Watch those CV boots

[chefwong]

I wash my wheels quite frequent. 2X a week but sometimes, it does slip by......


Long story short, I had to replace a axle as one wheel was bone dry and I noticed a torn boot when I noticed grease....and I had washed the wheel about 3 days prior and it was minty clean..

Go figure but 2 weeks later, and the drivers side is toast. Just tried in vain to do a little duct tape, plastic, zip tie wrap but it was the worst hack job I've ever done. These dinosaur fingers was not cooperating where these is just millimeters between the boot and the strut... It is what it is and what concoction I have on there will just have to hold till Friday.

For all you owners with some decent mileage, check your boots often or just pay notice of grease on wheels which is a sure telltale sign you have a boot tear.

$30 boot kit or $600 for OEM axle.....

[statdoc]

I just had to have one replaced. 120k miles. I was OK with it lasting that long.

[chefwong]

Not too bad at all....I got around 40K out of them

[admranger]

My outer cv boots up front went bad about two months apart. Mileage was at 60k-ish.

[edco]

Is it an obvious tear or is there something more subtle that you look for..?

I look at mine every once in while if its on a lift..but other than not seeing any obvious rips, I don't see anything broken..

ed

[chefwong]

The current tear in my outer drivers is on the top of the boot, right under the strut...
Maybe would have spotted a wet stain but I never spotted it...

Anyhow, depending on the tear, the grease generally accumulates ALOT on the rear wheel edges, back of the calipers, etc. With centrifugal force, grease makes it towards the front of the wheel, but by that time....that could possibly mean alot more grease came out then detecting/repairing it earlier.

Go figure but the very minute I noticed grease on the passenger side, I rolled my windows down (hardly ever have the windows done) and I realized it was too late...and would need a new axle.It's around $550-$500ish with a CORE of $50....

[Naz24]

luckily just had mine replaced as one of my last items of my now expired CPO warranty.

i will keep an eye out for the future. thanks!

[JimmyP]

My 2005 4.4 has 75k and the left outer boot just failed. Luckily my pal works at BMW and he replaced both of them for $220. The warning is, once one goes, the other one is about to as well.

[StartX5]

Jimmy, you're right. I rebuilt my driver side CV Boot last month at 74K then I checked passenger side, it did not look good so i replaced both sides. I bought CV Boot for $130 and DIY.

[TriX5]

I caught my LH one as it had just failed. Replaced L & R only to find a manufacturing fault on the LH, so I got to repeat that one 6 months later.....

18 months later the RH CV joint failed......aargh!

Oh well, I can now do this job almost with my eyes closed.... :-)

Not to mention that I have lost count of the number of disks and pads I have gone through in the 45,000 miles since I bought the 4.4i 4 years ago.