Do I REALLY need to change out the entire front driveshaft with a damaged boot?

[rwh963]

it recently came to attention that my right front CV boot has a full circular split. i can see the grease inside. not sure how long it has been that way, but disappointing it only has 30k/4 years on it. i talk to the indie shop that did it, and was told the shaft has a one year warranty (aftermarket shaft). i looked up a shaft from the dealer, and it seems to be about $500 discounted. yikes.

so, i'm wondering if i should try a quick split boot repair. i don't hear any clicking noises. i think the inner boot is OK. i don't have experience with that type of repair, or in removing the shaft entirely for replacement. another option is to shop for a used OE shaft. any experienced advice is appreciated.

 

[aemravan]

it recently came to attention that my right front CV boot has a full circular split. i can see the grease inside. not sure how long it has been that way, but disappointing it only has 30k/4 years on it. i talk to the indie shop that did it, and was told the shaft has a one year warranty (aftermarket shaft). i looked up a shaft from the dealer, and it seems to be about $500 discounted. yikes.

so, i'm wondering if i should try a quick split boot repair. i don't hear any clicking noises. i think the inner boot is OK. i don't have experience with that type of repair, or in removing the shaft entirely for replacement. another option is to shop for a used OE shaft. any experienced advice is appreciated.

The real question is do you REALLY need to have multiple threads for 2 simple questions? jk jk


no, you dont REALLY need to change a CV axle from a torn boot. May guys run their torn boots and don't care to repalce them and go for thousands of miles. Is it good? No. But just because you have a torn boot doesn't mean your axle is toast.

Are you stock? Lifted? City driven? Off-road any?

If you're lifted on big tires and do a lot of off-roading/rock crawling, you'll probably blow out the axle regardless of the boot condition at some point anyway, especially being non-oem.

If you do city driving and are mostly stock, reboot it and forget it. Boot kits are like 50 bucks and are easy enough to do. If you don't have a strong desire to run a factory cv axle, you could also just get a NAPA or Oreily or whatever store brand you have around, non OEM axle fully booted and slap it in and forget the reboot process.

Point is you have options IF you want, but no, if your cv isn't clicking I wouldn't bother replacing it.

 

[4r-4ever]

just replace the cv boot. that's the cheap easy way but more time is needed. i recommend replacing both cv boot, inner and outer so you don't have to redo it again in case the other one started leaking.

you can get a replacement axle and that way, both inner and outer cv boot is replaced and can be quickly done and then the spare can be used if your other axle cv boot fails.

it recently came to attention that my right front CV boot has a full circular split. i can see the grease inside. not sure how long it has been that way, but disappointing it only has 30k/4 years on it. i talk to the indie shop that did it, and was told the shaft has a one year warranty (aftermarket shaft). i looked up a shaft from the dealer, and it seems to be about $500 discounted. yikes.

so, i'm wondering if i should try a quick split boot repair. i don't hear any clicking noises. i think the inner boot is OK. i don't have experience with that type of repair, or in removing the shaft entirely for replacement. another option is to shop for a used OE shaft. any experienced advice is appreciated.

 

[rwh963]

The real question is do you REALLY need to have multiple threads for 2 simple questions? jk jk


no, you dont REALLY need to change a CV axle from a torn boot. May guys run their torn boots and don't care to repalce them and go for thousands of miles. Is it good? No. But just because you have a torn boot doesn't mean your axle is toast.

Are you stock? Lifted? City driven? Off-road any?

If you're lifted on big tires and do a lot of off-roading/rock crawling, you'll probably blow out the axle regardless of the boot condition at some point anyway, especially being non-oem.

If you do city driving and are mostly stock, reboot it and forget it. Boot kits are like 50 bucks and are easy enough to do. If you don't have a strong desire to run a factory cv axle, you could also just get a NAPA or Oreily or whatever store brand you have around, non OEM axle fully booted and slap it in and forget the reboot process.

Point is you have options IF you want, but no, if your cv isn't clicking I wouldn't bother replacing it.

thx for the reply. to answer your first question, i could have rolled this into the other question, but i hesitate to have more than one focused question per thread. it also keeps it cleaner if the thread becomes impt. to another viewer.

vehicle is stock, road driven.

can a reboot be done without disconnecting the joint at the hub (hence split boot method? probably no way to seal the tear. always been interested in doing a shaft, just never had the opportunity or could afford to tie up the vehicle if it went sideways.

 

[aemravan]

thx for the reply. to answer your first question, i could have rolled this into the other question, but i hesitate to have more than one focused question per thread. it also keeps it cleaner if the thread becomes impt. to another viewer.

vehicle is stock, road driven.

can a reboot be done without disconnecting the joint at the hub (hence split boot method? probably no way to seal the tear. always been interested in doing a shaft, just never had the opportunity or could afford to tie up the vehicle if it went sideways.

I wasn't being serious with my first question, just giving you a hard time completely understand.

Split-boot repair is the only way you can do this without pulling and disassembling the axle. For a rod vehicle that you can't accord to take down for an extended amount of time you would honestly probably be OK for quite some time with just cleaning out as much grease as possible and doing the split boot with as much grease as you can pack and just let it ride and see what happens. With road-only use you typically won't see a complete failure of the CV out of the sudden like you would under heavy load on the trails so you should definitely start hearing it click if it starts failing.

At that point I would just recommend getting a replacement axle and swapping it out complete at that time and not worrying about taking apart/rebooting the one you have now.

with proper tools and motivation on hand you should realistically be able to swap an axle out within 2 hours.. my last swap out went like this:
-jack up the corner
-remove the wheel
-remove the dust cap
-break loose the axle nut
-remove the lower ball joint bolts
-knock the axle loose
-swing the kuckle/upper control arm assembly off of the axle and out of the way
-beat/pull the axle out of the diff
-repeat in reverse
[/LIST]

 

[rwh963]

I wasn't being serious with my first question, just giving you a hard time completely understand.

this is no laughing matter! jk

thx for the input. i'll look into split boots first, as long as the rest is in good shape. special grease? better than dropping 350-400 at a shop.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

The main issue is whether or not the axle is factory.

If it's factory and the dirty isn't excessive and the joint isn't clicking or excessively crunchy; just reboot it and clean it up very well. I rarely have a factory axle that can't just be cleaned up and rebooted without issue.

If it's aftermarket, then it gets tricky... Most aftermarket cores do not work well with factory reboot kits (in my experience), to the point we stopped offering it as an option where I work because we have been bitten by even the aftermarket ones that "look" factory, let alone the ones that just don't have the same shape.

 

[rwh963]

aftermarket axle. here is a better pic:

 

[rwh963]

close-up pic:

 

[rwh963]

stopped at my local NAPA store. was told the drive axles would be $104 (AAA discount) with limited lifetime warranty. new, not Remaned. my indie shop told me they had switched vendors for these that includes lifetime warranty. they would charge $210. i'm confident these are the same, just with a 100% mark up by the shop!!! on a new part, the labor would still carry the 1 year warranty, so i would buy my own parts and let some shop do the install.