Rubber boot splitting?
 

Hi

I just sent my X5 into the dealer for servicing and I was told that the technician did a check on the vehicle and found out that the rubber boot to the drive shaft (? :dunno: ) is going to split. Apparently the replacement cost of the boot is insignificant (£12) but the labour costs is upwards of £800!! :wow:

I bought a BMW insured warranty which incidentally cost me £900 a year to avoid such added costs but apparently it may not be covered because its a "wear and tear" item. Wanted to see if anyone have any thoughts on this... whether it should be so expensive in the first place, whether this should be covered under warranty (the warranty was bought when the car was 52,000 miles, the car is now 54,000 miles - I'm sure they should factor the wear and tear element into the premium when I bought it?), whether I need to worry much about a split rubber boot in the first place.

Thanks!!

First of all welcome to this forum.
You want this CV boot to be replaced ASAP before the CV joint get damaged by lack of grease and that would cost you even more. CV joints are lubricated by grease. The CV boots protect the CV joints and hold the grease. When a CV boot is cracked the grease will spill out and the CV joint will eventually get damaged. There is a lot of work involved in changing the CV boot as a lot of part (tie rod, control arm, drive shaft) need to be disassembled. Not sure what type of warranty you got but I am very surprised it does not cover CV boots. Does it say explicitly somewhere in the warranty terms and conditions that CV boots are not covered?

Hi alpac

Thanks for replying so quickly.. and thanks for welcoming me! I needed the information fairly urgently so thanks again.

I suspect I'm being given the runaround by the bmw and the warranty people, first they say it may not be covered because of the high mileage (54K is high?!!), now the line given is "its about the split, but has not yet split in a manner that requires repair" - Strange since this is the exact opposite to what I was told before which was "its about to split so repair is urgently needed (or like you say, there can be further damage when it occurs)".

Anyway, since they won't budge now, I have no choice by to wait till it does split open, but how would I know if that happens? or would the next time I realise be when the CV joint damages?

In relation to the first claim (too high mileage, wear and tear argument), well as far as I can tell, the policy document does not specifically exclude cv boots or drive shaft items, but it does however have a general exclusion for "Wear and Tear" - is this a wear and tear item?

I extracted the relevant portions of the warranty booklet below.

The items not covered by yourBMWInsured Warranty are:

Vehicle mileage: 0 to 60,000 miles at inception.

Battery, all exhaust components (except catalytic converter), brake and clutch facings, discs and drums, bulbs and fuses, channels and guides, weather strips and seals, handles, hinges and check straps, trim, upholstery and cosmetics finishes, wheels and tyres, wiper blades and arms, glass, auxiliary drive belts, coolant and fuel hoses, the cleaning or adjustment of any component, and all service items which will require
periodic replacement. Please also refer to ‘Wear and Tear Exclusions’ below.

Vehicle mileage: 60,001 to 100,000 miles at inception.

Components not covered in addition to the above.

All suspension and steering components (except steering rack, pump, box, steering lock, ignition barrel, suspension control units and sensors).

Wear and Tear

As the vehicle’s age and mileage increases, more components will reach the end of their serviceable life due to normal wear and tear. These components will require replacement at the customer’s cost and will not be reimbursed under this

BMW Insured Warranty.

CV boots are components of the front drive so if your front drive is covered which it should and there is nothing saying the boots are excluded then it should be covered too. Do you know which side CV boot is worn? When the CV boot cracks you get grease all over the wheel inside. That is one way to know but it does not make sense for them to wait for the boot to be cracked if they found out it was about to split. They may hope that it will crack after the mileage limit of your warranty is passed. I would fight on this one. Is this the BMW dealer? Do you have another dealer you can go to?

Alpac

Yes this is a BMW dealer, I can go to another dealer but its going to be pretty inconvenient since they are all much further away. I will do so though if I'm made to pay for something I needn't.

Please forgive my ignorance but "front drive" components are not stated in the exclusions under a different name right? I understand its the left inner boot that is the problem. But at £800 for repairs, that sounds a bit too high am I right? I mean, at £90 an hour, thats like 9hours work.

I just got done replacing both of my CV Boots in the past two weeks, I don't know the amount in Euros but for the two it cost me $1000! I mean for a simple piece of rubber it seems a little steep to me.

i tried to get mine covered under warranty but it is not because it is a 'wear and tear item' like previously stated. I believe it is covered under the maintenance warranty, but not the extended warranty. It costed me about $600 to replace. I wouldn't wait until it tears and lets out all the grease. Could lead to more damage and therefore cost you more.

If it does tear, you will notice alot of grease on the rim and wheel well. I believe you can also hear a clunking noise when you turn the steering wheel.

The labor pay for the tech for both sides outer boots is 8 hours labor pay, and I know some tricks/shortcuts to get the pair of them done in a couple hours. Which translates this job into a HUGE gravy job. What surprises me is that the tech gave that estimate before it split, sounds like someones greedy. And if the dealer doesn't want to cover it under extended warranty as it doesn't cover all the same things as the original warranty, then push for a goodwill repair. (if they do that in the UK that is)

Thanks for all your replies.

Do the boots have to be replaced in pairs? For me its the one side only thats "about to split".

The story now is BMW refuses to repair it because it is only "about to split", so my question is when it does, then what? - the service adviser said, then we'll consider whether its a wear and tear item. No straight answer if you ask me. A quick call to a local garage and I'm told its a 2hr job for an inner boot change which would cost less than £150.

Sure sounds like they wanted me to change the boot and fork out the ridiculous £800, then when they were told (and so subsequently checked) that I had warranty, changed it "don't think its a covered part" and then, when I pulled out the warranty booklet to "wear and tear", then "its not actually split yet so no warranty" and now to "its alright, dun worry". I'll do without the aggravation and not buy the extended warranty for next year.