Scotty, I have a 2008 Toyota Highlander FWD with 200K+ miles. There’s a tear in one of the right side CV axle boots, but the joint is not making noise yet. Getting conflicting advice on whether to replace just the boot, buy a new axle, or a remanufactured axle. Toyota axle is over $700. New non-OEM axles are reasonable ($40-$170), but appear to be made in China and a lot of folks appear to have had problems with them (vibration, etc). Is there a particular brand you use and trust? I will be doing the work myself, but don’t want to do the job more than once.
I haven’t done it myself, but I would consider doing it in the future if necessary, because I’m not too happy with the remanufactured I purchased.
Change the boot out myself. (Or even pay to get the boot changed out if it is economical.)
Scotty has a video on how to do it, IIRC.
wait until the axle wears out, and then replace it with an aftermarket one. But not the $40 one.
Are there any specific brands you recommend? Or at least ones to stay away from?
No. it's been a while since I've done one.
I would just compare them against the OEM. often you can just tell by looking at the imported stuff it's garbage. Or weighing it. Cheap materials, saving on metal by making things thinner etc.