CV boot puzzle: I recently got my X5 from my parents. I discovered that the CV boots

[AudiBMWSX45]

are completely cracked and there is no grease left. There has not been grease on the wheels - at least not for the past half year, and I have never noticed grease when my parents had it.

My guess is that the boots have been cracked for tens of thousands of miles - at least for over a year now. It's been driven through all sorts of crappy conditions.

Yet, still, I hear nothing from the joints, and I drive pretty hard (fast turns, hard acceleration). I notice nothing unusual about the handling (i.e. steering wheel vibrations, etc.).

How could the joints have lasted this long with the cracked boots?

Regardless, I guess I'm looking at new axles now. :-(

[X5 in AK]

Are you sure there is no grease at all left in the joints?
If they are not making noise, there is a good chance they are still good. Would have to take them apart and look.

[dandruff]

Originally Posted by X5 in AK

Are you sure there is no grease at all left in the joints?
If they are not making noise, there is a good chance they are still good. Would have to take them apart and look.

take it to a trusted indie mechanic to replace ur CV boots .. keyword being TRUSTED ... before he repacks the grease he can take a look and tell you if you need new or not ... its full of grease and splatters all over, even if you wash the underside ... just take a flashlight and look up at struts etc. .. u should be able to see some of it ...

also for the time being do this (i know i know this is redneckish) ...

wrap saran wrap all over the boot and duct tape it - it will do two things - stop the dirt from going in and will stop any leftover grease from coming out ... you can do this without ramping or jacking up the X5 ... easy DIY from underneath ... hth!

[AudiBMWSX45]

There is no grease whatsoever left in the boots, on the suspension parts, or the wheels. The service advisor at the dealer is a friend of mine, and he jacked it up for me to look at. The joint inside is already showing signs of rust.

But still no clicking or handling issues. That is the puzzle!

[msammy]

You should consider yourself lucky; however, I wouldn't trust those joints for long. My CV joint took about 2K miles after the clicking noise started when it finally failed. My last day of driving it with the bad joint - it was making a loud rumble noise with lots of vibration. If you just replace the boots, you may be in for additional repairs in the future. Good luck and keep us all posted - I'm curious about this one!

[AudiBMWSX45]

msammy: I agree. Considering the fact that these joints have been exposed for ~ 10k miles, I don't think it's safe to replace just the boots.