Prado, CV joints
Submitted: Monday, Jul 16, 2001 at 00:00
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John F
Have any Prado owners had any problems with their front CV joints. I've only done 112,000 kms on mine (1996, Grande VX, auto), and the CV joint went during one of my 4WD trips. Is it due to the
suspension kit I put in, or is it due to manufacture fault (or maybe the weight - all I had was the usual for a week trip, food, camping gear, recovery gear, water and fuel). Toyota wrote back to me denying everything (which is what I expected).
Also, re-conditioned units are apparently hard to come by.
Reply By: Joe - Tuesday, Jul 17, 2001 at 00:00
Tuesday, Jul 17, 2001 at 00:00
John,
CV joints pop when they are subjected to too much stress. This is often when (say) a locker has been fitted to the diff and forces both CV joints to turn at the same speed, imposing atress on the CV joint when the tyre can't easily slip to accommodate it.
You didn't say anything about a diff lock, but only the
suspension upgrade. Well body lifts impose their own stresses on the CV joints of independently suspended front ends like the Prado by making the angle that the CV joint works at more acute. Have you had a body lift?
What else? Well it is possible that the rubber boot over the CV joint might have been torn allowing the dust and dirt to get into the joint and promote some rapid wear.
Of course, if you were travelling over particularly rocky country you might also have overstressed the joint(s), but this is not likely.
Other than that I have little to suggest, but I wish you luck.
BTW - the load being carried should not affect the CV joints as the loads are carried by the
suspension systems. It would come into play if you were belting the joints into rocks etc, but not otherwise.
Joe
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