Why spend 175 a shaft if u catch it early. If u clean your wheel u will notice the grease on the inside of the rim. Take them off, clean them and repack them and good as new.

True, I guess it would be a good option if both your cv boots and joints are in bad condition

i got mine early and before winter. took off the outside boot and joint. cleaned them and repacked the sh*t out of them and put them back on with the new boots.

the only thing that may extend the life of your boots indefinitely, is to apply a thin layer of non petroleum based very gentle lubricant all over the boot, like maybe mineral oil, my opinion on this is that when you buy the boots brand new they are very flexible and they come with some sort of lubricant on them from the factory, weather dries out that inital coating very quickly and then its all downhill from there, as the boots are completely dry if you keep them lightly coated in lubricant it may keep them soft an flexible for a very long time.

Disclaimer: I make no guarantees as I have not tried this myself but it I will try it this next time I get the boots done. Good luck if anyone has any other opinions on this please share them.

Also one of our resident doctor's in da house 'Weasel' mentioned in a post once that he applies some form of oil/lubricant/coating to the CV boots when he has his X up on a stand. You may want to PM him for details if he doesn't read this.