2016 RX 450h 96000 TLC miles. All of a sudden the car began to shake upon acceleration between 55 mph - 70 mph. Long story short, the cause, according to Lexus is the front half shafts need to be replaced. And they wouldn’t guarantee the repair would fix it. So went over to Toyota and asked them to trouble shoot the shaking (did not tell them of the Lexus diagnosis until after they finished looking it over), they also took it for a test drive etc. They confirmed the Lexus dealer’s opinion.
1. Lexus told me there’s only one other Lexus vehicle (in the USA) that experienced the same problem.
2. They would not say if the replacements, as mentioned above would “fix’ the problem.
3. The Toyota Dealer said their repair WILL fix the problem. And also added they have seen this problem occasionally with older Highlanders.
The average price of the repairs from the two dealers was around $3500.00. Since the Toyota Dealer is 10 mins away and I have confidence with them, they will do the work. The Lexus dealer is 70 mins away.
I’ve had other manufacturer’s front wheel drive cars over the years and one or two of them had a bad 1/2 shaft due to a torn or failed boot where the grease was flung out over time.
However with this vehicle, it has been babied for its 96000 miles and no torn boots were found. So I’m mystified as to why this happened. All I can come up with is that it is a manufacturing defect. I checked with the NTSB for a paper trail on the problem, couldn’t find any mention of this issue. So am I truly the only one or second one in the country to experience this problem at this mileage? I purchased this car (used) at 44000 miles based upon its reputation for reliability. The previous owner left all the service records in the glove box which I was able to cross check with a CarFax report and verified the vehicle was well cared for. I’m completely baffled by this event, etc., etc., etc.

Each axle is over $1,000 retail this is absurd I'm all for using genuine parts but that is straight up robbery, and the originals didn't even last 100K miles. I'd be putting aftermarket axles in.

Thanks for your reply. I’m a bit slow catching up on the postings. I appreciate your comment and agree the replacement prices to be outrageous. But it’s curious the two dealers quoted prices were within a $100 between them. Since Toyota didn't know there was a price quoted by Lexus until after I went to pick up the car Toyotas pricing was so similar. Sort of contradicts the often stated savings to be had by using Toyota Service over Lexus. I’m sure there are less pricy shops but I will not spend money on repair parts that are not Lexus or Toyota OEM. Much too expensive a gamble for my tastes. Though I’m still hot under the collar when I think about the cost of this repair.

I recalled paying $1200 for a CV axle on a 2006 Honda Accord parts only..

Reason why was because aftermarket CV axles they have vibration problem, hence I went for OE.