NAPA reman CVs - edit: are total crap.

thezentree

thezentree

Senior Member
Edit: I need to eat a big plate of crow. I replaced these NAPA remans with Toyota remans in an attempt to eliminate these vibrations and there is a HUGE difference. I've got 600 miles on the NAPA axles, and they flop around like a dead fish. The OEM axles are much, much tighter. I think the bearing surface at the diff is slightly undersized on the NAPA axle, which gives it some more radial play in the diff.

Don't buy NAPA axles if you have the option to buy OEM axles. OEM is night and day better.

Fun fact: Toyota will not accept non-OEM CV axles as cores. Soooo ....trail spares?


+++


I installed a 3" lift last month and have had bad vibrations I can't fix (see here).

I've been in touch with Toytec trying to figure out what's causing it, and whoever I've been talking to via email is telling me that the NAPA reman CVs I installed trying to rule out worn OEM CVs may be causing the vibrations.

Have you all had issues with NAPA reman CVs? I don't care at this point if they break or wear out sooner, just with initial quality. I'm not interested in buying ANOTHER set of CVs (from Toyota this time) and spending another day swapping CVs if I don't have to.
 
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I have the Napa Remans on my 3" lift. One boot blew within 5k miles. The other one has been holding on. I'm just waiting on the other one to blow so I can swap it for a new one.

I stretched by inner boot and put a stainless steel hose clamp on it, no issues there. Been that way for about a month. Apparently, the one that went bad also was undersized on the area where the CV inner makes contact with the seal, which caused it to move around and leak. Replacing the $20 seal didn't help. With the new one, there is no wobbling, so I have come to the conclusion it was undersized. No leaks in the past month either.

One more note, per my local Napa, the remans are discontinued, because the part number has a redirect to the new CVs. He said that what they have is what they have and can't order any more. I have not talked to any other Napa locations to confirm. Just putting that out there. Also, don't let them know it's lifted or anything.
 
thezentree said:
I installed a 3" lift last month and have had bad vibrations I can't fix (see here).

I've been in touch with Toytec trying to figure out what's causing it, and whoever I've been talking to via email is telling me that the NAPA reman CVs I installed trying to rule out worn OEM CVs may be causing the vibrations.

Have you all had issues with NAPA reman CVs? I don't care at this point if they break or wear out sooner, just with initial quality. I'm not interested in buying ANOTHER set of CVs (from Toyota this time) and spending another day swapping CVs if I don't have to.
Click to expand...

DO THIS WITH CAUTION

Put the vehicle on jack stands. Put the vehicle in D and listen to the rear drive shaft to see if you can pin point the vibration. Do this in 2wd and 4x4 if you can.

I would not think the front shafts would cause a major vibration right after lift. Usually its a rear driveshaft that was worn and the angle made it worse.

Also did you install new tires at lift? Lots of times bad balanced tires can cause a vibration.
 
Guess I should have actually rear the entire post.

I had some pretty significant vibrations after my lift. I had the rear U Joint replaced, with an OEM "Spider kit", done by a local driveshaft shop. This helped significantly. I still had vibrations in the steering. New CVs didn't do anything except lighten my wallet, but the stockers were probably well worn out by 250k when I lifted. I replaced the front wheel bearings, upper and lower ball joints, this got rid of my front end vibration. Not sure which one it was. I did the LBJs at the time of the lift, so it wasn't those. I remember seeing your other thread, but I haven't read through it recently.

Another thing to look at would be the steering rack bushings and steering rack guide. I put the energy suspension bushings in the rack where the stock rubber ones used to be and fell out an unknown period of time ago. Since I'm a cheap ass, I just tightened the guide by a few degrees, saved myself $90.

You can chock your wheels, and remove the rear shaft, mark its location on the yokes and slip yoke area, so it can go it exactly as it came out. Drive around in 4WD and see if the vibe is still there, this will rule in/out rear shaft.

Hopefully, this will help.
 
thezentree said:
I installed a 3" lift last month and have had bad vibrations I can't fix (see here).

I've been in touch with Toytec trying to figure out what's causing it, and whoever I've been talking to via email is telling me that the NAPA reman CVs I installed trying to rule out worn OEM CVs may be causing the vibrations.

Have you all had issues with NAPA reman CVs? I don't care at this point if they break or wear out sooner, just with initial quality. I'm not interested in buying ANOTHER set of CVs (from Toyota this time) and spending another day swapping CVs if I don't have to.
Click to expand...

If I read this correct you had vibrations with the oem cv's and installed napa cv's to rule out the oem cv's and still had vibrations? Then it's most likely not the napa cv's.

I got my 4runner not that long ago so I am still learning stuff here but with my old Cherokee I would remove the rear shaft and drive in 4wd to rule out rear vibes. Not sure if you can do that with a 4runner but I don't see why not? Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
 
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Mudeprived said:
If I read this correct you had vibrations with the oem cv's and installed napa cv's to rule out the oem cv's and still had vibrations? Then it's most likely not the napa cv's.
Click to expand...

Kinda what I was thinking.


Thanks for the input everyone. I don't want to get too much into the vibration troubleshooting in this thread just to keep things condensed, but feel free to check out that other thread that I linked in the OP.
 
I have maybe 2.5" lift?

I have napa CV's and don't seem to have any issues. everything rides great. maybe 20k miles on them?
 
Agree with [MENTION=50342]JayRolla[/MENTION]. I believe its your driveshaft thats out of balance. For reference i also installed cvs from napa and put in 10k no issues yet.
 
Edited the OP.
[MENTION=120787]Bijan[/MENTION] deserves some credit for attempting to set me straight like two months ago.
 
If Napa(well their distributor) remanufactures an Oem cv axle. Then it’s technically a rebuilt Oem axle and the dealer should’ve taken it back as a core because it is an OE part. Now if you bought a new aftermarket axle that’s a different story.
 
MN4runnerman said:
If Napa(well their distributor) remanufactures an Oem cv axle. Then it’s technically a rebuilt Oem axle and the dealer should’ve taken it back as a core because it is an OE part. Now if you bought a new aftermarket axle that’s a different story.
Click to expand...

Whatever NAPA sold me as a reman CV is not made with OEM parts. It may be a reman aftermarket axle, but that wasn't clear when I bought them.
 
I couldn’t get 2 different napa cv’s to fit my truck. I could get the old cv and autozone cv’s to fit into my truck.
 
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When I first got my rig I put in new NAPA axles cause the ones that were on it were leaking grease at the boots. A few months later the passenger side inner boot on the NAPA somehow folded in on itself making the joint bind at certain points. I changed out that one axle with a reman Toyota and no issues. Much easier to spin the hub by hand now. The drivers NAPA is still holding up fine though.
 
Napa parts are just as much crap as any other aftermarket part. My eclipse Tundra calipers are crap in just a few years.
 
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