Cardone or Motorcraft?

[jman1200]

Hi

A couple of weeks ago I started noticing minor vibration when accelerating and when the vehicle is going up on small hills. It does not happen downhill or coasting.
Took it to my mechanic this morning and he could not feel it, that is how **** I am with these things and how minor the vibration actually is. I think only me, who knows my car can detect it.
Thought it could be the driveshaft's universal joints but mechanic said those will vibrate even when going downhill.
Placed the car on the hoist and after inspecting a mounts, drive shaft and a bunch of stuff, found a torn CV axle boot (internal), the joint is already dry and has some rust on it. There is also a little bit of play.
So it is possible that is causing the vibration.

Found a few options on Rockauto, I am considering Motorcraft and Cardone, never heard of the Surtrack even though it is listed as a premium part and it is the cheapest one.



Has anyone used Cardone CV joints? Will you recommend them?
Motorcraft is almost twice the price but not that expensive. Thoughts?

 

[SM105K]

How many miles are on your car Jman?

 

[jman1200]

A lot of experience... it is around 230k km (~143k miles). I bet these are the original ones and I am pretty sure the boot weakened when the PTU shaft seal was replaced last year.
Boot on the left shaft shows some minor cracks but are still intact, I'll replace that one whenever it fails. The cost of the boot is more than half the cost of a new shaft so it is not worth replacing them given the extra labor to do that.

 

[SM105K]

If the stock ones lasted 143K, then I personally would not think twice about spending the money for another set of Motorcrafts.

 

[b4black]

At a 143K, either unit should outlast the remaining life of the vehicle.

 

[khunter]

Motorcraft. Cardone has some shabby products.

 

[rubydist]

My experience as well - the Cardone is fine for the grocery getter, but not the race car - get the Motorcraft ones.

 

[jman1200]

Tanks for the replies.
I'll go with the Motorcraft. I plan to park my SHO and start using my Mazda 6 in April so I'll wait until then to work on this.

I suspect the bearing on the intermediate shaft could be bad but haven't been able to find the PN for it, the whole shaft is also not available on the auto-parts websites I know of. Any ideas?