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CV Boot Tore Off Completely


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So, I've seen a bunch of posts involving ripped cv boots, but I discovered today mid cross-country trip that my inner passenger side CV boot tore off completely and is gone.

 

I found that a store about three hundred miles away has a split boot that should fit. Basically - with the boot completely gone, how long will the joint last? And is the Split Boot the best option? I'm in Wyoming looking to make it back to NYC where I can deal with replacing the boot properly.

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I wouldn't sweat it. Nothing catastrophic is going to occur. I'd also take this opportunity to get creative. Grab yourself 3 or 4 plastic bags, get some grease and some rags. Wipe down the joint as best you can, smear some grease all over it, wrap it up in the plastic bags fashioning your own fancy plastic bag boot and zip tie / duck-tape the hell out of it.

I did that to a rear axle and it lasted me nearly 5,000 miles before it finally started to rip apart.

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I'm a professional laboratory for Subaru CV axles.

 

Front Subaru OEM CV axles will routinely run 50,000 miles in the front with broken front boots.  Rears will go 100,000 miles.

When I lived in non-inspection areas I'd never reboot axles, waste of time.  I'd drive on them clicking for years.

No way in a thousand years it'll fail.

Sand, fine gravel will destroy them quickly - avoiding offroad is critical, hopefully you're not out west to play.

 

The inner joints, once they loose all the grease, are going to start vibrating.

 

I actually did the same thing - was in Colorado and both inner boots busted and I had to drive back to Maryland.

They would vibrate so bad the car was nearly undrivable - rear view mirror shaking, searching for speeds that limited it - accelerating/load made it 10x worse so every grade was awful.

But I was also towing a huge trailer - probably 2,000 pounds, 4 wheeler, 5x10 trailer loaded with gear and 3 adults, that probably exacerbated things.

When I got home I cleaned and rebooted them and I've been running those same axles for 5 years now in my lifted XT6 with no issues.

 

You can stuff grease in by hand and the vibrating will go away instantly - but then it just slings right back out the joint again and back to vibrating.  By a tub of grease and toss it in there.


A friend of mine stuffed his with grease and wrapped it with saran wrap/duct tape maybe?  That was like 20 years ago so I don't recall the outcome but he was driving it like that for awhile.

Edited by grossgary
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