Luke, CV joints are generally pretty reliable, but having one fail at 36,000 miles isn't completely uncommon. Besides smoothness as Brant suggested, often times simply the road conditions you drive on can affect how quickly a CV joint will wear. My maxima blew a joint from having to drive all over DC....at any second you were in a ditch on North Cap....it was ridiculous.

most CV failures are the result of moisture and various crap that gets through to the boot, either front a tear or a seal failure.

no worries

 

Yeah...no tears here, but the roads are pretty bumpy out in the sticks. I never even thought of that contributing as well. Oh well......they are on order. I'm just waiting at this point.