2001 Toyota Camry L4 2.2L Front Driver Side CV Axle Assembly TRQ CSA82145

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In this video we're going to be showing you how to change out the driver's side CV axle in this 1998 Toyota Camry 2.2-liter inline-4. This information is the same from 1992 to 2001.

Some symptoms of a bad CV axle include a clicking sound when turning—especially at full lock, you'll really hear these start to make a clicking sound, and you might even get a little bit of kind a clunk feeling in the floor pan; you may also notice that the boots have ripped and that they're spraying grease on the underside of the car, which can contaminate your brakes and cause braking issues, as well as making a mess under there, eventually drying out the joint and creating that clicking sound anyway.

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Here are the items you'll need for this repair: 12-32mm sockets, ratchet, socket extension, torque wrench, needle nose lock pliers, flat punch, hammer, breaker bar, drain bucket, jack, and jack stands.

Break all of your lug nuts loose while the vehicle is still on the ground. You're going to need a 21mm socket and a breaker bar. Install your jack under the vehicle. Line it up with the pinch weld. Jack the vehicle up high enough that you can get a stand underneath, making sure you have enough clearance to remove your tire or do whatever you have to do under the vehicle.

Install your jack stand onto this uni-body frame rail under the vehicle. You need to work on the rear of the vehicle, put your jack stand underneath, and just ahead of the lower control arm here right by the tow point. Once the weight is on your stands, give the vehicle a little shake. Make sure that they're on there secure. Repeat these steps on the opposite side.

Make sure that you bring the vehicle up so that when it sits on the other set of jack stands the vehicle will be level. You can now lower your vehicle onto the stands on this side. With the vehicle raised and supported remove your lug nuts the rest of the way. If you need a little more room to work, you can pull the hubcap off. Remove your wheel from the hub.

We've put our vehicle on a lift to make it easier to film for you, but this job can be easily done with a jack and jack stands.

Bend down the cotter pin. Use a pair of needle noise pliers, or if you're having a hard time straightening it out, you can also cut it at the straightest point with a pair of side cutters. The top of our cotter pin broke in half, so now we'll grab it with a pair of needle nose locking pliers and work it out one side at a time.

Remove the lock cover on the nut using the 32 millimeter breaker bar and a pry bar braced against the lug nuts. We'll break our axle nut socket loose and remove it. Leave the nut flush with the end of the axle. This will allow us to tap the splines free from the hub without risking damage to the axle or the threads. Now, remove the axle nut the rest of the way.

We'll remove this 12 millimeter bolt retaining the ABS wire and the flexible brake line with a socket, ratchet, and socket extension. Remove the line, the ABS harness, and this plastic clip, and allow them to hang freely. Using the 22 millimeter socket and a breaker bar, break the nuts loose for the strut. Remove them the rest of the way with a ratchet.

Remove the nuts, and these bolts are splined, so we'll have to carefully tap them out of the spindle. We're going to use a flat punch and a hammer to tap the bolts out of the spindle. Now, you could tap the ends of the bolt very carefully, but there's a lot of risk of damaging threads there. We'll set the punch up in the center of the bolt. Once they're most of the way through, we should be able to rock the spindle and finish removing them. Pull the spindle down and out of the strut.

Be careful of this flex line to make sure that you don't put too much tension and tear it. Now we can remove the CV axle from the spindle and allow it to hang down. Follow the CV axle back to the transmission here.

We're going to set two pry bars as close to 3 and 9 as we can, because prying out evenly is the key to removing these axles smoothly. We're going to carefully work the snap ring out of its holder inside of the differential. Another method you can try is using a large punch on the back of the CV axle. Be sure to have a drain bucket placed underneath the CV axle before popping it out with your pry bars.

Once you've dislodged the CV axle snap ring from the differential, you can fully remove the axle. Make sure that that snap ring is still on the end of the shaft, because the new axle won't go in if that's lodged inside the transmission.

Here we have our old part that we removed from our vehicle and our new part from 1AAuto.com. As you can see, there are some minor aesthetic differences here. However, this is a direct fit part. See, we have the same splines, threads, and it even comes with a new axle nut and a new cap for it. We'll have to put a new cotter pin in there as well.

I have the ABS sensor ring here. The actual shaft diameter is a little bit thicker on our new part. That makes it a little bit stronger. The difference on the inboard joint here is that this channel goes all the way around, making it easier to hook on at that 9 and 3 points to pop it out of the transmission should you ever have to do that again, whereas it's kind of hard to line up and get on both sides evenly to pop it out. It also has a new dust boot on the end to keep stuff from getting into the transmission, like road grime and debris. We even have a new snap ring that's going to lock in to the differential and keep this inboard joint in place.

If your CV axles are clicking or have torn boots and are throwing grease, this new part from 1A Auto is going to go in, direct fit, just like your original equipment, and fix you up right.

Get some transmission fluid onto your finger, and lubricate the splines on the inboard joint that are going to be going in to the differential, just to make sure they go in a little bit smoother and that they don't damage the seal on the way in. Set the axle back into position.

You may have to wiggle it a little to get the splines to line up. Work the joint back into the transmission. Line up the splines back into the hub. Once they're in place, we'll start the axle nut on a few threads by hand to make sure that it doesn't fall out of the hub while we line up the bottom of the strut.

Lift up and line up the bolt holes in the spindle. Once it's lined up, reinstall your strut bolts. These go in from the front. Simply push in from the top. Align up the top hole, and tap the bolt shoulders back into place.

Start your 22 millimeter nuts. Torque the two nuts to 156 foot-pounds. Snap the ABS retainer back into place. Lock it over the slot here in the bracket. Hook the ABS sensor back into the bracket, as well as the flexible brake line.

Reinstall your 12 millimeter bolt. We'll tighten that down with a socket ratchet and extension. Use your 30 millimeter socket and a ratchet to tighten down the axle nut.

Reinstall the wheel and tire. Tighten down the nuts. Put the vehicle onto the ground so you can then torque the axle nut. Check that they're all seated. If you've removed the tire, only lower the vehicle until the wheel touches the ground. With partial weight of the vehicle on the ground, torque your lug nuts to 76 foot-pounds in a cross pattern. Then you can remove your jack the rest of the way. Torque the axle nuts to 217 foot-pounds. Install the lock cap over the axle nut and a new cotter pin. Bend the cotter pin around the end of the axle. Reinstall your hub cap, and you're good to go.

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