Ok, bear with me. So i took my car in to midas to get an oil change and an estimate on getting my manifold bolts replaced. They said couldnt do the manifold bolts, because they need drilled out (i knew that, i have two broken bolts, one on front one on rear) anyways they said that my drive shaft boots were torn, which he showed me and yes they were. He said i needed a whole new drive shaft. But all i could smell was bullsh*t. He proceeded to tell me that the grease was leaking out from the bearings and could eventually stop lubricating them and cause them to break out and then my car wouldnt go forwards or backwards. Which i understand, but my main question to him was why cant i just replace the boots and regrease the bearings? he said and i quote "some people might do that for ya, but yer only gonna get 'ohhh 'bout 6 to 12 months out of the boot which is why ive quoted you here at roughly 400 dollars for the repair". I said why would brand new boots from a new drive shaft be better than new boots for my current drive shaft, then he repeated the past sentence he just rambled off to me earlier. Which i then said no thanks to him and left.

So, finally, can i just replace my boots on the drive shafts or what? and how hard is it to fix, can i do it myself? and of course lastly does internetautomart carry these? Thanks for reading this and if you reply thanks for your help in advance.


Gregg

 

Just replace. If you have to ask, you haven't done it before. It's a big goopy mess. Try it if you like. It's alot cheaper.

 

And buy a service manual. 40% of you guys that post in here NEED one but don't have one.

 

He is partially right, if the CV boot has been damaged for a long time, it may have caused damage to the joint, but you can try to redo the boot yourself if you want. It's not that hard, but like Jeff said, it's very messy. Replacing the entire axle isn't that hard and not as messy. You can get a new axle for $60-80 from Pepboys/part store or $100-130 from raxles.com (nice quality ones).

and I would also recommend a factory service manual, it's a great investment. Keep an eye on ebay for them or call a dealer

 

thanks guys i appreciate your help, i just got a service manual and I will look into getting this done asap on my ride.

 

labor is less on an axle than a boot.

 

the main difference between replacing the boots and the axle is the labor involved..

pair of used axles + two new boots = $60 in parts, 3 hrs labor, and axles that are still worn but holding grease in.

remanufactured axles = new boots, new joints, lifetime warranty, $120 in parts, 1 hour labor.


so is having used axles with no warranty and spending 2 additional hours covered in grease worth $60 to you?
I know which way I'd go.

 

I chickened out and got an independant shop that did ONLY CV joints to replace mine. I would have tried a split boot, but no one sold one. I think it was only like $100 or less more for a reman driveshaft instead of just a boot, and the bearing races were wearing so I just got it changed since he had it out anyway. I think it only cost me like $230 Cdn total, so that wasn't bad with labour included. He even let me bring my Redline MT90 in and change all the oil.

 

ummm, he should have charged you about 1 hour of labor for each axle and roughly $60-70 US for each one. You should have paid closer to $150 US per side..

 

so he got a good deal, parts and labor for $230 cdn

 

You wouldn"t have been happy with a split boot anyway. I have yet to see one that's worth using. Both times I've tried them, they failed after about a month.

 

Well, I'm just going by memory... I think it was around that price with tax, and I think labour costs more up here. At today's exchange rate $230 translates to $178 USD, so that's not too too far off I suppose.

 

just replace the shaft and be done it easier....im doing the ones on my 98 altima this weekend

 

the ones on the alty are CAKE compared to the Max.
exact same design and such, but the bolts on the pass side carried bearing are soo easy to get to. it took me about 30 minutes from start to finish..