Watch those CV boots
 

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.....

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

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

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

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

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....

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!

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.

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.

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.

any recommendations on places or sites to buy them?? just incase someone got a solid deal

Ahh I just had to eat my words. Just today washing my moms 4.6is, the dreaded grease all over the 87s. The boot is really torn, about half way through...ouch! Going to stealer tomorrow.

just replaced my driver side CV axle assy due to ripped outer boot at about 98k... wasn't about to pay stealer so one afternoon and approx $50 for reman Dorman from Napa and good to go

Is it really worth it to buy the $600 oem axle when bavauto and ecs sell aftermarkets for $100-$300? I can't decide what to do. take the risk and go cheaper or peace of mind by overpaying for oem i never seen this large of a price difference between aftermarkets and oems on any other parts i've looked at.

My previous post should have said reman axle from Cardone at NAPA, not Dorman. Left front $53.... I was very impressed with the quality and as I understand it the reman Cardone is OEM or was OEM until they overhauled it. I read how some aftermarket may cause some vibration but I put my $53 unit in and cannot tell any difference AT ALL still drives like new after 6 years.

It's insane you can get a whole reman Cardone axle assy for the price of one boot kit!

I got my replacement boot, lifetime warranty for $12 shipped...gotta love eBay! Its been about a year and I just noticed the other side has failed, thankfully I caught it soon. Too bad replacing the boot is a bitch, but it far cheaper than the whole arm.

this is what you need , i did my boots in less than an hour with this, piece of cake, just whip out the drive shaft and stretch the new one on. nice

Car Drive Shaft CV Protective Boot Fitting Tool on eBay (end time 20-Oct-10 12:02:14 BST)

$150 is a bit much to "save time". For some reason my drivers side CV joint REFUSED to seperate from the spindle, so I had to remove the whole assembly, remove a good boot and slide the new boot up to the torn on, then replace the what was good boot that I had to remove. Needless to say...headache. Hopefully the passenger side doesn't fight me as much.

lol convenience brings great expense i saw the listing too

I just got a quote from a local Indy here in NJ. He quoted me $130 per boot including labor.. So is $260 for both boot a good price or am I paying too much? Thanks...

wow thats steep just for boots

They're a bitch to get to (at least my drivers side was), I'd almost pay that if I didn't do the work myself. I only charge $35 per hour, but most dealerships charge in the $90-$100 range, the boots are $15 and it takes over an hour to do each side. That's not a bad price.

I just had both of my front outer boots changed after the RH one went. It wasn't making any noticeable noise but the mechanic said the joint doesn't look good - apparently one of the bearings dropped out when they were replacing the boot which shouldn't happen.

Just driven it home and noticed a horrible grinding noise at around 40mph. Can only hear it with the window open and it's not always there. We've had a lot of cold weather recently so lots of grit and salt on the roads; sounds like the joint is shot? :rolleyes:

Is this something I need to have done right away? What happens if the joint fails? Do BMW sell new joints or will I have to go after-market like this? I would have had the axles replaced but am reluctant to put more non-standard parts in than necessary and it will also mean having to wait until after xmas for parts (need to make a long trip away over xmas).

Posted some videos here:

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...minutes-3.html

Does this sound like the CV joint?