Lochness Monsta

Well, I finally got the axles installed. It only took maybe an hour per axle, that includes all prepping. Everything went smooth, the only problem I ran in to was while installing the new bolts I found a normal hex-key would not fit between the differential housing and the bolt. Easy way around this is cut it to make it a stub.

Anyways, here's the pictures.

These are the axles that came out of my car. You can't tell by just looking, but when you moved the inner CV joint by hand, you could feel the gap inside the joint that was causing the vibration.



I don't know how long these axles have been in there as they have already had the CV's flipped once before, but whoever did it last time didn't seem to clean up very well.



I didn't take the time to take pictures of all the bolts before putting them in, but here's after I started threading them through. The inner bolts (facing towards the differential) that hold the conversion plat to the differential are 7mm hex-key bolts, something I've never personally had to use before. The outer bolts (facing away from the differential) that hold the new axle to the conversion plate are 8mm hex-key. I used blue lock-tight on all these bolts, although I haven't read anywhere that it's been done for these bolts before.



The ABS ring is the only thing that I had to mess with. The ring wasn't evenly pressed on to the shaft so I had to do it with a hammer and a piece of wood. Easy fix, no problems after this.




If you end up taking out your axles personally, make sure your extremely careful when it comes to the ABS sensors. I damaged one of my sensors when I was trying to take out the driver's axle, They break pretty easily.

After everything was tightened down, it came down to just the Spindle nut. I did this in three sections. 120, 190, then 250 ft/lb. I had seen it done where it was 150-180 + 45-60 degrees. Not that I didn't trust this as in my head and past experiences, that would be way to much pressure, but the bolt was hard as it was to get to 250 ft/lb without someone stepping on the brakes inside the car.

Also, for anyone who was curious about the design of these axles, the inner joints and shaft looked scary-similar to those of a 993 911 I have at my work at the moment. I didn't get a chance to take pictures of the axles on the 993, but here's the car I'm referencing.




All vibrations are gone, no weird clicking/tapping/grinding noises, everything seems great. I've put about 20 miles or so on the car and will update as I put more.

Lochness Monsta

About 500 miles in:

Alright so the ABS light is on, and I assumed it was a broken sensor when I had originally posted this. The sensor appears to be working, just seems the little plastic tab is cracked on the sensor. I contacted Frank at DSS who answered some questions I had about the ABS rings potentially causing the issue. After he explained to me the purpose of the ABS rings and how they work, I agreed with him it must be the sensor. Although I don't see any electrical or physical break in the sensor, the crack in the plastic could be causing the issue. I will be replacing the sensors in the next couple weeks to see if that will fix the issue.

I am going on roughly a 1000 mile trip this weekend so let's see how everything holds up.

Lochness Monsta

So it's been a while since I put the DSS axles in and figured I would give an update.

As far as problems go there are next to none. Only complaint I have is the inner CV boots appear to have hairline cracks in them. They aren't torn and are not flinging grease around so they are still in tact.. The inner boots measure out identically to a set of Porsche 930/964/993/996 911 boots (P/N 000-043-301-08), I haven't measured the outer boots but I assume they are similar as well. No vibrations, no paint chipping, no problems so far. I have put between 15-20k miles on them so that shows the quality for the most part. I would buy these axles again if I needed to.

**HELPFUL TIP**
Be careful with what exhaust you run with these axles. Because the inner CV Joint Assembly is much beefier than an OEM axle it stocks out much farther. I have had both the Invidia N! Dual and now the Tanabe Medallion Concept G and they both slightly rubbed against the corner of the joint on first installation.

rrounds

Thank's for the follow up on the axles.

ROD

Car Analogy

Long term updates are so much more valuable than initial impressions. Kudos to you for taking the time to come back to this thread and provide an update!!!

Lochness Monsta

That's what I've always though, a part isn't good if it's not going to last more than a months.

jackmugen02

DSS offers different boots for their axles. They even offer a road race/track option with vented boots, polished CV joints and high temp grease for an additional fee. I would contact DSS about your CV boot issue, if this is a defect, they would replace them under the one year warranty.

Lochness Monsta

I E-Mailed DSS about the issue, however the only way they would cover it is if the axles were shipped back to them for repairs. I don't have a spare set of axles that are usable and I daily drive my S. Tthe boot itself is deteriorating in a way, the boot feels dry almost and has stress cracks which are almost completely through. When they tear I will replace them with new boots myself, doesn't take too long and only costs me $20 per axle.

rrounds

I can tell you that these axles are off my list. I find it funny that my '06 axles still have the original boots with 139k miles and look fine. They need to spend the couple of bucks and get proper boots that will last for years. Who wants to buy something new and then have to clean up all the mess that the torn boot causes in a year or two.
It's the little things like this that kills a business, if they would just up the quality of the parts they use it might add a few dollars to the price of the axles but the purchaser won't have to pull the axles to fix them.Who wants to do that and we still don't know how many miles the axles will last as a whole.

ROD

Lochness Monsta

After E-Mailing with Tad from DSS, he told me they use 'High Speed' boots for their axles. Never have I ever heard of this on any axles from any other manufacturer. The quote I got from them was 39.99 per boot kit plus tax and plus $17.00 shipping. This is a bit ridiculous price wise, so I measured and remeasured. The boots I will be using are GKN Part Number 300527, or Porsche reference number 000-043-301-08. Kinda sad that they will not cover the boots under their warranty unless I fully remove and ship the axles to them, and that they charge too much for boots of less-than-optimal quality. Cheers to spending hours replacing parts you already replaced once before