Who do we like for aftermarket CV axles? Honda Element edition

My 2006 FWD Honda Element needs new CV joints. My local independent Honda mechanic wants to use OEM axles which are just over $430 EACH. The Honda Element owners forum that I read has numerous threads about using aftermarket brands. Each thread ends up with the same couple of members who blast out their opinion that OEM is the only way to go and anything else will fail quickly. Most of the forum members are not exactly car people and therefore I don't really value their opinion/experiences. Rockauto/Ebay/Amazon has dozens of places where I can pay $50-100 each for an axle.

I'd like to beat the $430 each price and am willing to go into the $100's each as long as the quality/materials are worth it.

Any suggestions oh Wise Ones?

I have had good success with Trakmotive axles available thru RockAuto

Are they OEM? No.  But I haven't had any issues on a few different vehicles now, one of which is my grandparents daily (Camry)

I'd take used, intact, OEM axles off ebay than aftermarket any day. 

Honestly, The shafts are $300 OEM.

Trakmotive are new at least vs rebuilt. I've had better luck with new axles.

They don't have the ABS ring which will need pressed on. 

I much rather dissasemble and repack the factory or if the cages are beat buy the joint from Honda @ $95 than use aftermarket. 

5-8 years ago In a pinch I bought "new" axles for a Volvo 850 855 turbo from NAPA as it was what they had on hand.  The castings were optically terrible with very uneven surface, and the splines were not full depth in a few spots so the secondary machining left voids.  The outer axle sheared at the splines a month later.  Second time around I bought "rebuilt" from NAPA for a few bucks more-  $120 instead of $100 if I recall correctly.  It was a much better part that really was rebuilt OEM and is still on the car.

I swapped the axles out on my Element for OEM, and it cured a horrible vibration even though the old axles looked new and passed every test I threw at them. These things are really picky. 

Aftermarket axles are a crap shoot.  There are good ones and really bad ones from the same source.   If you are a gambling man, go cheap and hope for the best.  But do not be surprised if you have to do the job twice.  And how do I know this?  I work at an Acura dealer and see this more than I would like to.

My brother got to do that with his Audi (twice that is) after buying a set of Cardone axles.......absolute crap. There may be some good aftermarket axles out there, but I don't know what they are.

I think this could be a case of buy once cry once.....

You can pay once, or repeatedly.

You decide.

We've had great luck with Raxles out of Gainesville for FWD race cars and street cars. Nothing will beat OEM but they come close. 

If you "have" to go aftermarket, GKN CV axles are some of the better ones that I have personally used.  

I have never had good luck with aftermarket on a Honda.  They invariably will have a drivetrain shudder to a lesser or greater degree.

Your guy probably got tired of doing the job twice and getting an upset customer who thinks there was a bait and switch in the process.

If it makes you feel any better (heh) the axles for my Volvo are over $700 each, and the ones for a certain Acura were over $900.  The customer didn't want to understand that the aftermarket axles were why his car shuddered at 50mph in 4th gear, and no we wouldn't eat the cost for genuine Honda axles.  His was one of the Hondas that would shudder under acceleration in a straight line, and not just when accelerating smartly when turning a tight corner.

Thanks very much everyone for sharing your experiences! GRM is an amazing place. You guys rock.

Im sure you've taken care of your axles already.....

I'm in the "rebuild your own Honda axle" camp.   My experiences are w 80's Civic CRX's.  CRX forums complain about aftermarket axles as well.  I've never used aftermarket and can't comment from experience

I've rebooted my CRX's  original axles 4-5 times between '93-2022.   

if your interested in a 30 year civic axle rebuilding science project, have a read to the link below.  Probably over 45 axles shafts in this collection.   Observations, comparisons and opinions made -- take it w a grain of salt.   Measured rotational backlash on each one.  Have taken others apart w magnified close ups of joint surface wear.  Taken apart some remanufactured joints showing the regrinding botch jobs performed.  Remans look pretty w new paint and boots.  Once you open them up....  you'd be shocked....  and you could get lucky!

I assume the Element is a light car.  The CRX is 1950 pounds.   All these components just seem to last so much longer on light cars.  
 

Hope this helps if you dare to read it all.......

CV Axle Rebuild:  http://www.redpepperracing.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=59435&hl=%2Bsteering+%2Brack#entry580243

oh, I reached out to raxle.com based on other Honda owners positive comments 2-3 years ago.  Chatted w the owner.  I liked what this guy had to say.I was collecting axles to send him.    then I ended up w 45 axles and figured I'd just do it myself.    Worth a call to Raxle to see if he has a good set of Honda axles he remanufactured.  I have no direct experience w him, but a viable option.  
 

please post up your results down the road.  Like to hear what you did and how it worked out.

fundamentally, if your original oe axles weren't clicking, then  clean, grease, reboot and put them back in service.  At least you know the history.   Unless the boots were blown and grease is filled w dirt.
 

I had custom axles made for Midlana, coupling the K20 transmission to Miata hubs, made by The Driveshaft Shop, and handled 530 hp for years. They also sell non-performance units that would work perfect for you. That said, once you see how simple they are, rebuilding them is really easy - and super messy! Nice to have choices.

I'm in the Honda OEM camp, that's what I've done in our two Odysseys.

My experience with Raxles was a little disappointing. Bought two for my Legacy, four years on, the outer boots on both axles have completely failed and the inner boots have significant cracking. The OEM axles lasted 11 years... Unfortunately, I surrendered my OEM cores to Raxles so I can't go for genuine Subaru rebuilds now. I think Raxles has a lifetime warranty, so I could probably take them up on that, but I don't want the car down for that long & or to have to prepay for _another_ set of axles and be refunded when I turn the cores in. So I guess I'm just going to whine on the internet until I figure out my next move...

I was surprised at the results of this impromptu quiz. Until the current crop of cars (one a STUPIDLY PICKY BMW, the other too new to play games with), I have literally used the cheapest _fill_in_the_blank_ I could find online or in stores, or whatever happened to be on a junkyard car, and I have had almost zero redoes. Lucky?

In reply to P3PPY :

Yes.

Shuddering under acceleration with aftermarket axles is really common. Hondas seem especially prone to it, but I have seen it in other applications.

Heh.  And the Lincoln mark 10 that I am working on right now has a bad shudder under acceleration right after I put an axle in... warranty this, try a different supplier, hope things can get sorted before the end of the day.

Great input from others experiences.

it seems if you go down the oem rebuild path....   there's 4 things involved. 1) joint condition, 2) spline wear, 3) axle straightness, 4) boot longevity.

Im arrested development of just the 84-87 civic crx's.  Conditions are:   DD. I don't beat on them.  Don't race them.  But take 1000-5000 mile road trips.   So I get really long joint life staying w oem core axles. And my experience is w this one 1987 car owned since 1993.

where my problem has been is boot life.......   my first axle outers went 100k ( original axles installed from the factory).  I've rebooted that same set of axles every 38-55k miles since until I removed from service at 260k.  That set of axles never clicked, just getting really sloppy w rotional backlash.

I've been using nos Honda boots probably manufactured in the 1990's.  I had thought the rotational backlash twisted the boots more and caused premature boot failure.  That latest set of boots tore after my joint rebuild ( near new w minimal backlash). So I know my stock of nos boots yields 40k per life cycle 

it appears from the posts above, you guys are highlighting which manufacturer possible uses the best boots???    And this might be a major key to axle longevity.

we all know the outer boots fail first on fwd Hondas.   I've never had an inner boot fail as I'd replace the inner same time as the outer.  The last 2 rebootings, I reused the inner boot and just replaced the outers to see how long the inners will last.  So far the inner boots are still going strong.
 

 So I need to find a really good brand of outer boots that will last 100k like the first set did made back in 1987 from the factory

Flat4_5sp and kb58, if you guys are ever able to take a pix or get the manufacture numbers off ur boots, that would be great and post them.  This would tell us the brand raxle used only lasts 4 year and the other brand lasts  from The Driveshaft Shop.  From experience, 1990's manufactured Honda nos boots last and average of 4yrs/ 40-45k today in 2024.  But lasted 10 yrs/100k back in 1987.

im going to start looking at modern Hondas built since 2020's and up.   See if I can get some of those outer boots to fit my 1980's outer joint.   In hopes to get new/fresh material from Honda that can get me back to a 100k/10yr service life like the original 1987 axles did.

appears if you keep with a really good oem core and reboot quickly upon a tear, you can get decades of service life out of them like I did.  I larger car, or one raced...  I'll assume the joints will wear out much faster do to more stress/strain.

a side comment on the rebuilders...  after calling some, they all perked up and told me to send several of my cores to them so they could rebuild the best.    After that sunk in, I just decided to do it myself and keep all those parts for future spares.   My collection of cores came from junkyards w old, old axle stock sitting since the 1990's.  I'd have them text me a pix of the boots and boot bands.   I could tell they were original, unmolested Honda factory axles and bought as many as I could.  This gives the best source of rebuildable cores.   FYI, Honda boots have the part numbers molded into the boot.  Easy to see if it came from the factory as a "first pass" core.

last note, I have rotational backlash measurements taken off my axle stock in that link attached earlier.  I have a few Honda nos nib axles measure as comparison.  I recall a brand new Honda axle is like .7 degrees per shaft.  My worn, but usable shafts were like 2.8 degrees.  I was targeting 1 degree backlash   So you can use this range as a reference when you work on yours to help you understand if it's toast, or need another core

hopefully others can help to id boot brands that last a long time!

having 9 crx's, (5 fully assembled and 4 parted in my storage), I beat many horses to death drilling down on these topics as I plan to drive these cars for the next 30 years.  My opinion is very one dimensional.