During my spring oil/plug change today I noticed this...
Drivers Side
Passenger Side

Both CV joints ripped open at what appears to be the same spot on BOTH axles. It's been awhile since I did my oil (dont drive the maxima much right now, travel+xterra) so I havent been under there to notice it, but i'm guessing it's been almost a year, so i'm not sure when this happened.

Whats the best way to go here? Replace both axles? (Factory, 160K on them)
or replace the CV boots. If i've driven on them like this for awhile, could the joint be bad anyway? There isnt much noise, but I have alot of shake and right pull when driving, which the car has done for awhile since my bushings are bad. I dont think this is causing the shaking, but it's prob not helping.

I've never done either (axle/boot change), but i'm doing my BBK in 2 weeks, so it's good I saw this now.

Suggestions?

 

Put new axles in and be done with it.

 

You got 160K out of them....replace em

 

Thanks guys, thats what I was planning on. They could have been blown for a year now, and clearly its dirty under there from sitting all winter/spring.

Another ? - are the seals easy to replace? Should I have them on hand in case they are bad? Good preventative maintenance practice?

 

yeah change them both out with new ones, I wouldnt even bother rebuilding them.

 

Why is everybody so anti rebuilding axles? Boot kit's are $10, it's a messy job but if you keep all the ***** in order and splines marked etc you'll know you have a perfectly balanced oem joint, where as some of the re-man ones are cuccka. Most of the time if you catch it quick you can slap a boot on and be done with it and not even have to clean every last bit of grease out (Different types of cv grease don't mix)