Axle life question

[Justinian]

Anyone have any experience with axles wearing out or how long they should last? While replacing the rear wheel bearings on my 318is I replaced the cracking CV boots on both axles and it seemed that they were contaminate free. Since this is the first time I've had a chance to work on them I have no idea what they should have felt like or checking for tolerances.

The car currently has around 190,000 miles and hopefully will keep on running reliably.

[jlevie]

You don't hear of a lot of problems with the half shafts, except when the car has been run a long time with cracked/torn CV boots. So the last pretty well under ordinary circumstances.