Axle shaft replacement - one side or both?

[Bottomfeeder]

Hi everyone -

On a recent roadtrip (about 2600 miles round trip) in my 2005 E53 3.0, I was parked with my wheels angled and just happened to notice a big gash in my left CV boot, along with a fair amount of grease on the inside of the wheel. I hadn't been hearing any noise or clicking, but don't really have any way of knowing how long that rip had been there so decided to replace it as a matter of course.

Made it back home without any problems and I ordered the axle shaft for that side. Here's my question: a comment from a forum member on another thread got me thinking ... is there any reason to replace BOTH sides at the same time on these cars?

The car has 62K on the clock, always garaged. Boot on the other side is in fine shape - no signs of cracking and after this experience I will definitely be paying closer attention at oil changes.

Any advice or experiences welcome. I'm a relatively new owner of these old E53s, but in general I think of CV joints as lasting pretty much forever unless that boot goes. But I know sometimes things are a bit different for these cars. :-)

Best regards,
Chris