So in the middle of a road trip my driver's side rear axle started making a clunking noise, and it turns out my boot was leaking grease and running dry. I topped it off and made it home, but I figure I'll go ahead and replace the whole axle. I found Cardone axles for $85 each with a lifetime warranty.

Is Cardone a reliable brand? For the price and with that warranty, I don't think I can go wrong, but just want opinions.

Should I go ahead and replace both rear axles? I haven't had any problems yet, but if the job is substantially easier to do both at once than separately then I'm okay with being proactive. If it's not, I'll save the time and money.

Are there any other parts I should order? New differential seals or anything like that that I may come across once I get started?

Thanks for all of your help.

I ended up buying the lift time deals from Autozone- Duralast - which were a hair north of $100. One started flinging grease within a month, but the good news is that Autozone replaced it without question. It's a pain to swap them out, but you're good for life. I am guessing there is probably only a few factories which actually makes them, and they are just re-labeled, but this is a guess.

Easiest to replace both axles and differential seals. You have to open the rear end to get to the c-clip at the end of the axle, might as well do both while you're there.

I'm not familiar with cordone, so i don't have an opinion. Just did mine with some from the local parts supplier, but I don't remember the brand.

cough cough china cough...

hang on to the xle, if you swap both. rebooted oe axles are far superior to any others...

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

^ What he said.

Just replaced my failed axle with a rebooted OEM. Far, Far superior. Just make sure the rubbers are on correctly. As we all know, bad things happen when rubbers fail

You mention rebooted OEM axles being better. I'm worried that once I heard the clunking, the axle was running dry and may be compromised. Do you still think I may be better off rebooting it instead of replacing with aftermarket?

If I were in your shoes, I would find a good OEM replacement from a junkyard or fellow member and reboot it.

It's about 4+ hours of labor to pull them out and replace them each time, so saving a few dollars and re-doing the job isn't a great savings.

Dkr.

Cardones are rebuilds, normally in Mexico, not China. Rebuilt axles will normally have balance problem on the inner CVS, where a minute balance problem can turn into some you can feel at speed. YMMV.

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1998 VW Cabrio
2001 Audi SomeRoad A/T (no air suspension)
2003 Audi DeadRoad M/T (no vroom, for later)
2002 Audi NoRoad A/T (nothing under the hood, being rebuilt)

I've heard that you can take your old ones, reboot them and install them on opposite ends to account for them wearing down?? The only good thing about some of the chinese branded ones is that they are Annular (two pieces )and you can replace the boots without having to get into the differential.

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1985 300d Turbo Diesel

You can reboot axles without removing them from the diff if you use astoria flex boots, remove it from the hub end and slide the boots over. There's a special tool, but you can use a funnel with the lip cut off a bit.

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1984 300TD -- summer daily driver
Many others that aren't Mercedes...

Do you have any tips as far as how to know if an OEM junkyard boot is any good?

Don't loose your paperwork so you can get the warranty.

I have Cardone Axles on my Car and after 5 years the Boots started to show signs of cracking.
Note that I had no failure I just decided not to wait and in fact just re-greased the Cardones and put new boots on them and they have been fine.

If the Boots on your crack after 5 years you keeping the paperwork would allow you to exchange for another instead of rebooting.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

People have had good luck when they rebooted and re-lubed the original equipment axles. Get one from the Junk Yard with intact boots.
Is even better if you can get Annular Axles as you can easily take them apart to reboot them.

The issue is that if the original equipment axle boot cracks through the Oil inside leaks out and if the crack is big enough outside stuff can get in.

The famous rebuilder uses grease unless you request Oil. Grease has the advantage that it does not leak out like the Oil would when the boot cracks.

I used Dorman Universal Boots but most people use Astoria Flex Boots to reboot.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Where to get complete info: Fast navigation Do It Yourself Links

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Thanks for all of your advice on this. Now that I'm more aware of my options, I started a new thread to hear some more opinions.

Axle replacement options (300TD)