Found grease all over inside wheel?

Look at the boot closer. Bet you find a crack in it.

 

I think you can pull the whole thing off, disassemble, repack the joint with grease, slip on a new boot and reclamp it. But that's a lot of labour, and rarely done now. There's also "split" boots, not sure how well they hold up.

 

Not very long. Easier and faster just to change the half shaft.

 

Just did the half shaft replacement on a 91 Corolla with @The Critic .

That’s what I’d do is replace the shaft .

Easy peasy .

 

The OP also asked about uneven brake pad wear, usually that is due to the caliper slide pins not sliding freely so that the braking force is transmitted only to the one pad. The solution is to replace all four pads on the front axle and to properly lubricate the slide pins. If the rotor is damaged that should be replaced. Here is a relevant recent post:
My front brakes were neglected! What happened and how I fixed it. | PriusChat

The OP will look up the price of a new Toyota half shaft and fall on the floor. Then he is going to ask about the price and availability of aftermarket parts. I understand that aftermarket drive shaft parts quality is not very good; is there a group consensus on that?

 

Over in Subaru forum territory (with 2x the halfshafts) it is commonly accepted that you’ll net a better axle by regreasing and rebooting your OE axle instead of hanging a remanufactured unit. Too many QC issues, especially with lash.

 

Yes, and I have seen some advice to the effect that it is better to buy a used original equipment half shaft from a salvage yard, than to use a new aftermarket part of dubious origin.

 

Op never mentioned miles on the car. Cv joints on this car are very high quality don’t see lots of posts about them failing.

They fail fast with no grease though.

Many posts of issues with after market joints. Oem are expensive.

To lurkers easy to prevent ripped boot just condition it. Lots of rubber boots up front the cv boots and the steering linkage. Just apply rubber conditioner to the boot when under there doing oil change.

I use black magic conditioner works great.

 

My guess is the boot tore because the tire was flat ...

 

^ Debris (strip of tire or things kicked up from littered road shoulder) can rip them. Snow and ice can contribute to this.

The worst is dirt and water getting IN to the joint. That will wear the races quickly, and once they’re pitted or galled it’s over.

 

Rocinante1984 the option you take depends on how long you plan to keep your vehicle...and how much you want to spend. Aftermarket half-shaft regrounds found at the corner auto parts stores and/or used OME will "generally" give you 1-2 years of service. Repack/reboot requires more labor and tooling and there's no guarantee wear is not already out of limits. OME new cost more, but will be the last time you have to deal with this considering it's a 2007...but I would advise changing both sides at the same time so you are not back under the car next year. Also be advised when doing this work you will need to repair any other issues you discover while everything else is apart. Of course doing nothing is the cheapest and financially wiser choice if you are "already" eyeballing a replacement vehicle, because you will not recover the repair costs in the trade-in or sale value of this 12+ year old car. The work is easy if you can turn a wrench...or have a "competent" friend that works on beer/burger commision. Best wishes.