Camry :: 2008 V6 XLE - Front End Vibration Between 40 And 50 Mph

I wanted to make a quick post to talk about a possible solution to a front end vibration on a 2008 V6 Camry XLE. The vibration seemed to only show up between 40 and 50 mph and was more intense when accelerating harder. I drove it like that a good while thinking that a tire rotation and balance would fix it, but when I got that done the vibration was unaffected and as bad as ever.

After some searching here and in other places online, I thought it might be related to a warped brake rotor or other brake issue. I also found some information about bent axles and issues with CV joints. This thread sounded the most like what I was experiencing. 2008 Camry front end vibration

Yesterday my father in law and I replaced the passenger side axle/CV joints as well as the brakes on all four corners. The vibration seems to have been eliminated. There was a definite difference in the amount of slop of the new CV joints and the originals on the car. There was also evidence that the CV joint closest to the center line of the car had been leaking grease, even though the boots were all intact.

All in all it was a fairly inexpensive and straightforward repair. The new CV/axle unit was around $80 and fit perfectly. The only issue we had was finding a socket that would fit the 12pt 32mm nut that was originally on the car. The replacement came with a 6pt nut that was much easier to deal with. From start to finish, the CV/axle replacement probably took less than 2 hours and didn't require any weird specialty tools or knowledge.

The only odd issue was the brake pads that came off of the car. They hardly looked used at all. Compared to the pads we replaced them with, they couldn't have had more than 10% of their thickness worn away. The odd part of that is that this car has 178,000 miles on it and these were the original brakes from the factory. Pretty wild stuff.

Other than normal wear items like tires and oil changes, this is the first real work the car has ever needed since I bought it new in late 2008. That kind of dependability is why I'm passing this car on to my mother in law and just purchased a used 2012 that is a carbon copy of the 2008.