How to detect a broken CV boot without getting under the car...

[Alexx]

Maybe a poll is in order.

 

Which comes first, you detect a rip in the boot by smell or spray under the hood, or by checking the car once a week. I think it's overall faster to detect a rip while the car is in use then to periodically check the boots because I doubt we check out boots everyday.

[torxxx]

I look under my car every day. It takes 5 seconds to do. Gotta make sure I didnt run anyone over... lol

[subiemech85]

seems like I work on mine every day, always something to do, I guess that's a reason to drive what I do

[BobBrumby]

I need to reboot a doj now as I have seen the split is starting in one of the grooves. I just check mine everytime I check my oil, well the front inners anyway. I have not had much luck with my remanned axle as the doj started clicking again on deccel soon after putting it in, that was the reason I changed it in the first place.

[mbrickell]

Maybe a poll is in order.

 

Which comes first, you detect a rip in the boot by smell or spray under the hood, or by checking the car once a week. I think it's overall faster to detect a rip while the car is in use then to periodically check the boots because I doubt we check out boots everyday.

 

It really, really, takes a totally insignificant amount of effort to peek under the car and take a quick look at the boots. It also takes a really minimal amount of thought to remember to do this periodically. I think it is totally unnecessary to visually inspect them daily or weekly, but every couple of weeks or once a month is probably way more than enough to give you an excellent change of spotting tears or splits in time to replace to boot and not have lasting damage.

 

With all due respect, really a non-issue in my humble opinion. If you aren't disciplined enough to keep a visual eye from time to time on how your car is doing, you deserve to get screwed by a shop or have your car break down, and in the case of CVs, you deserve to drive forever on a ripped boot until you eat up the joint. The single most reliable way to take care of your CVs is to look at the boots periodically. It takes so little effort.

 

Call it the Darwinian theory of CV boot inspection: the ones who expend the 1/100th of a calorie to look at it once in a while will be naturally selected and survive, and the ones who don't will dwindle and eventually be extinct.

[Alexx]

It really, really, takes a totally insignificant amount of effort to peek under the car and take a quick look at the boots. It also takes a really minimal amount of thought to remember to do this periodically. I think it is totally unnecessary to visually inspect them daily or weekly, but every couple of weeks or once a month is probably way more than enough to give you an excellent change of spotting tears or splits in time to replace to boot and not have lasting damage.

 

With all due respect, really a non-issue in my humble opinion. If you aren't disciplined enough to keep a visual eye from time to time on how your car is doing, you deserve to get screwed by a shop or have your car break down, and in the case of CVs, you deserve to drive forever on a ripped boot until you eat up the joint. The single most reliable way to take care of your CVs is to look at the boots periodically. It takes so little effort.

 

Call it the Darwinian theory of CV boot inspection: the ones who expend the 1/100th of a calorie to look at it once in a while will be naturally selected and survive, and the ones who don't will dwindle and eventually be extinct.

 

It seems to me it would be much more "Darwinian" aka faster to smell burning CV Boot grease when it lands on the engine or the cat while driving then waiting until the next time I check under the car.

[NV Zeno]

I usually don't deliberately look for damaged boots. In the course of checking /adding oil, or some other reason for having the hood open, I'll check the boots real quick, and for any sprayed grease. This is where it pays to keep the engine compartment clean. I check all the boots more closely while I'm under the car at oil change time.

 

Really though, the smell is evidence enough that a boot has split..unmistakable.

 

My 2 bucks

[mbrickell]

In my experience, you will detect the small cracks in the boot and general deterioration of the rubber long before the boot splits to the point where enough grease is expelled to smell it. By the time you have that much grease coming out, it has generally been cracked for some time. You will notice splits beginning and getting worse for quite some time prior to actual structural failure of the boot.

 

I've seen quite a few older cars where the boot has not actually failed yet, and grease is not actually being lost, but the rubber appears quite ages and there are numerous small splits appearing, with failure imminent.