you should only put hose clamp on one side only the one closest to the diff. Upgrades to kartek 930 cv boots now.

So dealership says 600 for new axles and labor. Or I spend 250 for new boots and labor with my friend. Dealership said the axles may be going bad from age. Is that the dealership just trying to make money? I'm sure it is. Or could the bearings be going bad. It's only been torn open for a day.

CV change is extremely simple. You can replace both CV's with remans or new NAPA CV's for under $200. Or just reboot your OEM's. Don't listen to the dealership on this one, you will be kicking yourself after realizing you didn't need to spend an extra $400.

Remove your skid plate, loosen the hub nut, take the wheel off, remove the bolts from your LBJ, remove the hub nut, take a mallet to the CV, use a pry bar and hammer to knock the old CV out, grease the snap ring, install new CV.

Toyota Maintenance: CV Axle Replacement on 3rd Generation 4Runners and Tacomas

Just payed $65 for napa CVs with lifetime warrenty. Can't beat that.

I decided to finally do something about my torn CV boot so I looked around the forums and found this thread. From what I've read it sounds like some of you are worrying about driving with a torn CV boot for more than a day.




Now I have next to no knowledge about CV joints and axles but that boot (inner-right) has been torn like that ever since I bought my vehicle 2 and a half years ago... Is that bad?

As you can see, I have not, by any means, kept it clean down there. I've taken it on countless trips up on logging roads, over rough rocky roads, through deep snow and mud, and a few deep puddles. Yet I've never noticed any problems with it, my Runner drives fine in all gears both 2wd and 4wd.

Driving around with no grease in a CV joint.... nahhh that's not bad it's good. I mean why would the manufacturer even put grease in there... let alone put a boot to cover it?

Ok now that the sarcasm is out of the way... I drove mine for a few weeks until I could get my new ones and it isn't that bad if you are planing to replace them. Of course your reliability goes right out the window and it should be replaced 'soon'. If mine looked like yours I personally wouldn't trust it or my life in the event it snapped and or froze causing my wheel to lock up and then some sort of accident.

It appears that yours has been repaired before as I can see a large hose clamp on the inner side that is not factory. If I were you I'd go to Napa and get a Max Drive replacement with lifetime warranty, put it in and never look back.

actually .......

Assuming you gave them the CORE (your OEM axels) for the inferior NAPA ones , yes you can beat that. Rebooting the axels with a Toyota reboot kit is far better option as you get to keep your original stronger -Toyota- steel axels.

That sounds like a plan and I'll probably do it soon since I've decided not to go on any trips until I get that axle taken care of.

Appreciate the advice