2000 camry axle shaft

[scavengerdog]

a friend of mine has a 2000 camry V6, auto trans. the shop she took it to told her she needs a new axle shaft to go with the wheel bearing they replaced or the new bwearing will just wear out again. they could not remove the axle shaft from the trans, and i suspect it was because they did not know how, rather, than the fact that the car had been previously improperly repaired as they put it. i have a bit of mechanical background, but no previous experience with this model, besides which between work and other commitments i just don't have the time to look at it myself. anyone got a shop manual download, or other info i can give her? she is supposed to take it back to the guy she bought it from for him to evaluate, but she no longer trusts his recommendations. mainly just looking to supply her with enough info to talk intelligently to him. can anyone help?
thanks for whatever help you can supply.

[davemac2]

I think there is usually an inner ring clip that needs to be removed before the axle will pop out of the differential. People usually have to pull like hell though to get them out. The bearing on the intermediate shaft on the passenger side axle can sometimes seize in its holder as well. (The bolt on that needs to be loosened also.) The easier and cheaper way for replacing these, especially if the damage is on the CV joints/boots or spline is to just replace the half axle from the CV joints out by removing the 6 or 8 hex bolts from the inner CV joint. Napa sells these as reman'ed for around $75 vs $200+ for a new full half axle. Quality is reasonable but not great in terms of the boot quality. I had one boot fail on mine after a year. The replacement is still ok after 2 years, so maybe the first was a dud.

I assume the damage the mech is describing is because the axle spline was not seated properly in the hub and caused excessive lateral forces on the bearing and maybe damaging the axle as well, which is why he is recommending the axle be replaced as a precaution as well? Otherwise, I don't see how they would be related. When he says he can't remove it, maybe he means the the axle spline is seized in the hub, so both the hub and axle are damaged and would need replacing. From your description of what he said, that sounds more likely. Maybe you shoudl talk to the mech to clarify this.

dave mc