_brandon

I know this thread is alittle old but here is my two cents. I just did this last night. I wasn't really having in problems but mostly just have a lot of time on my hands (unemployment blows..) and I jut bought this car about 20k miles ago and wanted to check them out just in case. Been wanting to do this for quite some time just never had the motivation to. I finally did it and found out the axles seemed new! So they must of been replaced before which is a good thing, I went ahead and swapped them anyways since I was already there. Sort of feel like a ditz but hey no harm no foul, drives fine. I would like to say better than before, but most likely the same .
What I did was just undid the upper control arms, struts (the back bolt for the control arm was hard to get to since I was using hand tools), the buckets, and I had to undo the exhaust to get clearance of the passenger side axle. Yes I reused the clamps, the only thing I purchased was some more grease. But since the axles were fairly new I left most of the old grease there and just added what spilled out. Took my roughly 3 1/2 hours and was not too difficult to do. Biggest pain was hanging the exhaust back up, never done it before but finally learned a trick to it. I dont think it needs to be aligned, but I am going to do soon anyways since it should of been done months ago.

So all and all, no real benefit on my end for doing it since they were already new. But it was great chance to look over my suspension and give me a warm feeling inside

Billman250

Unbolt abs sensors, remove axle nuts, break the lower ball joint, and remove axles. No need to mess with a-arms or exhaust.

Unbolting the a-arms is adding work to the job, and the suspension will need to be preloaded before tightening.

_brandon

See the only reason I didnt go that route is because I lack the tools and it was somewhat spontaneous. I know it seems like its extra work but for me it was less work. Like I said, I was just looking for something to do and was putting it off for a while. Its just another way to do it, but the way you suggested seems like a better option. And since I used only hand tools I had to move the exhaust some to get my torque wrench on the passenger side axle.

silvermonster

hello all...I will be doing the swap this weekend.

From what I read, I can re-use the factory clamp as billman say it can be used over and over again.

The only other thing I need to get is greese? is redline greese sold at like part store? or do I have to special order it?

El S2000

Just want to confirm I did this over the weekend and just popped the lower ball joint and left the axle in the car. Be prepared to have a lot of papertowels/rags to clean up the mess but besides that is was super easy. I dont know why everyone is freaked about popping the lower ball joint. Just go to Autozone or Advance or wherever you can rent tools and get a pitman arm puller. You slide it across the lower A arm and it pops the balljoint in a second.

Its worth doing if you have a rear vibration under accel

wrecked

ok, so what happens when the axle buckets get pitted again in another 30,000-40,000 miles? We need new axles? spacers? This seems like more of a way to prolong axle life then a permanent fix for this problem. Looks like we need some axle buckets made from stronger material

joes sled 2000

I am surprised that the Ap2 cars are having this issue now . The newer cars are supposed to have updated parts now . Guess not

xAgyex

The pitted axles happen because of hard launching and high speed driving for too long.
At least in my case I have held 140+ MPH for ample miles. But you can ask Billman he has more info on this.

boyguan

I took mine off cause I thought its the problem. Mine looked almost perfect at 135k. swapped them and regreased with redline cv2. One tube for both sides no problem. The spider gears fall out so make sure you put the in right

One trick is to lube the cup. Put it on and push the Axle in and out and rotate to spread the grease. You can push the knuckle past the ball joint and back out to spread it. The clamps are great and can be reused. Need some strong pliers to push me back. Also have a friend turn it while you check all the spider gears are in place

I used a impact and a deep socket vs a super long extension

My car just needed a tire rebalance. I did that while I had the wheels off

[attachment=36169:image.jpg]

boyguan

I took mine off cause I thought its the problem. Mine looked almost perfect at 135k. swapped them and regreased with redline cv2. One tube for both sides no problem. The spider gears fall out so make sure you put the in right

One trick is to lube the cup. Put it on and push the Axle in and out and rotate to spread the grease. You can push the knuckle past the ball joint and back out to spread it. The clamps are great and can be reused. Need some strong pliers to push me back. Also have a friend turn it while you check all the spider gears are in place

I used a impact and a deep socket vs a super long extension

My car just needed a tire rebalance. I did that while I had the wheels off

[attachment=36169:image.jpg]