Tofer

Yesterday as i was working on my 4runner, i noticed grease all over the underside of the front end, and found a "2 finger wide" rip in the boot. however i am back home for spring break and dont think i will have the time to fix it, so is it ok just to wrap it in duct tape for my 700 mile drive back to school? or is it something that needs to be addressed right away. second calling around to get a price quote of how much its going to cost, one shop quoted me $290 for a new axle, and $200 just for the boots. and another shop quoted me about 225 for a new axle. are these decent prices? or should i just buy new boots and do it myself.

Jeffires

I wouldn't change the axle unless the joints were bad...

epic37311

Duct tape it LOL.

fillsrunner4

i had that problem once and i brought it to a shop. Big mistake. They found more problems and it ended up costing me a lot. Now i dont even have that front end since i did a sas. If you feel up to taking the front end apart to replace the boot, do it yourself.

MolokaiRider

I'd replace the whole CV axle assembly. Since there is a hole, who knows how long it's been there and therefore what kind of damage may have already occured to your CV. Plus, you've got to take off everything anyway to replace the boot. For the price, I'd just buy the axle shaft and replace the whole thing. It took me about 1 hour with air tools, basic wrenches, and a BFH.

Steveh29

I've always taken the same philosophy as MolokiaRider. If the boot split open, there's probably junk and sand in the joint and it'll fail at some point. It's easier to just change the whole shaft and be done with it. Usually there are places local that will rebuild the axle for you or you can get a rebuilt one. I've never paid more than $200 even for a weird double jointed one on a 1993 Camry.

http://www.bap-geon.com/main.html

http://www.cvunlimited.com/mainfram.htm

bryanr

I was under the impression you could run with torn CVs and/or bad axle shafts as long as you didn't engage 4wd?

Steveh29

Well the axle shafts are still going to spin unless you have manual locking hubs. So although there's no real load on the shafts, they are spinning and should have lubrication.

Tofer

thanks for all the replys... i have duck taped it for right now for the drive to my mom's hosue about 150 miles away, and i will look into getting new parts there, the grease is really fresh, so i am thinking it JUST happend. but i live by the motto, "cry once or cry everytime" were you cry once at the inital cost of doing it right, or do it half-a$$ed and cry everytime i use it.

koyota93

I can get re-manufactured ones from my work. $100 each plus $50 core. I should be able to get a discount on that price too. If you can't find them anywhere else, I can get them and send them. My boots are torn on both sides, and I've been driving on them for a year now. Just too lazy to fix it.

MolokaiRider

I forgot to mention what Steveh29 said earlier. Buy a set of Warn hubs and love it. Well worth the added mileage, less moving resistance, less wear and tear on your front CV's, very strong...won't melt under extreme brake heat, good installation instructions, and a decent price.

You don't have to fix the CV if you don't want, but remember that the boot is to keep grease on the CV. When dirt and water get in, and your also losing grease, the joint gets abused with the elements and heat. The metal will be come work-hardened and eventually break, making an irritating noise and possibly total failure with the CV wanging around inside the wheel breaking all kinds of stuff.

I too have see people keep running with NO boots, and don't even worry about it. Albiet, those people don't use the four wheel drive and most definately don't go trail riding. Anyway, good luck, fix what you can afford to, and shop around. You'd be suprised at cost differences between vendors.

Steveh29

I'm sure you could get away with no boots if you're not putting a whole lot of load on there. Heck, I've seen people running no boots on a front wheel drive car! CV's usually get really loud - clicking during turns - before they go. So I think you're going to be fine for your trip to your mom's house as well as spending time to shop around and get a decent price on an axleshaft.

wrenchmonster

Don't worry about duct taping it. Just drive it home and R&R the whole half-shaft assembly once you get home. It's a simple fix. I'm never an advocate for replacing just the boot, only unless you just replaced the shaft and have a tear. If your axle has seen any type of mileage, I'd personally just replace the entire shaft. Cheaper, cleaner, faster, and you'll get a parts warranty. Good luck.

-Wrench

midiwall

Buy a replacement shaft, and then get a "boot repair kit" from a dealer. The repair kit is about $40 and comes with the inner & outer boots, clamps and the two kinds of grease that you'll need.

Pull the axle, pull the boot and look at the joint. If it looks like there was damage (discoloration from heat, NO grease on the joint, scratches or gouges, etc) then replace the axle. if not, then just replace the boot.

If you end up replacing the axle, then keep the old one in the back of the truck for when you snap one on a trail. If you don't replace the axle, then keep the new one in the back of the truck. Keep the other boot and grease back there as well.

GodwinAustin

Chris - I'm suprised you even ripped it with the small amount of lift that you have....what do you think caused it...any ideas?

midiwall

side note...

Hey Chris... you might want to remove the pics from your page that show you going through the stream. We've had issues around these parts where The Ranger Law have used pics like that from people's websites to make a case to close down an ORV area.

oly884

I had the same thing happen on my old truck. I had to drive to Bozeman from Seattle which is about 700 miles. What I did was take a turkey baster, or some thing like that, and "inject" a bunch of grease into the hole, and then duct tape it up really good. It lasted for about a month before I could fix it. Just keep checking it incase the duct tape falls off.

Tofer

That sounds like the best idea.... use it if i need to dont if i dont. i'll start looking in to buying a new shaft... ideas on where to start looking? would autozone carry it?

ok, i hadnt even thought of that... they will be down today.. i need to update the page anyways.

thats a good idea... what kind of grease do i need to buy to do that?

oly884

It'd say some gear grease, they'll have it down at NAPA, or any other auto parts store.

colsoncj

If the tear just happened, I'd get a boot fix kit, i don't think they're more than 20 or 30 bucks, and you don't have to pull the CV to install it, just cut the old one off, wrap the replacement around and connect all the clips. Them seem to work pretty well, although they aren't as good as a solid boot. If the tears been there for a while, personally, I'd drive it til it makes noise, then change it (if i didn't feel like doin it right away), or just change it now.... my $0.02