CV Joint Covers? Options

[CheesyLobster]

Hey guys,

I have been experiencing a cracking sound when I turn my wheel for about 6 months now. I am pretty sure that it is broken CV joint covers. Today I brought the cars in for an estimate and they quoted me 150 for each side, plus 2 hours labor, which comes out to about $600 for the whole job. I have a few questions that I was hoping someone could answer who has experience with this sort of thing:

-Is $600 a fair price?
-Should the whole axle assembly be replaced? I was thinking that they'd just do the boots but the mechanic said that it was only an extra $50 to do the whole thing (on the estimate they called it REMIN CV COMPL ASSY), and that no one just does the boots.
-How difficult of a job would this to be to do myself? How long would it take? If I do do it myself, where can I get the parts for cheep?

Thanks for the help guys!

[Tom_SS2]

if the covers/boots have been knackered for a while then the joints will be and will need replacing as the ball bearings etc will be worn, joints can be done in half an hour and can be bought for as little as £30 each and come with covers/boots, clips and grease. did one on mine the other day fairly easy job with the right tools, think the book time is 45mins each side.

[CheesyLobster]

if the covers/boots have been knackered for a while then the joints will be and will need replacing as the ball bearings etc will be worn, joints can be done in half an hour and can be bought for as little as £30 each and come with covers/boots, clips and grease. did one on mine the other day fairly easy job with the right tools, think the book time is 45mins each side.

Great, thanks! Have any recommendations where to get them in the US? What exactly do I need/ should I be searching for? "Celica ST CV joint assembly," or something like that?

[CheesyLobster]

Never mind, I did some searching and found this. Does this look good? Will I need any other parts? Thanks again for the help!



BTW, one should be for the driver's side, the other for the passenger's side.

This post has been edited by CheesyLobster: Oct 5, 2010 - 11:23 PM

[vile_v]

Cardone CV axle are actually pretty decent and that sounds like awesome price!

The only thing you need other than the CV axle is new transmission fluid (good chance to upgrade) just tell the shop to use your choice of transmission fluid. (3 quarts of 75w-90) Alot of people here like to use penzoil syncromesh.

You also need inner transmission seals for both sides. They are about 10 dollars or so from Toyota. PLEASE BUY TOYOTA BRAND. It will save you lots of headache because nothing fits the same as OEM.

[Euphoria]

Axles are fairly straight forward, the only thing that usually causes trouble is the side that the shaft goes straight into the box as sometimes it gets stuck and needs to be pryed out. New seals on both sides (not really necessary unless they get damaged) and new fluid would be a good idea too, also make sure you torque the axle nut (big 30mm bolt) as if its not done properly it will be bad on your wheel bearings later down the track, most diy guides never bring this up.

[96stgreendemon]

definitely get new seals, i had to replace mine after installing the cvs the first time, get a good breaker bar and a 30mm axle nut socket, an oxy acceteline torch works wonders too, we broke 3 breaker bars taking the axle nut off my drivers side, 1 gear wrench, and 2 snapon's, heated it up till red hot and it came right off, just remember thought, when you pull your drivers side cv tranny fluid will go everywhere unless you drained it prior to servcing the cv's which you should do anyways. as far as new tranny fluid goes i like penzoil sencromesh. good luck, pm me if you need any help i just did all this last week

[garin]

might be cheaper/easier to do the whole axle.