I took my 4runner to Toyota to get an oil change and they told me that the boots on the front axle crapped out. They showed me a bunch of greese down there. I took it to Goodyear and got a second opinion and they said the same thing, but they could fix it for much much cheaper. However, it's going to still be 4-5 hundred dollars...

My 4runner is five years old w/ 82,500 miles and has had no problems so far. However, I just replaced the brakes and that was $300, so I'm paying $800 in maintainability costs in the last 2 months...Do you guys think this is going to start being a trend since it is getting to be an older higher mileage vehicle?

Also are boots something that normally need replacing or did i just have bad luck.

Thanks

The reason I bought mine, was a freind of mine has a 3rd gen T4R, it now has over 250k miles on it, and all he has replaced is wipers, tires, brakes, battery, oil and put gas in it.

No major anything, and, he uses it off road for hunting, we live near snow, so it sees snow every year

I dont know what happened to your boots, but it sounds a bit unusual to me.

good luck with the repairs

joe

As anything mechanical gets older and the miles on a 4Runner start building up. You have to expect some costs to maintain your truck. Brakes and rubber items degrade along with tires.

If one can afford to trade up now sure is a great time to do it.

I was actually thinking of selling it and getting a used Acura TL for a similiar price...unfortunately I don't think there is any way out of paying to fix the boot. Dealerships are very hard to negotiate with when it comes to trade ins so I would have to sell it privately to make my money back...

I had to have a coolant bottle replaced before I traded my 03 Kia Sorento in on my 08 4Runner, it was this and other problems not covered by Kias so called 100K 10 year warranty that moved me to getting rid of it with only 10,200 miles.

Any thing the Dealer finds wrong is going to drag down the trade value. Getting this small item fixed $93, got me $7000 in the trade from the Toyota dealer.

Definitely not a trend. CV joint boots aren't a normal replacement item but are a maintenance inspection item. Not sure if you had the work done already but it's one of those items you could get bent over on. Was there more than one bad boot and was it torn or did the clamp just get loose? If you are at all mechanically inclined this is a DIY inspection to verify. A loose clamp allowing grease to seep is a relatively easy, but potentialy dirty, fix. Check the DIY Mod sticky at the start of the General Discussion forum for a link I posted. I'll search for a related thread where Ruffian had the same issue.

If you are handy at all, the CV joint should be an easy job. First, look down there to see if it's a tear in the boot or just grease seeping out the side. If it's a tear, go to NAPA and get a new lifetime warranteed CV joint for ~$120 (IIRC). Then follow the various tutorials available online.

Yuppers. I'm going to have to do this soon to Ruffian. May end up calling "girls rules" and either pay my mechanic friend to do it, or cheaper, have my brother supervise me doing it. Since I've never done it before, and I have only basic (real basic) mechanic training, I'll start with my brother and see what he thinks. I'm thinking I should do this soon.

Pics from November when I put the OME suspension on. Passenger side only had spewed a little grease. Driver side was ok.




And pics from less than 30 min ago.




Yes, drivers side....that's all new and in a month & a half's time.



68,000 miles. About 2 weeks ago I did stop by and visit with my Toyota mechanic friend and had him look at them. He said it's normal for the AWD vehicle to start doing this. Just requires the normal fix. It's nothing major and he told me not to panic about it. He said I could go for many more miles (assuming the CV Joint boot or clamp doesn't go all together), but that if he were to guess, for sure come the 90,000 mile end of my warranty I should have it done. Hey, anyone know? Is this a warranty thing? I still have that..hmmm. Bet not...probably just like he said. A "normal maitenance" thing. Drat...

It's a normal inspection item, not a maintenance item. I think it should be warranty.

Thanks! Ruffian has appointment Wed. morning. We shall see what they say. Esp. when they see the OME suspension. (Crossing fingers)