Good NON OEM Axles

Has anyone had luck with any good NON OEM axles?

I've read about folks going through numerous off brands that are never quite right with our cars.
Im experiencing that now and ready to grab two used OEM ones off of Ebay as I cant afford new Volvo ones right now.

I've tried DTA Axles and still have the throttle on vibration synonymous with axles.
My entire front end is new, all bushings, shocks, tops, etc etc and I've had this issue before so I'm quite confident its the axles.

Looking for any and all suggestions.

Thanks.......

There aren't any good NON-Volvo axles.

Took me three axles from IPD to get one for the XC that didn't vibrate on acceleration.

When the boots started to crack on my T5, I spent $100 on Volvo boots, and a couple hours to strip, clean, and reboot the axle. Way better idea than cheap Chinese rebuilds with bad balance.

Old axle. New boots with new grease.

Attachment 8075

Thats what I thought... I might be better off buying used ones and doing what you did.

I never should of taken mine off. I replaced them due to age and mileage and threw them out thinking everything was good.
Hindsight is always 20-20 as they say......

How about the OEM brand axle bought on the aftermarket. One of my vendors sells the GKN brand. About 3 times the price (wholesale) of a cheap one, but less than what Volvo wants.

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Originally Posted by hoonk

How about the OEM brand axle bought on the aftermarket. One of my vendors sells the GKN brand. About 3 times the price (wholesale) of a cheap one, but less than what Volvo wants.

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Sounds like a good option...

Thanks for the input - much appreciated

Just FYI - I went to replace the boots on my XC ('07) with OE parts, but they didn't fit. The old owner had installed new GKN axles. There are no replacement boots available for the not-straight-from-the-dealer axles, so you have to buy new axles every time the boots leak. Lesson: keep the OE axles, forever!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mtd240

Just FYI - I went to replace the boots on my XC ('07) with OE parts, but they didn't fit. The old owner had installed new GKN axles. There are no replacement boots available for the not-straight-from-the-dealer axles, so you have to buy new axles every time the boots leak. Lesson: keep the OE axles, forever!

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Perhaps an axle rebuilder would have a boot that fits?

This isn't *that* difficult but not straightforward wither.

You can buy CV boots by size. There are "round" and "tri-lobal" styles. The critical dimensions are the overall length at rest, and each of the diameters of the narrow and the wide end.

You can use a caliper to measure the diameters at the narrow and wide end each. You can settle for an educated guess as to length, if you make an error then a little longer is better than a little short. Since they are made in increments of 1/100 inch long or so, it probably isn't that critical.

To buy the boots, find a shop that has or can get you the size you need. A store that has acess to the EMPI line might help, they list the sizes in their parts catalog. Others probably do as well.

For pictures and sizes why not get onto the web and go to amazon.com and put "volvo xc70 cv boot" in for the search. The results will include many different sized boots with their mfg. stock numbers, styles, and dimensions.

It would of been faster for you to copy/paste links for parts that you have found - Instead of telling people what to do on their own in learning on themselves.

Just Saying


And have a nice day.

I took a chance perhaps but replaced both front axles with rebuilt Duralast axles from Autozone. The one on the right solved a vibration very noticeable under load i.e. under acceleration. I had 3 engine mounts with worn rubber replaced prior to the axles, those helped the vibration some but the axle was the problem. They were cheap and after about 6K miles they are doing great.

I would also recommend against NEW replacement axles which don't have a core charge, very cheap price around $99, made in who knows where?. I bought one and it was no good. I noticed that FCP Euro stopped carrying that particular axle only about a year after I bought one. I figure they must have had a high rate of returns.