Hello, I was wondering if anyone had a go-to brand for wear-and-tear parts? I may replace my front driver-side CV axle on my 2014 AWD IS350 F Sport (125,000 miles), as it seems to be leaking and has a faint click when turned all the way at low speeds. I was initially told it was a front diff seal leak (3600 dollar job for a 20 dollar rubber O-ring, by the way), but my mechanic claimed it was just the CV axle boot and not the differential. Diff fluid was changed, but before I jump to conclusions and do the expensive pinion seal job, I first want to start off with the CV axle job and see if that fixes it. I heard the cheap aftermarket parts can cause some bad road vibrations, so I was wondering if anyone has done this job before with a better part and if so, what brand?

Below are pictures from both mechanic visits, if anyone thinks it could be something else.

Image from 2nd opinion mechanic. claims front driver side CV axle leak. $500ish job

Image from 2nd opinion mechanic. claims front driver side CV axle leak. $500ish job

Image from 2nd opinion mechanic. claims front driver side CV axle leak. $500ish job

Image from quick MPI by Lexus dealership. claims pinion seal leak. $3600 job.

Image from quick MPI by Lexus dealership. claims pinion seal leak. $3600 job.

 

I've been having the same issue on my 2014 IS250 AWD since it hit 120k mi. I'm at 147k mi now. I took a look underneath and found two things - 1) a small leak from the CV boot on the driver's side front, and 2) a leak from the front diff oil seal.
I can hear clicking when I turn slowly, and I noticed red oil drips on the floor and can smell the oil when I leave the car after driving it. Probably not what you want to hear, but it could be both issues unfortunately. I bought the diff oil seal from Lexus but haven't done the job yet. The DIY diff work looked pretty involved with removing the front subframe, so I did a diff oil change and plan to keep an eye on it, and just live with it. As for the CV joint, I will also keep monitoring it until I get any noticeable vibrations. I've bought "Cardone' brand CV axles from Rock Auto for my previous 2007 IS250 AWD, and drove around for about 30k miles before I sold it. Didn't notice any issues with those parts, for what it's worth.

 

That's fucked. Seems going AWD was overall not the best choice haha. The shop guy at the dealership said it looked like a slow leak (front diff). I've only had the car for 6 months, so I don't know how long the leak has been going on for. I switched the fluid out at a different shop before going to my 2nd opinion guy, and they said it was low on fluid and that the fluid smelled burnt (although I did not see to personally verify). A quick drain and fill, and it should be good for a little longer. As for CV, my reliable 2nd opinion mechanic quoted me 250 for the labor, and asked me to find the part myself for installation. I'll be doing that later this month.

This same mechanic also checked my rear diff fluid, and it was in perfect shape. This seems to be the same pattern some guy on Reddit found, too. Front diff fluid goes bad far quicker than rear diff fluid.

I think moving forward, I will start putting cardboard under my car in the driveway to gauge how slow or fast the leak is for the front diff.

 

Thought I'd offer an update for anyone snooping around with the same issue. I went to a local trusted shop to replace my CV axle with a torn boot. 257 for labor, and I paid sub 250 for the axle itself. Shop saw my leaking front diff and offered to fix it for HALF AN HOUR of labor plus 10 bucks for the seal. I also got an alignment with their partner across the street. They included a valentines day sale discount because I was a frequent customer, lol. All together i paid 400 BUCKS for all 3 of these services. I am no longer leaking anywhere, and my IS350 is like new. Mind you, the diff seal job was quoted to be OVER 3000 DOLLARS by the Lexus dealership. I was out of the shop in two hours.

 

I'd like to know what the Lexus dealership planned to do. The retail price on a NEW differential is $2280 from Lexus. If I was paying $3000 I'd want more than the seal repair done. I think they just didn't want the job so quoted it outrageously.

They probably quoted book time and stacked a few times, which includes dropping the diff out and disassembling it to put in a new crush sleeve for setting the pinion bearing preload, but would have actually just zipped the pinion nut back on just past the stake point like the aftermarket shop did.

So they either didn't want to do it, or wanted easy money, or both. Or they were new and had no idea what was going on. All possible.

Glad you got it fixed. If you didn't have any noise I would have suggested using OEM boots to keep the original axle, but it sounds like that wasn't an option here.

Jeff

 

I just had to replace the driver side front cv axle on my 2017 awd is300. The oem cv axle cost $580
My car only has 85,500 miles on the odometer, I could not bring myself to buying an aftermarket cv axle.
Dealer repairs alway cost more $
Your repair cost is low, how successful that repair is remains to be seen.