CV joint clunk (newb)

[ryan470]

Hi All,

Want to say this forum has a wealth of information and very helpful. I found a few threads that I think provided the answer I'm looking for, but thought I'd ask anyway to make sure...

I just got a 2001 LX470 with 176k on it. This will mostly be my wife's daily but will also use for road trips/camping/exploring. I bought it out of state and had a good 7 hours to get acquainted with it. The steering seems to have quite a bit of play on center and there is a drive line clunk when 1) downshifting on the highway and 2) shifting from drive to reverse and vice versa.

I originally thought the clunk was motor/transmission mounts, so I got underneath it while my wife shifted between P, R, and D (fortunately she did not run over me!). The clunk is actually coming from the passenger side inner CV joint, which incidentally is covered in grease.

So the questions are:
1) Am I correct to assume the whole thing needs replacing? Or just the boot and some grease?
2) Is standard practice to replace both sides (driver's and passenger's side assembly) at the same time? Or should I wait on the driver's side until it acts up?
3) I found part 43430-60040 a few places online, and $330-350 plus shipping seems to be the best I can find for OEM replacement. But RockAuto has non-Toyota replacements as low as $45??? Seriously? What, will it break just from looking at it the wrong way?

I've never done CV joints before, but found some good info on how to do it.

Thanks for any input!

 

[Telly]

I recently did the reboot kit to both CV joints on my 03 due to a leaking boot on the drivers side. Mine was not clunking so I'm not sure the reboot kit will cure the problem. If it was me, I would buy a new Toyota joint for the clunking CV joint and buy a reboot kit from Toyota for the other side. Its was not a hard project, just a lot of cleaning of the existing CV joint. I went through 15 cans of brake cleaner for both joints. I would also recommend replacing the bearings/races/seals "while you're there" unless this job was already done recently.

One other note, mine still has a slight clunk (sometimes) during highway down shifting and shifting from D to R. Might need to do the wife shifting method...but only when she's in a good mood!

 

[ryan470]

Thanks for the input. I took it down to a Toyota dealer today since I found a few other issues, which they confirmed and then some...

Turns out the free play in the steering was due to the steering rack bushings (which I knew ahead of time thanks to this board), in addition all of the differential mounts (three total?) all need to be replaced. I'm supposed to go down there Tuesday and they'll put it on the rack and show me everything, but the laundry list includes:

• New steering rack and labor
  
• Front diff mounts and labor
• CV and labor
• several other items that I wrote down but left the list at work

Total estimate is about $3,700, almost double what I was anticipating. He told me he was estimating on the high end and would come in under that, but would have a better idea on Tuesday. Some of this stuff is over my head, but to save a few grand I'll let it sit in the garage and slowly figure it out (right now it's a third vehicle until I sell my old one). From what I've read the steering rack is not fun...

I had a family member look at it for me before I bought it and he didn't have any reservations, but I could tell something wasn't right on the way home after I picked it up. Hard to say if the PO knew the full extent (if anything), as he seemed pretty proud of it. My mistake was not getting an official PPI. The car's interior and exterior was/is so immaculate I couldn't imagine there being so many unattended to issues underneath. Sometimes beauty is only skin deep. Lesson learned...

Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas?