CV boot maintenance
 

What is your suggestion for maintaining the boots on your 4runner?

I've bought a 2006 Honda Rincon ATV, still on the SR5 outside at the moment. I noticed that there are a lot of rubber boots... or at least they appear to be rubber.

I ask the question of the dealer... he recommends Silicon Spray, or PAM. What do you guys use, if anything other than a regular cleaning?

This applies to my '94 4Runner (as well as the '85 4x4 PU) as well of course... any tips?

Probably this has been covered in earlier posts, but an attempt at a reasonably intelligent search brings up too many unrelated posts.

Thanks.

A silicone based spray lubricant (key word there, LUBRICANT) would do the trick.

Of course TIRE GEL (not the foam spray but the actual gels you apply with a applicator) would work too.

And you even could use just regular lithium grease, applying it with a paint brush.

I know you can get some pretty high temperature resistant lithium greases at various auto parts stores. That would probably be the BEST. It is 100% water resistant and will/can bond molecularly (soak into the rubber simply) with the rubber CV boots themselves.

Honestly, use reverse engineering. They use lithium grease on the inside of the boot to protect the metal AND the rubber from the inside, why not use the grease that they use on the inside on the outside? Might cause a little mess here and there, but if you are absolutely dead set on keeping them in tip top shape this might be the ticket.

-Jonathan Mann

Your best bet for CV longevity is manual hubs.

i like to use armor all, in light amounts... my dad uses it on all his exposed hydrolic hoses on his boat in alaska, they made it thru 10 alaska winters before showing signs of age, most make it 4-5...

I've always used a pure silicone spray available at most parts stores; just a good coating everytime I lube the chassis (@ oil change). Works great. The Armour All/Son of a Gun would work also. I'm not sure about lithium grease, but in theory it makes sense.

Definitely manual hubs. I've done nothing to my boots for 20 years. They still hadn't cracked open, but did have a lot of surface cracks before replacing the boots with a factory boot kit last week.

You don't want to put anything tacky (like grease) on the outside of the boots. That will trap dirt and dust and act like sandpaper to wear the boots down more than if you didn't put anything on them at all. A periodic cleaning is the best bet (Silicone spray lube may be OK, though... I think that mostly dries after you put it on, doesn't it?)

Good point. And you're not talking WD-40-type spray either. It would need to be "Pure Silicone" spray in order to not attract dirt.

I like the idea of Armorall for this purpose... and I want to thank all the other persons commenting on this subject. Definitely a quick review of the whole subject.:yotarock:

As an afterhought, has anyone damaged a boot with a high pressure washer? I think it is not likely, but just a thought. (I sometimes worry too much.)

I don't think you could damage the rubber boot with a pressure washer, but you possibly could force some water inside, which won't be good for the joint.

The outer passenger side boot on my '89 has finally cracked and I've never done anything to any of them other than an occasional wash.

86Orignial - how much was the boot kit & where did you pick it up? I've got the FSM and will be searching for some write-ups before I tackle this, but do you have any hints?
Thanks.

x2 - and that includes ArmorAll, etc. Keep them clean, and they'll last a long time. Certainly long enough that the $69 for a replacement CV axle will be cheap. LOL

Yeah, I got mine from ToyotaPartSales.com PN: 04428-35010 $23.80 each + shipping, two days to my door.

I think I may have an outer boot, grease, and maybe bands that might work if you only want to replace the outer... Never mind. I just remembered that you have to take off the inner to get to the outer anyway. I have the '86 FSM and they have good detailed instructions for doing a boot kit. Once I had the CV shafts out, it only took about 1/2 hour each to replace both boots & grease. (The inner-only kit, PN 04438-35012 $14.65, there are no outer-only kits.)

The black grease goes in the outer boot (moly-disulphide), and the brown grease (regular lithium-based) goes in the inner boot.

The axles, yokes, rollers, and sleeves are very hard metal, so don't plan on using a center punch to mark them unless it is very hard. My center punch got flattened and barely left any mark on the sleeve & axle. The biggest thing that I missed was making match marks on the shaft, collar, & sleeves before taking them apart. The other thing is that you can put the large band on the outer boot from the outside, but both smaller bands must be put on the shaft between putting the boots on the shaft.

DON'T pull apart the outer joint! Just slide the boots over the shaft where the inner yoke was. Some people have implied/stated outright/(I misread??) that you shouldn't take off the outer boot. WRONG! Just don't pull apart the outer CV joint when you slide the outer boot off the inner side of the shaft. You'll be trying to figure out which balls went where and have a total mess.

Grease the smaller-diameter ends of the boots so they'll slide on easier. Be sure to put electrical tape on the end of the axle shaft before sliding the boots on. To do this clean the axles end as best you can, put the end of the tape on the shaft right where the splines end and parallel to them, holding the tape on the shaft with one hand. with the other hand, pull the tape tight over the end of the axle and down the other side parallel to the splines. About 1/2 way down the splines, turn the tape (still holding on to the first segment of tape with your other hand) so it crosses the first segment of tape perpendicularly, wrapping around the shaft once. You should be able to now let go of the first segment and continue wrapping around the splines until they're covered. This took me a couple of tries to figure out how to make tape stick to an oily axle.

Put the longer boot on the inner joint.

The outer joint uses a smaller diameter large band than the inner joint.

With the Yota boot kit the only tool you need for the bands is a flat-bladed screwdriver. The Yota bands are really nice.

The FSM also says to replace the "dust deferector(sic)" on both the CV shaft and the knuckle, which is the topic of another post...

Thanks 86! Going to be tough to get this done before the snow really starts to stick in the high-country, but I'm hoping to have a company truck soon, so I won't have to try and do this in one weekend.

Mtnfreak: Your "location" just cracks me up!!!:D There are more fruits & nuts in that town than a barrel of trail mix!

Yeah, you're already too late for the snow to start sticking. I keep getting emails from the Summit Cnty ski areas talking about how much snow they already have. May have melted off the last few days, tho'.

Gonna revive an old thread here - -

I have a '92 4Runner 4wd with the 3vze and I bought a $5 tube of permatex dielectric grease (3 oz.) off Amazon as part of a larger order... it came, and I used about 1% of it on my spark plugs & boots. THEN I realized i still have 99% of this pure silicone grease left... so what to use it on?

After researching rubber & how to preserve it... i smeared a bunch of it (dielectric grease = 100% pure silicone grease) on pretty much anything rubber, including CV boots, Upper & lower control arm bushings (rubber) and tie-rod boots (also rubber). Also steering bushings. All of these rubber parts are 27+ years old.

Then, just because I still had a bunch leftover, I did the stabilizer bar bushings, and just about anything else that's rubber underneath. I did the door jam seals, window seals, spark plug boots, rear window rubber trim & tailgate seal..... and even a light coat on my intake tubes, all rubber. BOTTOM LINE - If you are wondering what to use on rubber to keep it from drying out & rotting...cracking... silicone grease is what you want to use. Sure you can use the spray... but a $5 tube of dielectric grease goes a LONG way. Especially if you live in the southwest at the beginning of summer where it is gonna be hot & dry for the next 6 months. $5 bucks and about 2 hours time. Good quality time underneath the Runner... lol.

Cheaper than armor all... cheaper than silicone spray...cheaper than anything else and it WORKS.

+1
I used same Permatex on my door seals, window rubber trim and seals.
Regular (lithium) grease may actually make make rubber weak; soft/liable but weak.

I also advocate using silicone grease or spray on any rubber. I periodically spray all my wires, vacuum hoses, bushings, molding, and anything rubber. It also seems to help keep the rats and mice from chewing on my wires.