How are your stock CV boots holding up?

[atalarico]

Hey all,

4th gen owner here with a question; those of you that lifted your 5th gens when they were still relatively new (or not I guess), how are your stock CV boots holding up?

I'm thinking of going back to OEM CV boots after dealing with CVJ's red silicone nonsense for hopefully the last time. I realized that I see that a lot of 5th gens that are lifted when everything is still pretty new on them, and I don't hear about a lot of CV boot tears, whereas lifting older trucks with more years on the boots usually results in tears and stuff. I'm thinking the tech at CVJ just lied to me when he said that the stock harder plastic OEM boots don't do well on lifted 4Runners. My lift is 3" with a 1" diff drop.

 

[MyanRagahis]

I think a big factor depends on angle of the boot and how often sediments get in the ribs to tear it up. I'm at 2.5 inches in the front and my passenger stock is doing just fine for 43k+ miles. Been lifted since about 5000 miles. No diff drop.

And if you care, NAPA CV axle on the driver side with the more durable boot has been fine too for 13k miles. I tore the OEM boot at my own fault working on it.

 

[comtn4x4]

Hey all,

4th gen owner here with a question; those of you that lifted your 5th gens when they were still relatively new (or not I guess), how are your stock CV boots holding up?

I'm thinking of going back to OEM CV boots after dealing with CVJ's red silicone nonsense for hopefully the last time. I realized that I see that a lot of 5th gens that are lifted when everything is still pretty new on them, and I don't hear about a lot of CV boot tears, whereas lifting older trucks with more years on the boots usually results in tears and stuff. I'm thinking the tech at CVJ just lied to me when he said that the stock harder plastic OEM boots don't do well on lifted 4Runners. My lift is 3" with a 1" diff drop.

I have a '13 with 95,000 miles. I've been lifted about 3" since about 1,000 miles. I removed the Diff drop way back but I don't remember at how many miles. Original CV's and boots still looking good. I personally don't feel the increased angle is an issue for 5th gens and the Diff drop was causing more issues than it was worth.

 

[ryguytheman]

I have a '13 with 95,000 miles. I've been lifted about 3" since about 1,000 miles. I removed the Diff drop way back but I don't remember at how many miles. Original CV's and boots still looking good. I personally don't feel the increased angle is an issue for 5th gens and the Diff drop was causing more issues than it was worth.

I don't mean to derail the thread, but can you elaborate on your dif drop issues?

I hate the stupid spacers on the skid plates, but that's the only hassle I've incurred thus far.

 

[comtn4x4]

I don't mean to derail the thread, but can you elaborate on your dif drop issues?

I hate the stupid spacers on the skid plates, but that's the only hassle I've incurred thus far.

It's really just the spacers as you said. When I got my skids I didn't have spacers and was fine for a year or more. Then suddenly, when I went into 4 wheel drive it started making a huge racket. The lowered diff was hitting the skid. (The skid didn't appear bent) So I just removed the diff drop and never looked back. I'm not really sure what changed to cause the diff to hit the skid. That was about 5 years and maybe 65,000 miles ago.

 

[Gclark949]

I think a big factor depends on angle of the boot and how often sediments get in the ribs to tear it up. I'm at 2.5 inches in the front and my passenger stock is doing just fine for 43k+ miles. Been lifted since about 5000 miles. No diff drop.

And if you care, NAPA CV axle on the driver side with the more durable boot has been fine too for 13k miles. I tore the OEM boot at my own fault working on it.

Why do you CV angles look so “negative”? My CV angle looks nearly perfectly straight with my King lift. But, from the factory it was negative and I thought it rather interesting that after a lift my CV boots would be perfect and straight. I have KDSS and I swear the front was too low from the factory.

 

[MyanRagahis]

Why do you CV angles look so “negative”? My CV angle looks nearly perfectly straight with my King lift. But, from the factory it was negative and I thought it rather interesting that after a lift my CV boots would be perfect and straight. I have KDSS and I swear the front was too low from the factory.

I wouldn't say these are too too negative. I've seen some intense ones on here. Every vehicle is different. Mine were straight at stock height before. And just to throw these numbers I have, my stock height was 19.5" hub to fender now sitting at 22" currently). At full droop it measures 26".
Pretty neat yours would be straight at 2.5" of lift if that's what you're running.

 

[Ogre75]

It's really just the spacers as you said. When I got my skids I didn't have spacers and was fine for a year or more. Then suddenly, when I went into 4 wheel drive it started making a huge racket. The lowered diff was hitting the skid. (The skid didn't appear bent) So I just removed the diff drop and never looked back. I'm not really sure what changed to cause the diff to hit the skid. That was about 5 years and maybe 65,000 miles ago.

like the entire diff started moving and banging against the skid plate?

 

[comtn4x4]

like the entire diff started moving and banging against the skid plate?

yes exactly. Obviously I never witnessed it directly. But removing the diff drop spacers resolved it permenantly

 

[Jetboy]

Mine have been run at around 2-3" lift (I've changed it around multiple times) and at 60k they look perfectly fine.

The only issue I know of on the newer ones that is persistent is on the marlin crawler tacoma. I think I remember Mike having had some issues with the boots - but they're running pretty extreme angles. Probably somewhere in the range of what would be a 4.5" lift. The fact that cv joints hold up to 40's is actually kinda amazing to me in its own right. The boots should be solvable.

Even these at a more moderate lift height have pretty decent CV angles.