Have you had to replace any axles?
 

My car is down for its yearly thorough inspection after lots of track time. I have the rear axles out just to take a look to see if they are trashed since I had a bit of noise coming from the rear of the car and that is a known failure point. There are no cracks in the cages but there is some noticable wear on the cages. I am debating whether or not I should just bite the bullet and order a set of DSS axles now while it is all apart.

I am wondering how many track guys have had to replace their axles. If its very few I will likely hold off for now but if it seems pretty common (always hard to tell from the reports on the forum) then I will probably go ahead and do it. I plan to have forced induction on the car next year but don't plan to go above 300whp.

Thoughts?

Mine was replaced at 33000 miles.

-alex

Quite a few of us drift guys have blown axles on stock power levels.

Granted we're drifting and some of us are pretty low, but just to give you an idea.

I planned on eventually upgrading as used axles are like $200 each and brand new one from Toyota/Subaru is like $400. Might as well just bite the bullet and spend the $900 on DSS ones and not worry about it again imo.

I asked this in another thread but didn't get an answer. Are the axles symetric, meaning one part number?

It's fairly common, even on NA cars, particularly ones that are lowered.

PM us to get a set of DSS axles.

why are the axle blowing up on lowered car ? what is the symptom ? do they break in two pieces ?

When the car is lowered the geometry of the suspension changes and it puts a lot of pressure on the CV joints. The main failure point is the cage inside the joint. Here is another thread discussing it: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49511

Not yet. Stock ride height, stock power. Probably around 600 clutch dumps/launches over the past 12 months. Crossing my fingers they don't break.

How much can you lower before breaking axles becomes a potential issue?

Mine didn't blow up, but it started to make clicking noises after a weekend on the ACS Roval.
I had it replaced before the Laguna Seca event.

There's some weak points in the stock drivetrain, axles and rear diff seems to be two of them.

-alex

I have had both of my axles replaced before 30,000 miles.
100% stock, no drifting or "burn outs", not lowered.

Has there been any consensus on how far you can lower the rear without screwing up the axles? I seem to remember reading no more than 1 inch somewhere, but not totally sure.

I don't think there was ever a consensus on a particular height causing the problem, other than the extremely lowered stance and drift cars. People lowered 1-1.5" have tracked their car with no issues. Others lowered less than 1" have blown axles. I personally think anything lower than 1.5" is pushing your luck.

I replaced one of mine but not due to any breakage. Did not have one of my stainless brake lines routed properly and it rubbed through and tore the boot on it. Wanted the car back up quick so got a low miles oem one from a wrecked brz. Working great so far. Someone said they were paying $200 for used axles? I paid $50 shipped for the one I got...