Given that my car is up having the suspension overhauled, I thought I would look at the rear CV joints. The boots are all torn and half missing. I don’t necessarily know that the joints are bad, and don’t know how to check. Is there any magic in replacing them? Specific brand or type? Are they known to fail? Should I replace the whole assembly, or just get new boots and grease them up? If the latter, what do I grease them up with?
Any Magic in CV Joints?
Ranger
#2
IMO CV joints aren’t worth replacing. Just replace the half shafts. Once the new halfshafts are on, put the car back down and confirm that the boots clear the springs and shocks. Our Lemons car had a problem in that respect, probably because we bought cheap ones. If we had kept the car we would have had to unclasp the boots, stretch them out a bit more, and than fasten them back down.
jtower
#3
two of my cv boots were torn so i had them replaced last week. heard too many stories about crappy remans so i kept the known good halfshafts.
turbo329is
#4
I’ve regreased and put new boots on a few sets now. Boots usually come with black grease, c clips and clamps. The last sets I bought from IE. None of the clamps fit so I used zip ties. They also came with a wax for sealing the boots. I think they were meyle and febi. Clean em out with brake cleaner or some kind of solvent. Don’t take them apart completely. Turn the inner joint far enough to remove one ball at a time to inspect it. The outer joint you can’t really inspect. They don’t seam to wear out even when the boots are ripped off for a few years.