Broken front axle

Hi Vivian,

It would not be surprising if your car needed new drive axles at 150K miles. A loose CV joint will typically produce a click upon acceleration and sometimes deceleration.

One way to assess the looseness in the axles is to jack up one front corner of the car and see how much you can rotate the tire that is suspended in the air, while the other front tire is resting on the ground. As you are rotating the one tire back and forth, you can assess how much play exists in the drive shafts.

Of course, you can also solicit a second opinion from another mechanic, as well.

If you need to have this CV shaft work done, check the condition of the front brakes. If the front discs need to be replaced, this is the time to do it. Good luck.

 

Very common at your mileage to need the cv' axles replaced. When they begin to fail they exhibit your identical symptoms.

The dealer isn't taking advantage of you its that they get $130 an hour plus oem parts. Not sure where you live as you never posted your location
so can't say regionally the cost.

I would never have the dealer replace my cv's. The cv's on this car are no different than any other car. Straight forward mechanical repair.

Who do you buy your tires from? I bet they do cv joints as mine does. Its about $900 all in.

Make sure who ever replaces them do this:

Replace axle/trans seals (go to dealer and buy the 2 seals. One on each side. Its the seal the inner cv axles passes through at the trans. Maybe $10 each)
Replace the trans fluid with the factory fluid (they have to dump the fluid when the axles are removed) Go to the dealer first
and buy 4 quarts of Toyota WS Fluid. Its $10 each and again regionally????

After repair park the car on top of a big piece of cardboard under the motor for a few days. This is so you can check if the car is leaking
trans fluid. Sometimes hard to replace axle seals and they may leak. You need to know this because if the fluid is leaking
it will run the trans dry and you don't want to buy a new trans ($4000). Look for red fluid drops. May weep a little the first day or so.
Btw. I always park my car on it. Want to see if its leaking anything.

The reason your buying these original dealer parts as it will make the job go much faster and they also may not get or use the exact
parts or fluid the car requires if you don't.. Thats the only drawback to anyone other than the dealer doing this.

Btw, the money saved by not having the dealer do it may be time for new tires also. Your car will require a front end alignment when completed also anyway.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for your help Patrick, once again!!!
Yes they have said my brakes need replacing but it's the back ones they are at 3's the front are at 7's.

 

Well, if the measurement is cited in mm, 3 mm for the rear brake shoes is actually good. The brake shoe lining starts at 4 mm thickness when new and the minimum safe thickness is 1 mm.

The front disc pads start at 11 mm new, and are good down to 1 mm thickness at which point they should be replaced.

 

Thanks Ed for your help!!!
I live in a very rural area of Washington. 65 miles from a small city with 1 Toyota dealership. We don't really have any mechanics here that have a good reputation in my little town. I have looked up the cost of New CV Axles online and they are $79 and $89 for A1 Cardone parts but Toyota wants $535 for R and $457 for the L one. Total cost of install $1650. I can't believe the cost of the same parts at Toyota is so much more. I guess I need to find a shop that will do the work, my tire place just does tires.

Speaking of tires I have had to replace 3 sets in the last 3 years and half way threw the last ones. My car / road has been eating them alive. I put on WGR3 Nokians and they lasted 23000 that was expensive, Michelin Defenders, lasted 23500 and now on Bridgestone Ecopias and just had 1st rotation 5000 and they are wearing out. Dealership did alignment before the Michelins and said the alignment was within speck but another tire place said I need a shim in the back to align my car. I didn't do it cause the dealership said I didn't need it. But maybe now I am thinking I do... Or could it be the cv axle issue? Someone said maybe my shocks or struts , still have the originals. Can you tell I don't know much about cars? Thanks to this site I have been able to learn so much. Last year the dealership wanted to replace the skid control ECU but because of the help from you guys here I was able to make them look beyond replacing the computer. It was a faulty sensor $400 vs $2400... Can I say again thanks to you all for your help...

 

Thanks Patrick the new Service Associate made it seem like the back brakes were really bad and needed to be replaced right away. She never said that they started at 4 but made it seem that both front and back were the same by showing I had 7 in the front and only 3 in the back. Thanks for helping me learn... I love my car and this site. Thanks Vivian

 

At a stealership, the 'service associate' is often head scumbag when it comes to repairs. Not always; my local Subaru guy is worth his weight in gold. If you have to guess though, assume the 'service associate' is a liar and an idiot.

 

Try looking for the parts at one of the Toyota dealers that sell discounted parts over the web. For example:
AutoNation Toyota Gulf Freeway Parts

 

Just looked up prices on Pat's guy an omg the price Toyota gets for there axles is ridiculous.

Your pretty much forced to go aftermarket. Its a tough call all around because at 150K miles and a car that has spent its life in rural
roads and taking a beating the car probably needs struts & brakes too. At Toyota parts prices that could be $3000. Aftermarket still expensive.

Even tougher call as it probably is going to need a Hybrid battery soon too with its age. Add it all up may be time for a new car.
We see this alot on this forum.

 

I agree, yesterday I was at a resort with slow Internet service so I could not actually go to the Autonation Toyota website to see the pricing. Now that I have access to that website again, I see that those prices are actually higher than the prices quoted by Vivian's source.

 

I'm also the guy who tanks up any time it's below half, so it might be just me, but:

Anytime I see brake pads around 3 mm or less, I'll replace them. It just seems to me the wear accelerates when they're down to that level, and even start having the edges coming apart.

 

Well now I am wondering if this site is for real? http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/search/?N=0&Nr=AND(make:Toyota,part:Axle Assembly,modelrius,universal:0)&PN=0 819&VN=4294959021 4294958879&domain=autopartswarehouse.com&query_type=Product Results&refType=Brand&refValue=A1 Cardone Looking at the Autonation Toyota site are there other parts I would have to buy? Besides the Factory seals and WS fluid suggested by Ed. I am going to talk to some of the guys I work with about finding a mechanic to do the work if I buy the parts.

I know I will have to save up for the battery and many other things... I have no other option can't buy a new car. Luckily if I get my new job my mileage will go from 75 miles a day to 22 miles a day, thanks to a work transport. Fingers crossed.

 

I'm not sure of the exact parts needed, but this is a reputable dealer with prices much lower than msrp

Select Part to View

 

For each axle replaced, you need at minimum:

1. The axle itself
2. The seal that fits into the transaxle opening which the inner end of the axle inserts into
3. The hub nut that attaches to the far end of the axle, the front disc is located next to that nut. That nut has to be replaced with a new part, each time it is removed.

Whenever an axle is removed, the transaxle has to be drained first. Then the transaxle needs to be refilled with 4 US quarts of ATF WS once the new axles have been installed. For a complete job, the transaxle drain plug washer should be replaced, this is an aluminum washer that Toyota dealers sell.

 

How hard is it to install a new axle? Ive done axles before where there are just 6 Hex bolts that attach to the transmission housing. But Prius' have a c-clip that you have to hammer/muscle into the transmission, correct? Do I need any special tools?

 

The hard part is removing the old axle from the transaxle case. I personally haven't needed to do this. The repair manual suggests using a slide hammer to exert outwards force on the inner portion of the axle, to pull it out of the case.

I've noticed some PC members have posted to the effect that the old axle's inner CV joint will fall apart as they tried to remove the axle from the case. So it probably would be wise to plan to replace the entire axle that needs to be replaced.

 

I had some trouble with my drive axles, a couple of points which may help...

Remove the central engine support - it's right in the way of the 'long' side. Taking it off makes access much easier.
Accept that you will damage the dust cover on the 'old' inner CV joint - it will get bent on the way out. You either have to carefully hammer it back into shape if you are re-using the inner CV or not worry if you are replacing the complete joint.
The only tool you need to remove the driveaxles on this car is a medium size crowbar.

Prior to installing the replacement driveaxles, you will need to replace the driveshaft oil seals - they are handed i.e. the long side & the short side seals are not the same. I was advised to seat them flush with the surface of the transaxle - i.e. not driven down to the bottom of the bore. This looks strange as the rubber lips stick out proud of the transaxle casing, but seems to work. Driving the seals to the base of the bore makes them leak. I oiled both faces with ATF & tapped them in gently with a flat drift, keeping well away from the sealing surfaces.

When installing the replacement driveshafts it is important to set them first to the specified length & then equalize the pressure in the inner CV joint. Fitting is relatively straightforward - push in firmly, it is quite obvious when they are home as the dust covers are flush with the transaxle bore. You also can't pull them out again without the use of the crowbar!

Good luck - you may wish to try Patrick's slide hammer method in preferance to my crowbar, I suspect it is a bit neater!

Matt

 

That's good stuff about the different seals on the long and short side. And correct on seal installation depth.

Only thing I'm not digging is the atf on the seals. The Toyota factory manual states use grease on the lip only. Not atf. Much like alot of cars.

 

Thanks Oracle, Patrick, & Ed this will come in handy.... Okay all I found a guy at work who has done a couple of axle replacements on his cars. He is willing to do it for free... Of course I will pay him if not him I will give money to his newborn son... He also works with a former Toyota Mechanic so he said if he needs help he has it. So it has been an adventure finding both axles at the same place, ordering things online get kinda weird sometimes.

I thought I would share this little tidbit of info I found and where I purchased my axles. They were a bit more expensive $207 for both including hub nuts, but the information was worth it to me. Contrary to popular belief, Toyota does not make their own Drive Axle Front. A third party actually manufactures and sells these factory Drive Axle Fronts directly to Toyota. Toyota then installs these Drive Axle Fronts in your Prius at the factory assembly line. We sell the same OEM factory Drive Axle Fronts that you would buy directly from the Toyota dealer, but at a much more affordable price! Toyota Prius Drive Axle Front

Based on all the info you guys gave me I have ordered the L & R seals, the aluminium drain plug washer, the ATF WS from my local Toyota dealer. They will ship out to me. I have still been driving haven't heard any clicking lately hopefully we can get this done next week... Fingers crossed. I will let you all know what happens. THANKS AGAIN GUYS U ROCK!!!!!!!!!

 

Theres alot of you tubes on cv replacement that are very helpful especially the hammering in the axles.