Front Axle Replacement - Preventive Maintenance?
 

I have a 2008 Acura TL Type S with around 120k miles. I know 3 other people with the same car (07-08) and all have had their front axel break while on the road. Is this THAT common that it should be performed around 120k miles to prevent the inevitable? It certaintly could be a scary situation if you're on the highway and the axel breaks or if you're making a left turn.

Any standard guidance on this from Acurazine?
Thanks guys.

I'm willing to guess that the broken axles were related to road salt accumulating on the balancer portion of the shaft? IF you happen to live in an area with road salt, I imagine it should be a risk mitigated by an undercarriage inspection.

inspect the axles...are the boots torn? oil leaking from them? is it making an audible clicking sound? is the car lowered putting stress on the axles?
these are all signs of bad axles.

its your money, but one shouldnt replace parts until they are bad

I was told that you couldn't really inspect these for whatever reason, I can't remember exactly.

^if you have eyes, you can inspect. are the boots torn, is it leaking? if you have ears you can inspect. is it making the tell-tale clicking noise under load, when turning?

I’ve never replaced a bad timing belt. :toocool:

most of the time the axle snaps at the damper esp in salty/snow locations. You can't see the rust unless you take apart the damper portion. The outer portion wears (joints inboard and outboard) but don't snap/break unless you are doing crazy launches with the car.

Go with new axles and axle seals and you'll be fine! The BIGGER issue is a bad ball joint snapping and pushing your tire into your fender. Aftermarket ball joints have this issue quite often even when new where they slide right out of the lower arm. Get your ball joints checked and replaced with OEM if necessary. If the axles are giving a clicking sound or are older, get them rebuild by RAXLES or get new OEM ones.

it's a no brainer to replace both axles if your car is constantly exposed to road salt and they are the original axles that have those axle dampers.

My passenger side snapped on my 07 TL while on vacation. Cost me way more than it should have if I had known about it and just done it preventatively. Just did the drivers side one recently to avoid a repeat fiasco. I actually waited 9 months to do the drivers side and it felt like gambling every day I delayed.

Here's a visual example of what forum member TheSauceBoss found recently when one of his axles 'gave up the ghost'.:ugh: If you get under the car and your axle(s) look similar, then it's time to entertain their replacement. :shrug:

https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...estion-980139/

Mine gave out @ 132K miles, not even a month after I bought the car from my brother who had it for the 7 previous years. Most (if not the entire) of the time it lived in NJ, = rust. It gave out like you said, making a left turn.
Attachment 97932



It won't always snap in 2. Mine was making the notorious "clicking" sound when turning right before it gave out, which I was still diagnosing at the time since the car was still new to me.


Attachment 97933

When just an axle turns into axles, lower BJ's, wheel bearings, outer tie rods and 1 ABS sensor :annoyed:

I replaced mine last year at 133,000 miles; not because they snapped but because they were causing vibrations; especially during acceleration.

I was hoping this was going to come up; how can you pinpoint vibrations directly due to the axles?
Versus say tires/alignment (both brand new in my case), worn bushings (compliance?), other worn suspension/steering components, etc..

My replacement axles didn't have the dampers so it is very likely in my case but I'd rather be 100% it's due to them.

I'm hearing a clicking noise when I make sharp turns. I'm assuming it's axels. But until I can get my car up I really won't know 😐

Probably 90% odds it is your axles.

I might be biased, but I would replace them immediately. I almost totaled my car when mine snapped, as I was attempting to cross a highway, then all of a sudden I was a sitting duck (once one side goes, the differential prevents the car from putting any power to the wheels). Like others have said, the corrosion under the harmonic stabilizers (rubber donut rings) are where they are likely to fail if you live in a state where they use salt in the winter - and it's difficult to see under that ring with just a visual inspection, because you can't move it. Clicking joints may be another point of failure other than the shaft itself, most likely a problem in the boot, but the suggestion to replace still stands....

You can get replacement axles (both sides) shipped to your door for just over $100 off rockauto. I recently did a DIY for replacement on mine (found here), though I'm not sure if there are differences between the 04-06 and the 07-08.

I didn't know bad axles could cause vibrations. I have vibrations that consistently get worst starting at about 50mph. Once I get to 80mph it's pretty annoying. Tires are all balanced. Had them checked twice. The passenger side was changed 50K miles ago but the drivers side is stock and the car has 205K. Maybe I'll change it out for good measure and see if that solves it. I hate to spend $200 on an OEM axle if the current one is fine. But all this axle breaking makes me paranoid :what:

The thing is, not all axles are created equal; I replaced both sides last year with new Duralast axles from Autozone; while the improvement was HUGE, I still get minor vibrations when I'm accelerating, and I'm inclined to replace them again shortly; this time with OEM units.

I agree with the shoez above.

At 205K it's tired, why take a chance? For you northern guys, with salt /moisture being an important factor, I'd be 'paranoid' at that mileage interval as well.:)
IMHO, OEM is the way to go; however, there are other choices other forum members have opted for with decent results.

I went OEM on the passenger side. So far so good. But now that I think about it, the vibration does seem to be coming from the front driver side and I have noticed a slight clicking when I turn really sharp (at slow speeds). I just don't want to spend the $180 or so to get a new one :yuck:

On my 2007 TL, I did a whatever axle that the shop provided for the passenger side. Definitely aftermarket. No issues after a few thousand miles and 9 months.

A few weeks ago I installed the SURTRACK/TRAKMOTIVE HO8217 off of rockauto for the drivers side and after 1000 miles haven't noticed any issues so far. Only reason i picked it up was due to cheaper shipping costs when i combined with some other parts. Plus it has a lifetime warranty (whatever that is worth).

Again, a visual inspection won't tell you 100%.
But the clicking when making sharp turns is a BIG indicator that some of your CV joints are on borrowed time. Just like mine I had the notorious clicking, then the CV finally gave out as I was making a left turn from a stop, trying to cross 2 lanes of oncoming traffic just like SauceBoss. Luckily it was in a 35mph zone. But if you see my pic of the old axle, it's still in 1 piece.

If I were you I'd get some new axles on order pronto.

I pulled the trigger on the drivers side. Got an OEM for $110 after a $60 gift card on Amazon. Be here Friday, I'll swap it out on Saturday :thumbsup:

Do you have a 6MT? That is insanely cheap for a true OEM axle. I know the six speed ones are cheaper for some reason, but OEM 5AT axles are $500 a pop.

I was going to say something similar. I saw the post about an OEM axle from Amazon; I checked, and, for 3G cars at least, no such a critter is available via Amazon.

^
I believe he has a 2012 4G?:dunno:

He does, but I have a 3G and was hopeful Amazon had OEM axles at a bargain price.

13 winters and ~275K miles on ND roads. Currently at 317K miles and original axles. Garaged in a heated garage, don't know if that made a difference or not...

Nice. Do they use salt on the roads in ND? And I'm sure having a heated garage wouldn't hurt. My car was garaged 12 out of 13 years of its life, but not heated....My mileage was 206k when the drivers side failed.

I've heard the opinion that heated garage hurts, especially if you put in a car that just rode through salty roads, as heat accelerates the chemical reactions, thus accelerates rusting. No idea if anybody tested that, but I can see science behind it.

Anyways, one of my axles developed slight clicking, so I'm going to replace both with cheap rockauto axles. I found couple mentions around the forum that people didn't have any problems with them. For my 2008 TL Auto, parts are "APWI HO8405" and "APWI HO8398". Will let you know how they behave.

Yup. And salt and beet juice when it gets well below freezing...

Meh, don't know about that. And a heated garage just means it's not freezing. I keep my garage at ~ 50F during the winter...

If you go with cardone...those are the same part that parts stores sell with lifetime warranty, so easy replacement if they start clicking OR if the boot tears.

TheSauceBoss went with those just recently.:thumbsup:

Just curious.:)

losiglow, when you get your 'OEM' axle from Amazon, if possible, take a few pictures of the axle and the box it came in.

There is a question, amongst some of the forum members, as to whether it is 'authentic' OEM or perhaps a counterfeit boxed in 'knock off' Honda packaging? :dunno:

its seem like the MT car axle taking a beating more than AT counter part, I have 3 AT TL where the highest mileage is 122k miles. The car feels great and smooth, however my MT TL isn't the case here. Like Horseshoe said, it has slight vibration under medium acceleration.

Well apparently I've split the forum in half with this question, which doesn't help my decision making! If I decide to get them replaced, what's the most I should pay out the door?

It depends upon who does the work and which axles you buy. There is no way anybody can answer your question except you.

Alldata suggest is takes 0.9h to replace each axle. So for doing both shop should charge you 1.8-2h of labor + parts + tax.

Price of parts varies from $50 per axle to ~$300 per axle, labor varies probably from ~$80-160 or whatever dealership chargers.

So depending what you choose, you are looking at $280 - $1000 - of course it's raw estimate.

Thanks, that makes sense. I figure I'd go OEM just in case, so I'll be shooting for $750 or less if possible.

Hmmm, "shooting for $750", well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, just the OEM axles for a Type-S Automatic alone are $474.07, add in taxes and shipping, and then the labor to install them, and I'm thinking doing OEM axles for $750 will be a challenge.

APWI axles are only ~$50 each off rockauto..... I installed mine 3k miles ago and they've been perfect. User DMZ has the same set and has had them longer. Even if you pay for labor, that's much cheaper overall....but it's really up to you, how long you want to keep the car, and what will even specifically fit an '08 type S depending on if yours is auto or manual.