CV Boot DIY (pictures)
 

Some additional info on the torn CV boot saga. I tackled this job over the weekend and here is some input which I hope will be helpful. Thanks to Hayaku for the really detailed DIY in this link here

as well as to we350z and katit for their valuable info.

Anyone who is considering this should read through the procedure in its entirety. we350z started the long-ass thread here

which I found very informative since it included pictures of his disassembled hub following the shortcut by katit. It’s definitely much easier this way.

I’m not going to get into the tools needed and torque values since everything is in the detailed DIY above. It’s not that hard, I’d say about 7 on a scale of 1-10 for the casual DIY person, however it is very dirty work and can be time consuming without the right tools. I would caution you if you’ve never worked on brakes/suspension, these are critical parts and now is not the time to learn, let a professional do it or a knowledgeable friend help with assembly due to the torque values. What you do to your car is your business so I am not responsible for what you do to your car.

Do yourself a favor and devote a whole weekend to the project and do both axles at the same time. You’re going to do it eventually anyway. If one CV boot is leaking, the other boot is very close behind (mine is an 03 3.0 with 56K miles, garaged all its life when the boot started to leak) I inspected the other boot and it had very fine cracks in the inner part of the folds of the boot so it was ready to blow. It was also a lot less messy to work on the axle that did not spew grease everywhere.

In addition to your regular metric sockets and wrenches (10mm-22MM) as well as allen wrenches, you WILL need the following:


Boot kits with grease packs (make sure to use the correct grease)
New rear control arm bolts (they are torque to yield)
Pitman arm puller (2 sizes) $26 for both at my local cheap parts store
CV joint boot clamp plier $9
Snap ring pliers (if using the EMPI inner boot kit)
2 rolls of blue shop towels (you’ll need both if your boot is already leaking)
1 box of latex gloves (100 ct.) Harbor Freight has them cheap
Zip ties (heavy duty) a thick wire coat hanger may work too
Small floor jack to raise/lower the hub assembly

Here are the most critical tools:

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/IMG_1990.jpg

Removal:

Chock the rear tires, jack up front and secure with jack stands, remove both front tires/wheels so that you can use the opposite side for reference, bolt orientation, etc. I left the key in the ignition so that I could turn the steering wheel right/left.

Remove the ABS brake sensor with an allen wrench, then remove the two 16mm bolts holding the brake caliper to the hub. Slide the caliper off the rotor and zip tie it to the strut. It’s heavy so secure it well or else it could fall and damage your brake line (see pic below)

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...perremoval.jpg

Below is a picture of everything you have to remove in order to pull off the hub assembly. I pulled off the whole thing including the brake rotor since I couldn’t remove the motherf&^%$#@! allen screw holding it on which made it HEAVY.

***Leave the top bolt holding it to the strut for last so that you can disconnect the axle and all the bolts/nuts without the whole assembly falling on your foot.

Remove 16/18mm bolt & nut combo for the rear control arm (see pic below)

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...Hubremoval.jpg

Remove 22mm nut from the front control arm using the small pitman arm puller (see pic below)

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...controlarm.jpg

Remove 22mm nut from the tie-rod using the large pitman arm puller. Turn steering wheel all the way to the right (when working on the LF wheel) so that you can get it on (see pic below)

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...ntotie-rod.jpg

Remove the large CV boot clamp from the inner boot, don’t re-use. Once this is removed, the axle will slide out and grease will spill out (see pic below)

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...xleremoved.jpg

Here is another pic with the grease cleaned out.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/IMG_1975.jpg

Once everything is off, put a small floor jack underneath the hub assembly then take off the large bolt and lower it gently. I laid mine on some rags on the floor to protect the brake rotor with the axle sticking straight up so that I could work on it (see pic below)

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...IMG_1969-1.jpg

Clean the whole axle shaft so that when you slide the boots off/on, you don’t contaminate anything with dirt. This is the time to remove the remaining CV boot clamps on inner and outer boots. Clean up all the grease from the inboard side, remove the retaining clip and hammer out the 3-sided bearing assembly from the shaft (see pic below)

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/IMG_1973.jpg

Remove inner and outer CV boots. Remove the rubber adapter from the old inner CV boot to be re-used if your kit did not come with one (my EMPI kit did not come with this adapter) Clean up outer CV joint, I just wiped off as much of the excess grease as I could since mine was not contaminated and then added the grease supplied with the kit. Apparently you are supposed to use non-petroleum based cleaners (these can leave a residue) Install new outer and inner CV boots as well as the clamps (leave the large inner clamp for last)

I also noticed that the inner joint used a yellowish lithium grease so I did not use the supplied dark gray grease pack from EMPI and instead bought some Coastal brand lithium grease from Autozone. It’s not a good idea to mix different kinds of grease since they react with each other. The EMPI outer boot kit from Autohausaz fit perfectly. The inner boot kit however did not come with a rubber adapter and the OEM BMW adapter did not fit very well. I used it anyway and just hope that it does not come off, I recommend using a new OEM inner boot. I would not recommend the EMPI replacement boot (see pics below)

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/adapter2.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/adapter3.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/adapter4.jpg

Once inner and outer boots are on and clamped, install the 3-sided bearing assembly. One side is tapered for easy install and alignment to the spline so make note of this when hammering it back on (do this gently and avoid hitting the bearings) Install a new snap ring (provided in the boot kit) and then the rubber adapter. Put a ziplock bag around it to keep it clean during assembly.

Assembly:

Lift the hub assembly onto your floor jack and raise it so that you can put the top (or bottom) large bolt to hold it temporarily to the strut. You can still wiggle it around to bolt up everything. I greased up the receiving end of the inner CV joint and carefully inserted the axle, make sure no dirt or debris gets in there. Also, make sure that the rubber adapter is on there BEFORE bolting up anything. You can fit the CV boot on there, don’t clamp it on yet though.

Bolt up the rear control arm, front control arm, tie rod, two strut bolts, as well as the ABS brake sensor. I didn’t tighten anything yet since I used threadlock before using the torque wrench to tighten everything down. I plan to get some new 22mm nylock nuts later since mine were pretty rusty. I spun the axle around and inspected everything for fitment before installing the large CV boot clamp.

Untie the brake caliper and install the two 16mm bolts. Here are the torque values I used for everything according to the previous DIY, you may want to double check these.

Strut Bolts 185 ft-lbs.
Front Control arm 45 ft-lbs.
Tie-rod 59 ft-lbs.
Brake caliper bolts 77 ft-lbs.
Rear control arm to chassis bolts 74 ft-lbs. + another 90-degree turn (these are torque to yield bolts so new ones should be used) ***these need to be tightened with the car on the ground while the suspension is fully compressed.

The FR side is the same procedure.

Install both front tires/wheels, torque lug bolts 101 ft-lbs. Lower car, drive up onto ramps and tighten the rear control arms to the proper torque. Go for a test drive. Done! Pour yourself a cold one. And a shot. I did.

Excellent write up. I just used this to do my passenger side inner and outer CV boots and your descriptions and pictures make it an easy job - much easier than I anticipated. I can't believe anyone would go the other route of pulling the hub off, it must be rough. I used GKN Loebro inner and outer boots from germanautoparts.com. The Loebro inner boot does not come with a new rubber adapter but it fits perfectly with the existing OEM adapter.

texmln , i bought both inner and outer boot kits for right side , the outer boot is heavy flexible rubber but the inner boot is thin plastic so can you say if your kits are the same as mine , i bought from a bmw dealer in france for 30 euros each boot .

excellent? not really, this is too much un necessary work.

1)remove wheel
2)remove 36mm nut
3)remove lower control arm bolt and let the arm hang
4)use air hammer to push axle shaft out of hub.
5)using a razor blade, cut boot in half(if not already completly torn
6)using a small sledge hammer, hit cv joint out of splines.
7)replace cv boot

takes 15 minutes!

Mr killcrap sir ,can you tell me is the 36mm nut the one on the end of drive shaft seen when bmw cap removed and when the control arm bolt removed is there enough movement available with the tension arm and steering still connected to allow the drive shaft to be removed from hub .
also can i leave wheel speed sensor in place whilst doing this .
i need to replace right front outer boot so will i need to disconnect some piece of the ride height sensor .and are you saying that the brake calliper stays put .

dont touch drive shaft, unless you want to.
there is an axle shaft that you should touch though.
no bmw caps removed, try removing the wheel instead, much easier than trying to remove cap.

i just mean is that the nut that is behind the bmw cap ,and when i said driveshaft i actually mean axle shaft or half shaft as some know it .
i`m tryng to figure how to do this so i`ll try to describe what i`ll attempt
remove wheel
remove collar nut
remove control arm nut and bolt at subframe , let arm hang
do not remove brake caliper or tension strut or steering rod end
do i need to turn steering to allow me to hammer out axle shaft from hub
do i need to remove speed sensor before hammering axle shaft

killcrap, how do you manually put the necessary 330 foot pounds of torque on the axle nut? I've found it difficult to get much above 200 foot pounds without some serious air tools...

amacman, my loebro inner boot seems to be a less flexible blend of rubber/plastic than the outer boot but it is still quite pliable. Flexibility is not as important with the inner boot because it isn't twisted when turning the wheel like the outer boot.

Amacman
why ask pointless questions, as if turning the steering wheel is so hard to do? did i say to remove the wheel speed sensor in my post?

Texmln
I used a 1/2" air gun to rescure the nut, and then use the air hammer to bend the collar nut tabs in.

so if i follow your first instructions to the letter then that is the job done and no other parts need to be removed , correct or not .
all other methods say to remove hub from strut and control arms to allow cv joint separation so using your method i would think that it is neccessary to turn steering to allow the cv some route for removal .
your instructions are not clear on that point .

do it anyway you want to

sorry i wasted my time asking you anything
you suggested a proceedure that does not really make complete sense to me
i`m sure the axle shaft can not be hammered out unless the hub is moved from it`s fixed position so i`m curious to know if turning the steering will allow enough flexibility in the cv joints to remove the axle shaft or do you leave steering in the straight position and still have enough movement in cv joints to remove shaft
you obviously know the procceedure so why can`t you explain it in more detail .
i`m sure there will be a few people reading this will want the answers .

its pretty obvious to me you seem to only take your own advise. remember the whole water pump. and brake caliper deal? why do i have to explain myself to someone who knows everything already.

you told me something i did not know about the water pump , as in bmw stopped using plastic impellors otherwise i would have replaced it but as it`s metal then i`ll leave it .
i don`t recall anything on brake caliper so i can`t respond to that
i still can`t figure how the axle shaft is going to release because i`ve never done one but reading all other info on the subject tells me that it needs some space to remove it so can you stop wasting time and tell us then i can go to sleep in a good mood .

Thanks for your input, I only posted this DIY because it was supposedly the shortcut and indeed it worked for me. If you were able to find a better way, it would be great if you can post some details instead of a vague DIY which doesn't really help anybody.

You can also start your own post.

Love the pics.

Killcrap +10: I totally agree with you. Generx removed alot of things and that's un necessry. I didn't remove caliper, rotor etc away from my truck.

I only removed 3 OUTER control arms and ball joint - and pushing, prying the rotor to take off the axle.

I tried the shortcut method but when i got to the point of trying to get the cv joint to come off the spline had no luck. I turned the wheel all the way to the left, (working on front left), and didnt have enough room to beat on the star area to make it come off. I tried using socket extension with hammer to no avail. May try again with bigger hammer...just doesnt seem right beating on an area that gets screwed up by a little dirt and grime.

Let me preface by saying that everything I do on this car is the first time I've ever done it. I'm by no means a pro.

The 'shortcut' advocated by killcrap absolutely does work. It had some difficulties of it's own, but kept me from having to remove the entire knuckle to replace the axle. I didn't remove the brakes or rotor. The only things I unscrewed were the control arm at the subframe and the axle nut (okay, I removed the wheel too).

It seems like it would be hard to use an air hammer to drive out the axle from the hub with this method, because the axle is still inserted into the differential. I'm sure the pro's have a simple trick to make that work. I used a simple axle puller/pusher (the type you bolt to the hub) and it removed the axle no problem).

My only two cents would be to have a BIG friend pull the knuckle/hub away from the car while you pry the outer cv joint out of the depression in the knuckle from the back with a pry bar.

I prefer to leave the hub on the strut
 

I did this four times by now, twice on each side of the 4.4. Each time I opened the locking bead on the nut first with a small screw driver. Then used an airwrench to undo the nut. For US based posters, rental centers have these for a 30 or 40 bucks a weekend incuding a small compressor.

The first time (to replace both outer boots) I took the hubs off the strut but found that a back breaking exercise. I bougth the puller that attaches to the wheel bolts and found it makes it much easier to get the CV joint out of the hub. I also found that I had to make a clamp for the shaft so that I could put pre-tension on the circlip using a crow-bar, to pop the shaft out of the CV-joint with a hammer.

Upon going for number three six months later (one of the new boots had developed a mysterious cut on one ridge) I decided to leave the hub on the strut but undid the control arms from the sub-frame. With the wheel turned to full lock the CV-joints can be released from the hub and then the CV joint has to be removed from the shaft.

Final session number four occured about two years later when one CV-joint started to make some horrible noises when turning. Again left the hub on the strut and found the whole thing amazingly quick. My inner boots still look in good shape and I re-used the outer boot on the last one.

I am sure either method works, this works for me. Good luck to those who are going to attemmpt this, I would say difficulty is 8 of 10 on the first one and 6 or 7 for the second try, after that it is a 4 or a 5.

Generx, Great job but... that sure seems like a lot of work. I mean to each his own, and it seems like you had no problem doing it, but like killcrap said; a lot of unneeded proceedures. That assembly is heavy and supporting it by a jac is fine, but there is that possiblity you might bump into it, it will fall off and cause damage. The way explained in the DIY section and the way a lot of others did it is safer and to be honest, probably faster. And to the member worried about 330 ft/lbs of torque. I don't remember it being that high, but its been a while. In any case, lets just say 330 ft/lbs is Balls to the wall tight. If you have a torque wrench that does 250, 3 big hits with a dead blow hammer will most def suffice. I mean we all know that hub needs to be on there tight, so I personally don't think an accurate count of 330 ft/lbs is critical. Now something like sleeves and bolts, those are critical and I follow them to a "t". Just my imho, but in any case good job and thanks for the contribution!

Hmmm, ok so didn't realize this thread was bumped from 2009. haha got to read a little better. But anyways, if anyone is looking for a hub puller I have an extra one available. 3 swinging arms and center crank bolt. Hub removal is a breeze. Anyone interested, let me know.

Used killcraps method this weekend to replace both half shafts. Only issue was on the right side (the longer axle). The ride height sensor (mounted on the control arm) and strut link needed to me removed (strut link was in the way). 2005 e53 3.0i. Used cardone axles for $65 a side.

Let us know how those new axles work out over time. $65/side is a nice price, but I wonder about the quality that comes with that price.

Ranger I hear you and understand your concern and I will follow up. I've used cardone halfshafts for about the same price in my Audi A6 with good results for years and 10s of thousands of miles. Russianblue and civdiv99 have reported similar results although some have also reported vibration issues. My feeling is for the price and without requiring a core return, I can keep the OEMs and rebuild them while still driving the car if any issues arise. In that event, I would still have good OEMs halfshafts installed for the price of a single OEM halfshaft. I can get them in and out fast now with the only issue being the purchase of a flat 18mm wrench to grab the back of the stabilizer bar link so the bolt doesn't turn with the nut. I had to use needle nose vice grips and buggared up the grease boots so I'm going to have to replace that soon. ****Update, X5 rear ended and totaled 2/14/24. Half shaft worked great for 8 years and tens of thousands of miles. Just got back from a 12 hour trip to Florida in which the car performed flawlessly with 165K miles on it. I'm going to miss that vehicle.

CV BOOT
 

My previous E53 had a thorn boot. I replaced the whole shaft instead.
I bought an aftermarket one at advanced auto parts for $65.
My buddy still drives it today. It has been 130.000 miles since I replaced it. All boots and shaft still intact.

Guys,

Read the thread on this site titled "CV BOOT REPLACED IN 30 MINUTES", and follow the instructions from "dville" in Post 36, page 4.......

Copied below, FYI:

Nothing to remove really....
1) unbolt the control arm (the straight arm) at the end closer to the engine.
2) swing out the whole assembly by hand and afix with something firmly
3) remove outer boot clamps and cut off the outer boot.
4) grab the drive axle firmly with vice grips and pry the shaft out of the CV joint against the force of the retaining C-clip.
5) wipe off grease, install new clamp, boot, clamp and C-clip.
6) while applying pressure to push axle back into CV joint, use a good sized screwdriver and poke at the C-clip until it snaps in.
7) Apply the grease from the packet and then tighten clamps.
8) put on control arm (tie rod) and only tighten it once vehicle weight is on the front wheels.

My local independant mechanic followed these instructions (he didn't have to touch the brakes or sensors, the 12 point 36mm bolt, the outside of the hub, strut bolts, or any ball joints). The whole procedure went perfectly, took about 1 hour for both sides of the car and cost only $80.00 plus parts!

He said that without those instructions, he would have done it the conventional and slower way.......probably would have added another 2+ hours labour to the procedure, and maybe extra parts.

If you only need to replace the outer CV boots, give your mechanic a copy of these instructions, and save $$$!

:iagree:

Tricks:
Make sure the C-clip is aligned with the crew driver PRIOR to pushing the shaft in. Use a long handle skinny flat blade.
Install the shaft, get the boots lined up, then insert the grease. (Otherwise you will not be able to see the c-Clip)
Clean every surface where the boot clamps free of grease before inserting the shaft.
Make sure the boots are all the way on and squared up before clamping otherwise they will twist off at speed.
Easy job, takes longer to clean up the grease mess than the actual project.