Kingfisher Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 What was the problem? Boots or the joints themselves? I picked mine up at Carquest. Came with a lifetime warranty, so if it shells out I'm not too worried about it except for the labor piece of course which now that I know how to do it, wont amount to much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black318i Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 Bad joints and they had a lifetime warranty too. I got very tired of replacing axles every few weeks or days. FYI I got my FEQ axles at Carquest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfisher Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 Bah, you're just hard on'em. Just kidding. Duralast is Autozone, right? I don't buy anything from those clowns anymore. Glad to hear that the ones you got from Carquest are holding up ok. Honestly, with the kiddo now the LGT doesn't see nearly as many miles as it used to so it'll probably be good until such time as we dump it on something bigger. Seems like we're always taking my 4-door truck these days. The mileage isn't nearly as good, but it's a lot roomier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black318i Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 Yeah it's their in house brand. I'll stick to NAPA or Carquest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claw Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 Thanks guys.. I've heard that Partsource (owned by Canadian Tire) are crap, but on my wife's non-turbo Impreza some people here say they should be fine.  The local rally guys recommend Raxle.com, but they're pricier - and my wife doesn't bag her car either.. I'll see if NAPA or Mopac has something better. Kingfisher - thanks, where'bouts are you? Born and raised here, left for a dozen years in Calgary but came back here after getting hitched, n'stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfisher Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 Claw, I'm down in Texas but I did a bunch of traveling in recent years to Edmonton, Windsor, Sault Sainte Marie and Ottawa for business. My company had operations in all of those towns until the economy tanked and the exg. rate flipped. We had a brand new bldg in Edmonton on the edge of town, before that we were in the Telus bldg downtown. Anyway, good luck on your axle replacement. Hope it goes easily. Mine was pretty straight forward, sans seal problems of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black318i Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 It's not that cheap axles fail under hard driving. They just plain suck. One of the Duralast axles I had made clicking noises even when up to speed and it was brand spanking new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mars_volta Posted November 15, 2010 Share Posted November 15, 2010 I know I'm late to this party but why on earth would you remove the ball joint from the hub?? Talk about doing it the hard way. Why not pop out the ball joint from the control arm? Â The allen wrench for the sway bar link is a 5 mm. You will probably need a hub/axle puller too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black318i Posted November 15, 2010 Share Posted November 15, 2010 Because it's one bolt it's out. No hammering and no risk of damaging the boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mars_volta Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Because it's one bolt it's out. No hammering and no risk of damaging the boot. Not if you live in MN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black318i Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Either way it's easier than removing the ball joint from the hub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mars_volta Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Are we both talking about taking the castle nut off the bottom of the control arm, and popping the tapered shaft out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viss1 Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 FWIW I just finished one side and the ball joint wouldn't budge. Rather than wreck it trying to get it out, I decided to use the control arm method. Removed the chassis plate, bushing bolt, and pivot bolt with no problems. The whole assembly swung out of the way enough to work. I did find it easier to install the hub side first, though. Â And boy, did that thing not want to go into the transaxle. After a few minutes of jiggling, pushing, twisting, and cursing, it finally slipped right in for no apparent reason. What is the secret for finessing these things in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfisher Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Heh... that IS the secret. For mine, I was able to get it in 85% of the way. It was the last little bit that took the most work. In my case I was able to lay under the car, grab it with both hands and put some stink on it. Seems to me that I did rock it back and forth in the process. In the process I ended up shelling out the seal on the drivers side, but that was easy enough to fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBT Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Just be careful sliding it back into the front differential (inside the transaxle) as there's a seal on the inside and if you tear/compromise that, you're going to leak steadily and eventually have to replace the seal at great expense of time and energy - including the special tool required to unlock the diff cover and to hold the diff in place while you're replacing that seal. - Pro amore Dei et patriam et populum - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viss1 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Just be careful sliding it back into the front differential (inside the transaxle) as there's a seal on the inside and if you tear/compromise that, you're going to leak steadily and eventually have to replace the seal at great expense of time and energy - including the special tool required to unlock the diff cover and to hold the diff in place while you're replacing that seal. Any more info about this? I took mine for a couple mile spin and it looks like I may have a leak. I figured I might have lunched the oil seal while installing the new axle... but I wasn't aware of an "inside" seal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VR4Rob Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 I just crossed over 15K miles on the ebay axle... so far so good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfisher Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Viss1, I'm guessing you probably trashed the outer seal, like I did. Seems to be relatively easy to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfisher Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Viss1, I'm guessing you probably trashed the outer seal, like I did. Seems to be relatively easy to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBT Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Any more info about this? I took mine for a couple mile spin and it looks like I may have a leak. I figured I might have lunched the oil seal while installing the new axle... but I wasn't aware of an "inside" seal. Check out these instructions for repair.17 - Front Differential Assembly.pdf - Pro amore Dei et patriam et populum - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viss1 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Viss1, I'm guessing you probably trashed the outer seal, like I did. Seems to be relatively easy to do. Â Any tricks for replacing this? Looks like they are R and L side specific, so I'm guessing it's not a simple press fit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyShackleford Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 (edited) EDIT: Duh, I just realized the boot spins with the axle. So my comment that the "top" of the boot is torn, and my idea to do a temporary patch with duct tape, are both pretty dumb Probably makes more sense to have a garage do the boot-only NOW (if I don't have time to mess with it before trip), than wait and have to replace the whole axle (parts for DIY of whole axle will probably be as much or more than garage cost of just doing boot). So I just discovered that the inner boot on passenger side of mine is torn; seems kinda odd that this seems to be the one reported most often on this thread. Also odd that I JUST replaced the tranny oil. Also just hosed off the underside of the car after a beach trip. Just coincidence I guess. Anyhow, the tear is on the top of the boot, and I have a 2000 mile (total) roadtrip soon, and would rather not mess with this now. Would it be reasonable to just patch the thing with duct tape for now, and deal with it when I get home ??  It did JUST happen (I woulda noticed it when I changed the tranny oil last week), so if I do it now, damage to the joint is unlikely and I can just do the boot. But seems like duct tape (don't laugh, I'm serious) would do the job of keeping any more grease from getting flung out and dirt from getting in. Edited May 18, 2011 by RustyShackleford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black318i Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 It's the one that fails the most because of heat from the DP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xt2005bonbon Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 EDIT: Duh, I just realized the boot spins with the axle. So my comment that the "top" of the boot is torn, and my idea to do a temporary patch with duct tape, are both pretty dumb Probably makes more sense to have a garage do the boot-only NOW (if I don't have time to mess with it before trip), than wait and have to replace the whole axle (parts for DIY of whole axle will probably be as much or more than garage cost of just doing boot). Â I first had the passenger side torn. I knew I caught it early. Since I had to use the car, I temporarily did use duct tape but it would not stay long cause of the spinning/extending/heating of the boot. Then a year later, I had the inner driver side boot that got torn. I caught it 30mn before a major road trip!! This time, I used a heavy duty plastic bag (thick and somewhat stretchy) + zip ties, and carefully wrapped that around the inner boot. Drove 800 miles with that and it hold up! Came back from the trip, and I changed the boot myself (OEM kit is cheap). It's been 5000 miles since and it is working just fine. So temporary use of duct tape or plastic bag is not a dumb idea as long as you do it well AND the boot barely started to loose grease. If it's been a while, then whole axle may need to be replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbone Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Here is a newbie question. How much grease is used when packing it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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