92 AWD Legacy L front drive shaft question

[royalcx]

Hello all,

I just found this group and hope that the experts out there can help
answer some questions for me.

I recently had a torn right front outer CV boot, with associated
damage to the right drive shaft. The car has about 140K miles on it.

A local Goodyear service center replaced the outer boot and the drive
shaft. The drive shaft also came with a new inner boot, so that was
changed as well. Goodyear also inspected the left side and
recommended changing the left outer boot as a preventive measure,
which I agreed to.

Question 1: The replacement drive shaft was a "remanufactured" part.
In your collective experience, what is the opinion on remanufactured
parts, especially in terms of longevity? What gets "remanufactured"?
I didn't get the name of the company that made the part for Goodyear.

Question 2: Should the left inner boot have gotten replaced at the
same time that the left outer boot was changed? The Goodyear service
manager claimed that the inner boot wears about 1/2 as fast as the
outer boot because it is less exposed and has to flex far less. He
claims that it isn't standard procedure to replace both boots at the
same time.

I thought that the left inner boot looked a bit ratty, with some
surface cracks. Apparently, the service center guys must've thought
that the boot was OK.

Question 3: Are there significant differences in quality for CV
boots? Or can I expect these replacement boots to last 100K miles or
more?

Question 4: The remanufactured drive shaft looks different from the
original drive shaft on the left side. The remanufactured drive shaft
is obviously thicker in diameter and it has three "ID pads" vs. two
for the left side shaft. According to my old 1992 Subaru Legacy shop
manual, there were two different front drive shafts: one for FWD and
another for AWD. The FWD front drive shafts are indicated by having
three ID pads and they are slightly thicker and the distance between
inner and outer CV boots is slightly shorter vs. the AWD shaft.

Thus, it seems that I may have gotten a FWD drive shaft installed.

Can you substitute a FWD front drive shaft for an AWD shaft? What are
the possible risks?

The Goodyear parts desk showed me their parts book that said the
drive shaft they used is correct. Of course, their book isn't a
Subaru factory parts book. It's from their 3rd party parts supplier.
Their book says that the front drive and all-wheel drive Legacys all
take the same drive shaft, which contradicts my Subaru shop manual.

My car seems to drive fine - no noise, tracks straight, no torque
steer.

Question 5: This is off the main topic. Like many Subarus, mine also
rattles annoyingly. The Goodyear people said that you can remove the
exhaust heat shield to cure the rattle. They claimed that you don't
need the exhaust heat shield anyway. Is this correct?

Thank you very much.

J

[ciper_]

Question 1: Quality of the remanufactured parts can be from terrible to
better than new. It depends on the source. Check out www.cvaxles.com , I
have used two of them. Some companys just repack the greese and give the
part a new paint job without replacing the wear items.

Question 2: It is true that the inner boot fails less often, but he is
completly wrong about the heat issue. The inner boot is right near the
exhaust and the engine. The outer boot does have more angle of travel
though. If it was me I dont even mess with replacing boots, just get a reman
axle every time since its cheaper and less time consuming.

Question 3: Oh HECK YEAH! There are a couple manufactures of the parts
needed (cross shaped item, ball bearins and the cage). From experience on a
previous toyota I had one axel fail three times from Kragen parts. I finally
got tired of changing it and bought a real toyota part and it never happened
again.

[siryacho]

Question 5: I had the rattle too, usually showed up at about 2500
RPM or so... It was, in fact, the exhaust heat shield, more
specifically, the one that curls up a bit towards the headers. I
simply took it off, found the spot that had been rubbing (it was
obvious because it was all shiny like new metal), and clipped that
small part off with a pair of tin snips, losing no more than one
inch of exhaust coverage. Just bolted it back on, no more rattle.

BTW, this also had to be done to my friend's '99 RS, same deal.

-mike