Have you crossed your axle numbers with the gasser 300E and E320 124s? Lots of those in the boneyards, two near me.

Yes, they can use the same one but the 300D can only use the more expensive one according the parts searches I have done.

I'm not sure if that's an error or accurate but the only axle I can find that is for a 1993 300D is $343-$418 new while the other one is $89 new. But it is only listed as an option for the gasser.

I had a bad axle, torn boot, howled a bit. I nursed it back to Denver from Kansas City just giving it grease every couple of hours or so. And it was in December.

Did you ever fix it?

Of course. This was 3 years ago. Nasty, noisy drippy thing; 30 minutes to fix for less than $100. But it never broke, and that was after 1000 miles.

Garage lifts seldom go bad either. Do you know what it sounds like right before a garage lift fails and falls on the mechanic? SILENCE

Same thing with axles, it takes forever for them to fail. But when they do, you better not be doing 75 on the interstate.

Just my $0.02

I fell for that trap a few months ago. Replaced both half-axles on my 84 300D with GSP axles from Advance. One failed before the car came off of the jack stands (the clip on the outer joint was left off when they assembled it, so the joint fell apart as I was installing the axle). The outer boot on the other one started leaking grease within 10 miles. Both are being replaced with rebuilt OEM axles once I find the time/money.

Question: What happens when an axel fails? We've had bad front axels on our 2001 BMW X5 for who knows how long.. years? :(

When we took it in, out mechanic told us that the last time we took it in to BMW for warranty maintenance they saw the boots were ripped and needed replacement but didn't say anything because of the nice repair bill that was going to come because of that... We don't know if that's 100% true but the axels have been needing replacement for a long long time and they click,clank real bad, our price quote to fix this was $2,000.. I'm curious to know what happens when they fail?

I'll venture a guess....a lot of noise, followed by a loss of power.

I would be worried that something could come loose and tear up everything in the undercarriage while leaving a trail of shrapnel for my fellow motorists to navigate.

It would have to come apart at the CV joint in order for that to happen I assume but not knowing the inner workings I'm not sure that's possible/likely.