Coming home from work yesterday, turned a corner with the radio off.......click, click click, click. Poo.

Looked under the car, the right hand CV joint boot is split and has no grease. Poo.

Rang my local Volvo mechanic and he quoted me $1300 to replace both driveshafts. Poo. The CV Joint specialist wants $800 to do both which is a little bit better but still poo.

Have read up some of the forums here, and it doesnt look too hard a job. I have found a pair on fleabay, $290 posted to my door. Has anyone heard good/bad things about driveshafts off ebay? These are the ones I am looking at.

PAIR CV JOINT SHAFTS FOR VOLVO 850 1993-1998 AUTO 2wd | eBay

 

I was going to suggest FCPGroton but your in Australia. Probably best to find something in the area.

Left

Right

 

Unless someone else has bought these there isn't any way to tell. There isn't a brand name to the axles I saw in the listing and the thing is they could be selling one brand this month and another brand next month.
In general the good thing is I haven't come across any known brand that anyone has see problems with.

As for difficulty, they aren't that bad at all to do yourself. If you've done other repairs like brakes, replacing rotors or a wheel hub then you're over half the way to replacing the shaft you should be able to do the axles without too much difficulty and save a pile of cash for your effort. Seperating the ball joint and wiggling it back in are the two steps that can fight you but it's a matter of patience.

 

Doing axles at the dealership will cost you a fortune since OEM axles are $500+ each new.

 

my axles were $54 each after discount from advance. those were new axles with lifetime warranty.

 

Similar pricing from AutoZone and if you order them on line they give you a gift card for 15 bucks for every 100 you order.