All Wheel Drive rear driveaxles

I am talking about my 1998 Town & Country LX AWD. While working on the brakes, I noticed that the left rear outer CV boot had a hole in it and leaking grease. Time to at least replace the boot, so I did some research.

I first called the Dealer to check the availability of replacement rear driveaxles for the AWD. Their records listed either a new unit for $470 or a Chrysler reman unit for $120. Then they told me that this particular driveaxle was showing as "backordered" and not immediately available.

Next, I called a reputable auto parts store here in my area, one that can find most anything. Their records showed no rear driveaxles available and no supplier that carried them!

I then removed the axle and took it to a local driveline shop. They told me that the joint boots were not available for this application from their supplier!

I went back to my auto parts store and they did have replacement joint boots for this application. The outer and inner boots are identical so I bought two boot kits and took the boots and the axle back to the driveline shop for installation.

The extremely limited availability of the rear driveaxles for the AWD has me a bit worried. If you have an AWD and plan to keep it awhile, I suggest locating and purchasing used rear driveaxles from a wrecking yard, having them refurbished by a driveline shop and keeping them on a shelf for a rainy day. This will definitely reduce the downtime of your van should you have to service one of these. I'm going to start looking for spares the next chance I get.

Some excellent advice for AWD owners. It appears that Chrysler wants to sell new ones rather than reman units since they obviously make more money from the new ones. Typical!