What's up everyone. Need some advise here. CV boots = ripped like I was on 4/20.

First time replacement for me. Any tips? (wheel-side boots) Thanks.

P.S. 1998 EX Coupe 123K

 

do you have a repair manual for your car? if not, that should be the first thing you should get, if you plan on DIY.

 

Yes sir. Chilton repair manual to be exact. Doesn't really go into much detail besides how to inspect the boots. That's the easy part. What I need to know is the hard part!

 

How bad is the boot ripped? You want to make sure that the CV joint has not be damaged. if the CV joint has not been damaged, replacing the boot won't do anything and the CV joint will eventually fail. So the key is to make sure the joint is good. Otherwise, the boot shouldn't be too hard to change.

 

jack up the front end with jack stands,
remove wheels,
remove the cv axle nut,
remove tie rod from spindle and strut fromA frame, disconnect anything else that's attaching the spindle to the car (a bolt below the brake system),
move the spindle out of the way,
pry the remaining axle from the transfer case,
remove the damaged cv boot,
disassemble the axle, wash everything in parts washer,
assemble back and pack the axle with the supplied grease in the kit, reassemble the axle with the boot using the supplied hardware,
everything else is reverse of removal.

or you can just trade in your axle for some cheap version at a parts store if you don't want to fix your current axle.

 

cv joints hardly ever go bad, unless the car's been wrecked or damaged, the axle shouldn't go bad (unless you've been driving with zero grease for like a year or something stupid)

 

"Front drive axle problems are usually noticed as abnormal noises (clicking, grinding, clunking, humming), vibration, or excessive play in the universal joints. Drive axles are under stress from engine torque bieng transmitted at various angles. This can cause the CV-joints to fail after prolonged service. If the rubber boot around a CV-joint is ruptured, road dirt and water can enter the joint. A damaged boot will also allow lubrication to escape the joint. Contamination and lubrication loss will cause joint failure in a very short time" Page 1185 Modern Automotive Technology by James E. Duffy. It seems that the author of this book (which is actually a very good book on cars) disagrees with you...

 

Sweet. Thank you sir. Seems easy enough. Only thing that concerned me was the clamp thingy that holds the boot to the axle/spindle. Cut it off?

Other than that thankfully there's no "clicking, grinding, clunking, humming". Boots are ripped completely in half on both sides. Bad news. Do universal replacements work well? Cost about 16 bucks a piece. Deal?

 

just make sure that you have the right tool for the type of boot clamp you use, some of them are the clip on, and others have tabs that you pull and bend over.

um, how exactly does that book disagree with me? i said the exact same thing, i said they hardly ever go bad, and under normal driving conditions with oem horsepower, as long as the boots are in optimal condition, you shouldn't have any problems down the road. if they tear, allowing contamination and elements to enter, then yes, it will have a short life span, but normally, all that is required when doing a cv boot replacement is what i stated above. in other cases where there is clicking or grinding, that is a sign of a cv boot being torn, therefore losing all of the grease in the boot.

 

You said that you would have to be driving with zero grease for a year. However, the book says that any contamination or grease loss will cause CV joint failure in a short amount of time. I don't think that 1 year counts as a short amount of time.