leaking cv boot repaired, will she live or die?

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I posted a few weeks ago about some unknown goo leaking behind my driver side tires.

It was quickly identified as cv grease leaking from the inner cv boots.

After some careful inspection, it seemed to be spinning out from where the boot meets the inner axle joint. Seeing as the boots weren’t cracked or broken, I pushed off repairing them until I had a weekend to devote to it.

Fast forward to earlier this week, and I happened to hear a single clunk while backing out of a parking space with the wheel car to one side. So this weekend was as good as any.

I don really have the tools, or patience, to remove the cv axles to replace the boots, and it’s a violation of my apartment lease to perform such a repair anyway. So I went the route of separating the boot, letting the old grease drain out (it was thicker than dish soap, but thinner than pudding), before pumping new grease into the joint, and filling the boot, before clamping it back onto the cv joint. While not the best job, I did my best to se a grease gun to force what I could into the joint.

Drivers side had 3-4oz of grease in it, the passenger side was dry, except for the little big coating the parts under the boot.

No more clunk when steering hard to the left, and so begins the death watch to see if I did enough to get some added mileage or of them.

Starting mileage: 119,xxx
 
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Wait... what lease would you be violating to repair this? Your apartment/house? Not the car lease, right?

The clunk could easily be a strut mount or balljoint, and your grease job made no difference in that case.

CV joints require a particular grease, with very high moly, so if you drained out the old grease and replaced it with something else, then the clock is ticking... and if it was the CV joint that was clunking, well, you might be too late with the repair, and the clock is ticking.

I have had terrible luck with rebuilt axles. They're all poorly done and the boots don't last.

So, if this axle is still good after a few months, get it rebooted. Or replace it with a new one.
 
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My apartment, yes.

I’m not even supposed to be changing my own oil, but as long as I don’t make it a giant ordeal, the on-site maintenance guy will look the other way (and then I don’t have to report him for all the auto repair he does in our shared parking area)
 
I am aware they require a specific grease, an Valvoline sells one that they say is safe in a cv joint, and it happens to come in a grease gun ready tube.

The front strut assemblies are both less than a year old. It could be a ball joint which decided to start behaving after I greased the boots. But seeing as both boots were almost completely dry, they needed to be addressed regardless.

Assuming my little $10 repair seems to hold up for 6 months, I plan to have the re-booted. The local CV shop only charges $130 a side. That said, I’ll happily spend $10 to see if I can avoid paying $260, plus taxes and fees.
 
It's possible that the band clamp/cable tie/boot clamp securing the gaitor to the shaft failed and you spotted the problem early, so its possible that the joint could survive, but then again IME once you hear a CV make a noise it's only a matter of time until it fails.

If its definitely not a damaged boot then repacking it and securing the boot should buy you some time - if it were me I'd order up a new joint and have it ready and waiting for a free weekend on the basis that it's better to lose a few hours to maintenance than to lose a few hours stranded at the side of the road
 
Originally Posted By: RichardS
Assuming my little $10 repair seems to hold up for 6 months, I plan to have the re-booted. The local CV shop only charges $130 a side. That said, I’ll happily spend $10 to see if I can avoid paying $260, plus taxes and fees.


You are going to ruin your CVs trying to save a buck. Why not just get them rebooted as soon as you noticed the problem?
They might be not worth rebuilding in six months, $10 hackjob notwithstanding.
 
It's a simple enough job to remove the axle shaft. And the right tool and clips can be bought cheap. Do get some protective gloves though if you're going to do it yourself.
The CV joint is most unlikely to suddenly fail, it will give you ample and clear warning all is not well long before it will break.

Claud.
 
Yah, Typically CV joints get noisier and noisier.. If they're are quiet they are good. The last one I changed was clanking like a loose wheel. E 28 rear axle shafts are easy to re-boot. Super messy but easy.
 
I rebooted an inner CV joint on an Audi once that had NO boot and ZERO grease.

Worked just fine. Is probably still going strong.
 
That they get progressively louder as they reach a failing point means I’m not particularly stressed. [censored], the passenger side contained so little grease, there wasn’t even enough to ooze out like the drivers side did. I’m not likely to be unknowingly stranded on the side of 192. I bought this car off a little old lady for almost nothing, and have my sights firmly on a Prius when I get my end-of-summer bonus.

Maxdustington,
I’m not sure I’d go with rebuilt. They’re all cardone units, and cardone doesn’t seem to get much love. $350 for a set of new acdelco, plus the labor for a local shop to toss them on won’t hurt my feelings. These boots were leaking, at least the pssengerside, when I bought it. I just couldn’t identify where the strip of goo along the underside of the hood was coming from until I replaced the wheel hubs.
 
Are these for the 2003 Century listed in your sig? Get the OEM axles since they are still available for your car
smile.gif
 
I know this is the "hard line" method, but the only Subaru dealer I trust to touch my car other than me recommends ONLY replacing the entire axle assembly when there is a torn boot. Reason being, unless you check under the car EVERY SINGLE DAY for a torn boot, by the time you find it is torn, there is some kind of contamination in the grease/joint that you will not be able to remove. So, they will only replace the entire axle, which realistically, costs about the same book time as a repair, and is permanent. Most axles are around $150/each, is your safety really worth only $140? Replace the axle and never worry about it again for another 100k miles. Preventative safety is cheap; repair safety after your axle breaks and you hit something hard when the wheel locks up and sends you into a median or other car is not.
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
I rebooted an inner CV joint on an Audi once that had NO boot and ZERO grease.

Worked just fine. Is probably still going strong.


If the joint is quiet and the components show no signs of visible wear upon disassembly, it should be safe to reboot. However, worn (but quiet) cv joints can sometimes produce vibration issues at high speed (during cruise), and without a proper road test this can go unnoticed. It does not make sense to re-boot cv axles that already vibrate.

Originally Posted By: SubieRubyRoo
I know this is the "hard line" method, but the only Subaru dealer I trust to touch my car other than me recommends ONLY replacing the entire axle assembly when there is a torn boot. Reason being, unless you check under the car EVERY SINGLE DAY for a torn boot, by the time you find it is torn, there is some kind of contamination in the grease/joint that you will not be able to remove. So, they will only replace the entire axle, which realistically, costs about the same book time as a repair, and is permanent. Most axles are around $150/each, is your safety really worth only $140? Replace the axle and never worry about it again for another 100k miles. Preventative safety is cheap; repair safety after your axle breaks and you hit something hard when the wheel locks up and sends you into a median or other car is not.


It is very rare to find OE axles for the price you described. If this is true for a Subaru, then it is a steal. Toyota/Honda/Nissan axles only come new and they are often in the $500-$800 range, per axle. As previously mentioned, if the joints are quiet and do not display any obvious signs of wear, re-booting is a viable option.
 
Slacktide,
They are! That is my plan, if they have to be replaced. I think it was Trav (he’s the German master mechanic, yeah?) that mentioned the half shafts that are on there are probably better quality than some new Chinese joint, and that replacing a cracked boot, which was suspected st the time would be a better approach.

Subie,
I don’t think that’s too “hard line”, it makes little sense to remove a half shaft just to put on a new boot. It’s been removed, the hard work is done, just replace with a new one. As mentioned above, it’s be about $370 to buy my own parts, and then the labor to put them on. All that said, if I can stay out of my emergency fund, and get the last bit of life I need from this car, I’m going to give it the old college try.
 
You have rescued them and now they will outlast the car. The CV joint went 100K before the boot failed again. By then I had a few parts cars and just put in a used joint that still had intact boots.
 
Originally Posted By: SubieRubyRoo
Preventative safety is cheap; repair safety after your axle breaks and you hit something hard when the wheel locks up and sends you into a median or other car is not.


Catastrophic CV failure guilt trip? C'mon dude.

Originally Posted By: RichardS
Subie,
I don’t think that’s too “hard line”, it makes little sense to remove a half shaft just to put on a new boot. It’s been removed, the hard work is done, just replace with a new one.


You leave the axle on the car when you reboot the outer. Replacing an original CV axle that is serviceable is bad juju, search the forum. I'll save you the effort: aftermarket CV axles are trash.
 
The_Critic
While I’m not really sure what to look for, once I had the boot pulled out of the way I couldn’t find anything like gouging or out-of-place, visible wear so we’ll see how they do over the next 6 months and 8k miles.
 
I don’t really need to search the forums, as I did so before I picked my mode of action for this situation.

And while you can leave the axle on to service the outer boot, it was the inner boots that were leaking, and for that to be replaced, the axle has to be disconnected, as I’m sure you’re aware.
 
Originally Posted By: RichardS
I don’t really need to search the forums, as I did so before I picked my mode of action for this situation.

And while you can leave the axle on to service the outer boot, it was the inner boots that were leaking, and for that to be replaced, the axle has to be disconnected, as I’m sure you’re aware.


Not true.
Have you ever heard of a CV cone? Inner and uter boots can be changed with the shaft still in the box.
 
Originally Posted By: Olas
Originally Posted By: RichardS
I don’t really need to search the forums, as I did so before I picked my mode of action for this situation.

And while you can leave the axle on to service the outer boot, it was the inner boots that were leaking, and for that to be replaced, the axle has to be disconnected, as I’m sure you’re aware.


Not true.
Have you ever heard of a CV cone? Inner and uter boots can be changed with the shaft still in the box.


I haven’t, but I’ll give that a google. Thank you!
 
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