I have a pencil sized hole in the front passenger side outer CV Boot. It is one bellow our from the smaller, inner band clamp. I do not see a lot of leaking, but do not know how old it is. The car has 225k miles on it and gets 5k miles annually. There is no clicking from the axel driving in a straight line or withe the wheel turned at any angle.

My first instinct was to replace the boots, inner and outer, but the Lexus parts are:

Lexus 04438-44051 - $105 plus a nut for $9.

There seem to be a host of people suggesting replacing the axle is the way to go. I am not spending $800 for the Lexus part, but I see a pile of aftermarket stuff out there for about the same cost at the Lexus boots.

Any thoughts new boots (messy) or new axel?

There are a thousand axel brands out there, recommendations? I have heard good things about:

GSP, FEQ

Dorman - I have had bad experiences in other areas.

There are a pile of DIY's our there, so I am pretty comfortable with the work involved. I would like to get this knocked out in the next week.

 

FEQ is a good brand if you can find it, GSP I've used not long enough in service to know. Dorman is the worst aftermarket parts brand there is. I've been keeping track recently installed 5 Cardone axles 4 have failed all had less than 60,000 miles. The 5th is fairly new I know the fate of that one.

Replacing boots on the OEM axle is the way to go except it is a very messy job and requires patience.

 

I’ve used Cardone axles, but if you have the tools and skills, do the boot kit from Lexus.

 

Thank You!

I thought that beating on that mid-bearing was a iffy idea. I like the approach of taking it apart instead of out. Any thoughts on doing it on my back? PIA, but likely doable. He does not seem overly concerned about any indexing of where the spider went on the shaft or where on the inner cup the spider "wheels" end up, correct?

Funny as hell that he mentioned the Birf's on the FJ80 Land Cruiser. That is next up for me.

Thanks for responding, I will bite the bullet and get the Lexus repair kit.

 

Ho about the clamp tool? $129 is probably not in the cards...... My neighbor might have a similar VAG tool

 

You don't need to mark the axle spline position relative to the transmission. Is the underside of the car rusty? On rust free cars getting the carrier bearing out is easy on some cars damn near impossible.

 

Hello,

Arizona car, barely any rust, I wish it were that simple..



Below is a tool that a guy was referencing in a video, the price is a lot nicer, but ease of use, I am not so sure.. In any case, it will likely suffice if you are only doing one axle, even if a little more troublesome than with OEM equipment.


You should have the same exact setup as in that Sienna shown in the video, so you should be able to simply take the axle apart at the spot, without having to deal with the carrier bearing.. I wasn't so lucky, my 2000 ES300 is one of only 2 years that came without a tripod, having another CV joint locked in by the snap ring from the back side instead. In any case, my axle had already bit the dust at that point, quite literally, so I didn't have all that much to loose at that point..

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

This is what I do, remove the whole assembly. Depending on the car it can be done without cutting the inner portion of the axle shaft. This is an awful design. Toyota used to have the nice 2-piece bolt on design it made replacing or re-booting axles so simple. The old 4-cylinder design was even better the axle stub has studs with nuts holding on the axle. Awesome and simple design. I guess saving $10 was very important to the bean counters.

 

Ok, now I understand the reference in the video to breaker bars. Rust wise the car is in pretty decent shape - surface rust here and there. I have never had problems removing hardware underneath like the LCA's or swaybar links.

I guess bicycle bearings are pretty flimsy compared to these, they are rarely reusable if in the process of punching them out you put a load across the bearing. So, am what I seeing here is the bracket the rear motor mount? My front is in good shape, the dog bone was replaced ages ago.

The video was an order of magnitude better than anything else I had seen on the topic, many thanks. I now think I can handle this. Much less troubling than replacing the valve a year ago.

 

What you can do is take the clamp off the inner boot after removing the axle nut and associated parts to get the outer end out then remove the axle, clean the grease from the inner joint still attached to the bearing housing...take the other clamps off and remove the boots and purge the old grease from the outer joint with a small grease gun with cv joint grease in it(large grease needle works best between the bearings and cage) then reinstall outer boot. install inner clamp on the axle and just let it flop there, then inner boot.

Install some boot grease in the inner joint housing and inside the boot, not so much that both are close to full then install the axle partially into the inner joint just enough to be able to get the boot fitted on the inner housing( hanging the axle with a bungee cord works well if you are by yourself but don't put the outer end in the hub yet)

If you have the type of axle with only 3 bearings make sure the boot clamp in sitting on an spot where the rubber is thinnest, you will see what I mean, if the inner housing is round like the one in that picture it doesn't matter where the clamp area is.
When the large clamp is properly installed push the axle into the housing, use a small screwdriver to insert under the small end of the boot to release any air...install the clamp...put the axle in the hub and badaboom.
It sounds like alot but it's the same procedure when you take the whole assy out but less work and way fewer cuss words. Also wipe any grease off the inner joint area if you squeeze any out.
If there is a snap ring on the inner joint you will take that and the bearings off to change that boot.

 

Yes, if you use them once in your life they will do.

These are American made and have lasted around 30 yrs now and have done literally 100's of boot replacements. At this point they were free.

 

I just replaced mine. I purchased aftermarket boots and they are OK. Grease and clamps come with the boots. If the hole is small, clean the area area and use rubber JB weld to plug up the hole.

 

I am still working on my brakes... BUT my next goal will be the axle outer boot. With 56K on the odo, it is hard to imagine the boot is split all the way around. Small amount of grease has spun out. The exact same thing happened to my '95 Camry. I bought that new and took pretty good care of it. Had the dealer replace the axle and boot around 2003 ??
Has anyone tried this split boot approach.. I like the idea of not having to remove a lot of parts in my driveway.
This is the link to youtube I have watched a couple but wonder if anyone has experience with this and comments..
Thanks

 

I would strongly advise against the split boot route....it wont last long.

 

That sounds like the video posted above, and makes a ton of sense. Parts are ordered, waiting on tool from friend... Getting extra rags and some pet pads for under the car....