Check CV Joints

Absolute

Absolute

New member
Soooo... I thought I minds well share what I discovered this weekend as I was changing my brakes. Keep in mind there is no damage to either of my boots. It was a loose clamp, that was really not all that lose. But no matter, it seems as if water was able to seep in and well I will let the pictures do the talking.

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looks decent right?
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we cleaned it up and cut the clamps because after extensive review we noticed that there was a bit of play int he lower clamp. so we were just going to reseal. Well we applied a bit of pressure to the boot and what came dripping out was kinda shocking.
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yummy??
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We were able to clean out the boot and joint with break cleaner and then re grease to look much better:
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all better.

We slid the boot back up and over and clamped....
Just thought I would share my weekend horror story. Had we not checked this and I had kept driving on it I would have had to pull out both my front axles in less than a month.
 
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My CV Boot is leaking as well. I have an appointment with the dealer this afternoon as it is still under warranty. Seems like there have been a lot of people with CV Boot issues lately. I am a little nervous to bring it into the dealer since I will not be able to see what it looked like when they take the boot off and what it looked like when they put it back on, but whats a warranty if you don't use it. What new clamps did you use by the way??
 
I had a couple leaking boots about 6 months ago. They were minor leaks, and I caught them as it started, and before driving through rain or water so I just changed the clamps and didn't bother checking the joint. These were the smaller clamps on both inboard CV joints.

I have recently noticed another leak on the driver side inboard joint at the large clamp. I also have a lound squeak/squeal coming from that corner when I compress the suspension or turn the wheel while stationary. I am not sure if the two are related, but I suppose they could be. I decided to make an appointment with the dealer instead of just replacing the clamp myself again because I have been through rain and water and am reasonably sure my joint looks like yours.

Last time when I took it into the dealer they wanted $800 to pull the shafts, clean/inspect and repack the joints, and replace the boots. I decided it wasn't worth it, but I am thinking now maybe it is, especially if the joint is damaged, or likely to fail.

How much gease did you use to repack it?
 
Will_4R said:
How much gease did you use to repack it?
Click to expand...

We used a tube of mercedes cv joint greese on each side. We packed behind the joint with an adapter on a grease gun, and then we filled in around each joint, after that we slid the boot back up and attached the top clamp, after that we used that same adapter and slid it in the bottom of the boot and deposited the rest of the tube. It took about 2 hours for each side to clean and fill / clamp. It took 6 cans of break cleaner, 4 new clamps, 2 tubes of grease. Very easy job. I dont trust the dealers, I have always been screwed by them, so now I just dont use them. I do everything my self. If your good with your hands I would say go for it your self!
 
Absolute said:
... I thought I minds well share what I discovered this weekend as I was changing my brakes...
Click to expand...

That's the lesson I learned. Check the boots for flinging grease on the undercarriage whenever you work in the area (ie. rotate tires, brakes, etc...) or feel like bending over to look in the wheel wells.

Will_4R,
It would take a long time and alot of wear to grenade the actual joint. It's a messy but easy fix. I would try this route first for the price of some supplies and time to get intimate with the underbelly of a T4R. Cheaper than half shafts. Fixing my drivers side fixed the noise I didn't realize I had until after it was gone. Your noise could also be something as simple as the steering stops need a lick of grease.


CJ,
Thanks for remembering the link.
 
One more

Just replaced the left front half-shaft tonight. The inner clamp had leaked allowing water to enter. The water had gone unnoticed long enough to cause rust inside the joint. I could feel play in the joint so I figured better safe than stuck and replaced the whole half-shaft and inner seal. I will disassemble the old one tommorow and survey the damage.
 
Seems like a leaking boot is an easy but messy fix, what about if the boot is actually ripped? Is the only way to replace a boot involve removing the axel?
 
Thanks for sharing it. How many milies on yours? And how long it takes to do that on 4runner?

Humm I should check those when I did my brake last time. Oh well...
 
00328 said:
Seems like a leaking boot is an easy but messy fix, what about if the boot is actually ripped? Is the only way to replace a boot involve removing the axel?
Click to expand...

If it is ripped you are going to have to pull the axel, and if you have to do that you minds well pull the entire axel off and clean it up really well. I found it easier to get the clamps tight though while the axel was on the car because I was able to put a lot more pressure into it.

Good Luck!
Thanks for sharing it. How many milies on yours? And how long it takes to do that on 4runner?

Humm I should check those when I did my brake last time. Oh well...
Click to expand...

For both sides it took about 4 hours to clean and repack. I have about 78500 miles on my runner. But I spend 50% of my time off-road.
I would recommend checking though, its an easy fix.
 
it's just like changing oil... just with much longer intervals in most cases. cheap and ez fix. i had the dealer do it. no worries.
 
Will_4R said:
I have recently noticed another leak on the driver side inboard joint at the large clamp. I also have a lound squeak/squeal coming from that corner when I compress the suspension or turn the wheel while stationary. I am not sure if the two are related, but I suppose they could be. I decided to make an appointment with the dealer instead of just replacing the clamp myself again because I have been through rain and water and am reasonably sure my joint looks like yours.
Click to expand...

Diagnosis: there is a pin-hole in the boot (clamps are tight). They are going to go ahead and pull the half-shaft, clean and repack the joints, and replace the boots; all for $320 + tx. ouch, but it's gotta be done and that is more than I am ready to do myself yet.
 
When I put on the new front shocks, I noticed that the smaller (lower) clamp was loose as well. I guess the only *good* part of this was that the grease that came out seemed to get super sticky(hard) and seemed to have sealed that end of the boot preventing water from getting in. I ordered all the clamps, CV grease, and CV clamp pliers from Advance Auto Parts, so they are gathering them all up at one store so I should be able to do this after Thanksgiving.
 
Yeah....so.....pulled off the boots and found a beautiful boot full of milkshake! It sucked. So I bought the worm-style clamps from West Marine boat supply that some people over in the fjcruiserforums.com and toyota120.com have done (clamps have rounded edges so you dont rip the boot). Used 4 packages total of the generic CV grease that I got from Advance Auto Parts, and 2 rolls of paper shop towels. Worked out great. There didnt seem to be any serious damage that I could see.

Here is a link to a write-up on how to do it and what clamps to get: http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/suspension-steering-tech/81947-cv-boot-seeping-grease-simple-fix.html

Oh, and since I am very anal when it comes to my truck, and I wanted to make sure the joint was as clean as possible before repacking it, this fix took me 6 hours!
 
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