It's been awhille( I better do it soon) since I decided to replace my front axles and wheel bearings in my 98 obw myself. I looked around the market for right price and found some great prices - $50 per axles (returing the core) at http://cvaxles.com/. Of course this is remanufactured of aftermarket... $90 for new aftermarket axle. And $200 for one from local subaru dealer. They all come with lifetime warranty and my question is how safe or unsafe is to use re-manufactured aftermarket or new aftermarket compare to oem ones. Problem with axles during a drive could lead to lethal situation, and I would like to avoid that more than anything. I would like to hear from board members before I make a decision on whether to buy the aftermarket or oem ones. By the way I'm buying wheel bearings from the dealer.

Thanks

Dan

I've had good experience with cvaxles.com and can vouch for their quality. Wheel bearings I tend to buy OEM or from Smart Service in Shoreline.

What about re-manufacture vs new aftermarket axles?

Thanks

Dan

OEM axles are ARI remans. The same axle that you can get at Napa for half the price. If you buy from the dealer you only get a 1 year warranty. Napa gives you a lifetime warranty. The last time I checked you couldn't get a NEW OEM axle. If you could you wouldn't want to pay the price anyway.

I use the reman from NAPA myself, and have actually had it warrantied after a boot let go.

 

 

I see no problems with the re-man, and the savings are considerable, and a lot easier than just changing the CV.............get the whole halfshaft!

 

swi66

More likely than not, the ARI/CCT axles made for Subaru have to meet stricter specifications than those made for NAPA and AutoZone. But there are brand new GKN axles that can be had for $125.

I've had poor luck with ARI rebuilts bought at the local autopart store. Considering how little argument I got from the shop when I returned them, I think they weren't the first ones he had returned. I've never bought ARI remans from them again. I won't buy new since they've been too pricey. I've had good success with the axles I've gotten from cvaxles.com--$55 plus shipping plug returnable core charge. I've installed over a dozen of them and only had one failure after the boot let go; they replaced it after inspection with no charge to me other than my cost for shipping the failed axle to them. The current set of cvaxles from them have been on my Brat for over 30K miles and show no signs of failure. My best success has been to carefully inspect axles on wrecks at Pull a Part and use them. They generally cost me $25 each plus the labor to pull them an re-install them. They come with a 30 day warranty and if they last a week they'll last a fairly long time.

I had a boot strap come loose off one of my cvaxles.com axles and since they're so close to me, they had a replacement on my doorstep the next day, no questions asked.

I've installed the ARI's from Subaru dealer, had 1 fail.

 

I now buy the ARI's from Napa, 15 at a time, for a very good price, have only had one of these fail. I am talking about '90- Legacy axles.

 

Now as far as the '85-94 Leone/Loyale ARI axles from Napa, I have got a few bad ones. The funny thing is they were all NEW outer CV joints on them, but they were noisy right out of the box.