is coming from the front diff somewhere because if I put it in 4hi, and take off exactly the same, there is no shudder at 5mph. Put it into 2hi, take off from a dead stop, shudder is back at 5mph. Oh well, its a truck, not a Ferrari.

 

If you guys put the truck into 4WD (either hi or lo), does the "in and out"
play disappear? Just curious.

 

HOW DO YOU KNOW SO MUCH?!

 

So I seem to have this same problem on my 2001 Tacoma. The driver side has zero play and the passenger side has about a 1/8 of an inch of play in it. I wouldn't be worried but it is leaking a little bit. Is this due to bad differential seal? I did just put a new cv axle in on the passenger side and its not a genuine toyota part so I'm hoping thats not why.

 

This is not normal. It seems to be a common problem that is occurring amongst many. It's always/only occurring at the front left.

I'll probably order this and do it soon. There are videos showing the problem and solution. very easy if you've changed your cv axles before.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/driver-side-cv-axle-play-at-the-diff.420699/

 

I got movement like that on my passenger side. With no leaking. It used to be a lot firmer but now there is about a 1/8th in wiggle to it. Are you sure this is normal?