CV axle advice

took taco in for an alignment and now my boot is flinging grease all over. Thought I found a reputable place but... nope.
Anyways, now I need to replace my axle. I called the dealership for part price and quoted OEM at $558. Since I was curious, I called the service dept. at same dealership to see how much they would chg to degrease and replace the boot. She said she had two options:
Rebuild for $480
Replace for $526

When I asked how they can replace an axle that costs $558 for “only” 526?
She said that part quote I rec’d originally was foR OEM. The quote for $526 is part and install of a CVJ CV axle. She said the OEM HAS A 1 yr. where as the CVJ has a lifetime warranty. I plan on installing myself but I don’t know enough about CVJ vs
OEM.

 

I would be careful, but I believe the CVJ shaft is lifetime NOT the boots which will more than likely wear long before the shaft leaving you exactly where you are now. I just wore out one boot, same as you. I ended up buying two brand new half shafts off Rock Auto with Heavy Duty boots complete, shipped to my house for $156.

 

If you plan on installing yourself, I’m assuming you have the tools and knowledge to take out and put back in the axle. If it’s just a boot tear, why not just replace the boot? Or did axle itself actually get messed up?

By the way, CVJ is a pretty reputable company in case you do have to go that route

 

Replaced axle on other vehicles but not on a taco. I do have a few I knowledgeable peeps in my circle that would help and have done it. If that fails; my next post will be a help with axle install.

As for boot replacement, thought about it but in a lot of cases boot replacements fail and you end up in the same spot I’m already at. I would just rather do it right. Also, my thought was, if I could replace that axle, the current one would be a trail spare in case
I break an axle.

 

What are you worried about failing with an OEM boot replacement? I’m not sure how replacing a boot on a perfectly good axle is any less quality or more prone to failure than buying a whole new axle. As long as you put the new boot on properly (which is easy) then you should be totally fine. Boots are eventually going to wear out either way if you replace a boot or you have new boots on the new axle.

I’m not trying to sound abbrassive in any way shape or form I’m just trying to save you a little money here haha. If you have a perfectly good OEM axle shaft and the inner and outer joints are solid and all you have is an issue with the boot, I would say that changing the boot out would be your least expensive bet at around $70 for the boot kit. I totally understand wanting a trail spare though. So if you do get another axle, then you can still get a boot kit and replace the boot on this leaking axle haha

 

Use the sdhq high angle boot kit.

http://store.sdhqoffroad.com/tacomacvbootkits.aspx

Can replace a cv axle in 40 mins

 

Good point. I have these boots and they’re great. That’s pretty trickin fast! From jacking up the truck to lowering the truck back back down with the tires on itd take me a couple hours but not difficult work

 

I will second the vote for CVJs, they are awesome but perhaps overkill for turning stock ratios tires and gearing. I hate the mess of a CV rebuild and you would need the special pliers for sealing the clamps (can't remember the name of the clamps that crimp on the boot). The cost of the special tool and the greasy mess were enough to just buy heavy duty boots brand new already built on a set of half shafts. Changing a half shaft is pretty straight forward, just getting the c-clip to disengage sometimes can be tricky without a slide hammer. I never needed a slide hammer, but often have to rotate the shaft at different angles before it releases.

 

I had to do it like 10 times in the past couple months. I made a tool that removes the cv in a few seconds so it became super easy for me. Didn’t even remove the tie rod either! Lol

 

That sucks having to do that so much but that’s awesome you made a a sweet tool that makes it way easier!!

 

When i had to do boots on an old truck Rocky Mountain Driveline did my boots for $20ish a boot, so $80-100 for two axles being regreased and rebooted.

 

think everything is covered already other than CVJ is out of Denver, so Locate place for all of us.

http://www.cvjreman.com/about-cvj-axles/

Pretty sure the price listed seems high for CVJ, given the CV Core swap.

 

They also do steering racks!!! Ask me how I know....

 

And I have a spare that is rebuilt already from CVJ that I would sell for 200....