Jwithing
Senior Member
BAD PARTS WARNING - TLDR Cardone parts are cheap Chinese junk for the past 5 years per reputable mechanic as experienced with my own personal failure after 6 months of road use.
Long version:
About 6 months ago I put in my fox 2.5 coilovers on my 6 inch bds lifted 2015 and while I was down there, I replaced everything else in the front suspension since the truck had about 120k miles.
I recently developed a loud pop in the front end while reversing out of my inclined driveway with the wheel turned. It'll happen at times when driving forward out of the driveway with the wheel fully turned when the front wheels hit the road too.
Since I suck at diagnosis, I took it to the local, rural automotive and diesel repair mechanic and told them I just replaced everything in the front and I just wanted them to diagnose since I would replace any part as it should all still be under warranty. They informed me they couldn't get it to pop on the test drive, but did hear some noise in the driver side cv axel while they were underneath. They also said the passenger side wheel bearing was going bad and the passenger side cv axel would probably soon follow. They were as shocked as I that these parts were going bad so soon especially since I've done no offroading yet to test the fox coilovers. When I told him the cv axels were Cardone HD, he said that Cardone has been Chinese junk for 5 or so years. The wheel hubs and bearing assemblies I replaced with Mevotech Heavy Duty TTX, which he had no input on.
My original thought was to just get free warranty replacement parts through rockauto, but after getting home, I took a look at the cv axels. Sure enough the shaft on the driver side has grease all over it and the passenger side shaft has grease starting to migrate from the boot side. Both boots are intact.
I called up the mechanic since I am now questioning replacing these parts with the same ones as I don't want to have to go through it again in 6 months. I asked for a recommendation and he said he usually uses acdelco or moog for cv axels. He was also shocked to find an extended travel set for lifted trucks and gave me a part number of 16065N from autozone, which is a duralast gold. These suckers are $200 a piece more expensive than the Cardone HD at $277 pre tax. Does anyone have any experience with these or other recommendations? The thought of extended travel sounds nice, but not completely necessary. However, I do like that the shaft of these is skinnier near the hub where it could contact the lower end of the fox coilovers. The current Cardone HD cv axels barely have clearance in this area.
I've got a fishing trip coming up in three weeks and need to get on replacing all these parts. Any input is always appreciated.
Long version:
About 6 months ago I put in my fox 2.5 coilovers on my 6 inch bds lifted 2015 and while I was down there, I replaced everything else in the front suspension since the truck had about 120k miles.
I recently developed a loud pop in the front end while reversing out of my inclined driveway with the wheel turned. It'll happen at times when driving forward out of the driveway with the wheel fully turned when the front wheels hit the road too.
Since I suck at diagnosis, I took it to the local, rural automotive and diesel repair mechanic and told them I just replaced everything in the front and I just wanted them to diagnose since I would replace any part as it should all still be under warranty. They informed me they couldn't get it to pop on the test drive, but did hear some noise in the driver side cv axel while they were underneath. They also said the passenger side wheel bearing was going bad and the passenger side cv axel would probably soon follow. They were as shocked as I that these parts were going bad so soon especially since I've done no offroading yet to test the fox coilovers. When I told him the cv axels were Cardone HD, he said that Cardone has been Chinese junk for 5 or so years. The wheel hubs and bearing assemblies I replaced with Mevotech Heavy Duty TTX, which he had no input on.
My original thought was to just get free warranty replacement parts through rockauto, but after getting home, I took a look at the cv axels. Sure enough the shaft on the driver side has grease all over it and the passenger side shaft has grease starting to migrate from the boot side. Both boots are intact.
I called up the mechanic since I am now questioning replacing these parts with the same ones as I don't want to have to go through it again in 6 months. I asked for a recommendation and he said he usually uses acdelco or moog for cv axels. He was also shocked to find an extended travel set for lifted trucks and gave me a part number of 16065N from autozone, which is a duralast gold. These suckers are $200 a piece more expensive than the Cardone HD at $277 pre tax. Does anyone have any experience with these or other recommendations? The thought of extended travel sounds nice, but not completely necessary. However, I do like that the shaft of these is skinnier near the hub where it could contact the lower end of the fox coilovers. The current Cardone HD cv axels barely have clearance in this area.
I've got a fishing trip coming up in three weeks and need to get on replacing all these parts. Any input is always appreciated.
