Frequent repairs and part replacements?

Hi all, it's been a long time since I've posted on here. My 2015 Tacoma is still going strong but I have had a real streak of bad luck with repairs and parts recently and I was hoping to get some input or maybe similar stories. And as a disclaimer, I am not a mechanic at all and haven't done much of the work myself and usually take it to one of the mechanics in town. Mechanics I've never had any reason not to trust.

To start with, my truck is at 165,000 miles and I have had bad U-Joints replaced 5 times now. Two of them were under warranty because one was shortly after buying the truck and one shortly after replacing the first one. I'm starting to think the drive shaft might be bent or have some other issue.

Next, I've had the CV axles replaced, with the front right replaced twice - again with the second time being under warranty because it was so soon after the first. The complete assembly was replaced at that time along with the ball joint. Now I'm being told both axles and ball joints need to be replaced again, with the right being way worse than the left. I'm hoping it's all under warranty still, but this is ridiculous. They tried to blame my lift kit for this, but I've had that for four years now and all of these repairs have been within the last two years.

And finally, I had the drive shaft center bearing replaced recently. After the repair, I made it two miles down the road before it burned out and I had to be towed back to get a new one installed. This was just a bad part and of course was covered, but it feels like every single repair I've gotten recently has failed. Am I just getting a run of bad luck and bad parts here, or is something else going on? Would the lift kit really be causing all of these issues? I haven't even taken it down any serious offroad trails in a few years now, it's been almost entirely highway miles on some long cross-country trips.

 

Anything over about 3" (and sometimes less, every truck is slightly different) on these trucks can really beat the shit out of the parts you're talking about, unless extensive supporting modifications are also made. Parts quality is also a big factor, most aftermarket parts have been steadily crashing in quality for a while now, and in the last several years I've seen and heard from local mechanics about a LOT of really crap parts. Could be a run of bad luck, could be your lift stressing aftermarket parts that were barely suitable for stock configuration trucks to begin with, could be you need to look at root causes and perform those supporting mods (CV boot modifications, driveline angle modifications). Aftermarket CVs and balljoints in particular are notorious for earlier than anticipated failure, modded or stock.

If you have larger than stock wheels and tires, if you have spacers, if you have basically anything between the transmission and the road modified from stock, start thinking about what geometry has changed, because that can radically alter the way forces (road or offroad) are applied to parts.

 

Oof, that's what I was worried about. I totally get how the lift can put extra strain on some of these parts and it's something I was prepared to deal with, but I was hoping it wouldn't be this frequent. It just seems like the failures have all been way too close together and all fairly recently. The CV axles were both just replaced at 156k in May, and now they are both going bad again? Even a combination of cheap parts and the lift shouldn't be causing that bad of a problem I would hope!

 

Are these new parts OE?

 

No, not all of them. I know the drive shaft center bearing was some offbrand I'd never heard of from Advanced Auto Parts I think, and when I googled it I found a couple reviews that said they had very similar experiences as well. I've just never had this much trouble before with aftermarket parts, so I guess I was just a bit shocked how bad it has been for me lately.

 

I’m personally an OE parts person when it comes to my trucks. I’ve personally have had 5 Toyota trucks driven just short of 2.5 million total miles. All trucks were serviced with OE parts NOT OEM aftermarket. With the availability of Toyotas online parts program thru many dealers buying OE parts is not that bad from a price stand point anymore. That’s how I buy all my OE parts.

 

If you have any additional driveshaft issues, I'd had have the driveline pulled and dispatched to a driveline shop. As a preventative measure and because my truck has 170k, I recently had mine pulled and sent out. I had no vibe issues and although none of the U-Joints had play, the Carrier Bearing mount was sloppy and there was a slight clunk. The shop did not use Toyota OEM parts, but did use Spicer joints and CB with Spicer part numbers. The CB Mount does have Toyota stamped on it. The Slip Yoke was the cause of the clunk and was remedied with a proper lube. Ultimately, I ended up with a newly spin balanced drive shaft with all new U-Joints, Carrier Bearing and lubed Slip Yoke for $275. I went this route on the advice of an ex Toyota dealer mechanic that told me that the policy of the dealership where he worked was to send out driveline work because the dealer didn't have the ability to spin balance the shaft.

 

2.5 million... Wow!