Noticed noise from front of car - took to my mechanic who recommended a front CV axle repair. Cost with dealer parts - 1300. Aftermarket is 700. Want to go with dealer parts but also want to insure this is a fair price. Not happy that this car just hit 55k miles and I'm having to replace a part that should last the life of the car. What are your thoughts regarding cost?

Bought this car as a CPO from dealer. Thinking I should have stuck with Hyundai since my 2002 Sonata is still running well and very seldom needs a costly repair.

 

A few comments:

• CV axles are NOT a lifetime product, they fail literally all of the time on relatively young cars.
• Given you purchased your car second hand you have no way of knowing if it was abused or in an accident which may have shortened the life of one of your axles.
• I seriously doubt a 2002 Sonata will be anywhere near as reliable as a 2015 Mazda3.
• Regarding the cost of new axles, I've seen aftermarket units for your car range from about $60 per axles to a few hundred

 

Thanks for the information. I think because i wanted a Mazda 3 hatchback so badly I told myself that CPO meant is was a good used car. After re-reading my purchase docs last night I realized that was not the case. I.E. I don't know how the previous owner treated the car.

• "CV axles are NOT a lifetime product, they fail literally all of the time on relatively young cars"

Currently on my 5th vehicle in 40 years - typically by new or two years old and drive as long as I can until replacing the car is more economical than continuing to repair. .The last time I had to have a CV Axle repair was on my 1976 Chrysler Cordoba.

• "Regarding the cost of new axles, I've seen aftermarket units for your car range from about $60 per axles to a few hundred"

I'm really afraid to go with after market parts. Researched that as well and there are all sorts of issues from various owners floating around. Mechanic said the entire job will take about 3 hours and the quotes include labor as well. I do plan to contact the dealership this week to see what kind of quote they might give (if any). Typically whenever I ask the service adviser about an issue I get a generic response of "We'll have to run a diagnostic test which is $150 and then we can deduct that off the repair cost"

• I seriously doubt a 2002 Sonata will be anywhere near as reliable as a 2015 Mazda3

I truly hope you're right about the Mazda being more reliable than the Sonata. My 2002 Sonata is still running well (letting my daughter drive it for now). I will say that the Mazda is a LOT more fun to drive.

 

CV axles are a hit and miss kind of thing; I've only replaced them four times in over 50 years of driving FWD cars (by the way, the 1976 Chrysler Cordoba did not have any CV axles, it was a RWD car with "Universal Joints" or "U-Joints" on the drive shaft, and those are, if anything, an even more common failure point). That said, I have had an easy half dozen cars which I drove well beyond the point where the axles were past their prime, in the case of those cars I just dealt with the associated vibrations and shimmies and such because the cars were slated to be replaced with/traded in on something new(er). In the case of our current Mazda3 (a year newer than your car but with almost the exact same number of miles), the axles are still rock solid and vibration free, however, my Acura TL has a bit over 160,000 miles on it and I'm on my third set of axles.

Regarding aftermarket axles versus OEM, not all axles are created equal, I've seen "Lifetime Guarantee" DuraLast axles fail in as little as 20,000 miles, and I've heard numerous reports of out of the box DuraLast failures; I took a chance on a pair for my TL back in 2018 because someone had a new set which he'd purchased just before crashing his car and sold them cheap, yeah, about that, "free" would have been too expensive as they were so bad after 30,000 miles I replaced them in a little over a year. The APWI axles I replaced them with are not only less expensive than new DuraLast axles, but after nearly 20,000 miles they are still smoother than the DuraLast units were when they were new. When in doubt, OEM is the way to go, however, if you do some judicious research, there are many good aftermarket companies, such as APWI and Raxles with reputations of matching (or in the case of Raxles, exceeding OEM quality).

 

You are right about the 76 Cordoba. I remember now that I was leaving work, put it in reverse, heard a 'pop" and the car wouldn't move. I'm going to mention APWI and Raxles to my mechanic today to see what he has to say. Thanks again!

 

A few things to keep in mind, I *think*, but don't know for sure, that APWI concentrates on Honda products, so I am not sure if they make them for Mazdas. Raxles are awesome axles with the highest quality of the aftermarket shy of Insane Shafts (the axles folks use when they add insane amounts of power to any given car, hence the name), however, depending upon the car, they can sometimes cost as much, or more, than OEM axles. Definitely worth checking out. The brand to avoid is AutoZone's DuraLast; I have heard some mostly good reviews about CarDone axles, and they are reasonably priced as well. Other than Raxles, do NOT buy rebuilt/remanufactured axles, always buy new.

 

I have been scouring the internet for reviews and even went to the Raxles website. One thing I see a lot of comments about OEM being Japanese parts and not good quality. I did also see where someone paid a little more for Raxles than OEM so I'll be having a chat with my mechanic today and see what he thinks.

 

FYI labour time to replace complete axle is about 1 to 1.5 hrs labour. 3hrs is a rip off.

 

Thanks - I'm thinking the 3 hour is a bit much as well. Often times they tell me a loner wait time than it actually takes.

 

Dealer advised me to bring it in as my CPO Mazda was still under warranty. Upon inspection they could find no signs of that the joints/boots/axle etc needed replacing. The closest they could come to diagnosing the problem was a steering spacer issue which is not under warranty and would cost me close to $500. I just feel like that is not the problem. They advised my transmission gasket was leaking and so I spent $200 on that repair. Now I feel like I can't trust my mechanic OR the dealership. Since the vehicle will be out of warranty in less than 5,000 miles I'm wondering if the dealership was just trying to drag things out until the warranty expires. I don't want to make much ado about nothing but I know when something just doesn't seem right.