Can some knowledgeble person or someone with the search function please tell me where the best place to buy new CV shafts is (ie lowest price and best service)? Thanks for your help!

-Al

 

www.raxles.com

 

New from Nissan was like $400+ so you could get a $30 one on car-part.com. Carquest was charging $78 for rebuilds with a wait.

Raxles couldn't find me a core so I spent $125 used+$125 rebuild myself.

 

Thanks Bejay1...do you (or anyone) know what the difference is between 'locking' and 'non-locking' shafts? This is how it's listed on car-part.com. Thanks!

 

The difference is the inner gear I believe. You need a locking for a LSD differential type tranny and a non-locking for an non-LSD or open diff. Open is the most common and probably what you have. Trans codes ending in "A".

 

Why would you buy a used axle and rebuild? Just call raxles and get one already rebuilt. As for the locking/non-locking, they're talking about the differential. Canadian Maxima's (and the I30T's) had a locking differential. Odds are, you have a non-locking differential. If not: care to sell your car?

 

also make shure your specific if you have ABS or not.

 

I just had drivers and passenger side axles installed today. I was quoted 288 dollars for just replacing the cv boots versus getting brand new axles from.....you guessed it RAXLES.com ...300 dollas.

Picked the car up today and WHAT THE FREAK ?

The Maxima feels great and I have no idea why? I had no symptoms other than the ripped up or cut cv boots and grease pouring out for the last week, (my KYB shocks are all greased out) I could kick myself. But no clicking. But sooner or later it would have developed.

Anyways, I pick up the car and it feels light, and speedy. I wish I had enough automotive knowledge to know why. But if you can get new axles, and if it makes sense to you in your situation ..I would go with raxles.

And check this out. I pick up my wife and the first thing she says as we are driving down the road is, HEY... THE CAR FEELS DIFFERENT..SMOOTH..like it has a spring in its step...zippy ..!

I can say this.. im glad I didnt go the cheap route and replace the cv boots only. To a Nissan dealership it makes sense. Their axles are something like 500 dollars a piece plus labor, as opposed to the cv boot replacement at 288 dollars.

But with raxles your looking at around 130-150 depending on what you need. There brand new and come with a lifetime warranty.

 

Well, that could be a couple of things, first of which is the placebo affect.

Maybe the new axles are lighter. Worn joints probably aren't as responsive as new ones.

Actually, Nissan would've replaced the joints themselves. Less $$ on parts, more labor, though. They do it because they make more on the labor than they do on parts.

 

So if my CV boot is ripped and spitting out grease, then ordering a new axle through raxles.com is the way to go? The CV boot on my drivers side is ripped.. the passenger side looks ok, but should I just go ahead and replace it? Do I have to mail raxles a core?

Thanks,
-Brian.

 

I paid $65 plus tax for a life-time warrantied rebuilt passenger side axle at Pep Boys. They also had it in stock (versus the higher priced, special order from autozone and checker). The boot was completely gone (hehe, so I figured a boot job would be retarded at that point...don't ask how it got ripped off). Just beware, they initially gave me the wrong CV axle, so it wasted an hour of time.

 

Once the boot is spitting grease, it's time to rebuild/repack the joint, or replace the axle.

I'd replace the whole axle. It's not worth the time/energy to rebuild/repack the joint. Hell, a CV boot will cost ya ~$25; Axles aren't much more than that.

 

how's the pepboys axle so far?? My CV boots have small cracks developing in them. I think I have about 120k miles on them. Definitely time to change and was initially considering getting a boot kit from the dealer because I wanted to save money. Also, still looking for 5-speed conversion parts so I'm not really sure if I want to spend so much money on something that will be changed out anyways. If I were to go ahead with the conversion I would get limited slip so I would have to get new axles anyways. but $65 from pepboys sounds pretty good about now.

 

Yeah, izzydig, how are the Pepboys axles? Sound like a good deal! My friends and I always laugh at how ghetto the Pepboys near us is, but they always seem to have the best deals and good quality on stuff.

 

I really couldn't say how good they are in the long term. I've only ran this CV axle for 5000 miles so far, with no problems. It seemed like a good axle to me.

I've never seen an axle built for racing or anything like that.

And yeah, pep boys can be a big pain in the a$$ sometimes. Like giving you wrong parts and stuff. So can autozone and checker, so it goes.