Well, it looks as if my car is f'd.
 

In swapping my rims for the lighter sawblades for a trip down to the track yesterday I noticed that on my driver's side wheel well, I had a load of greenish gunk all over the inside of my rim and near the driveaxle boot and just all over the place. I wiped it clean and due to it's color I just thought it was paint that I ran over since I didnt have it on the passenger side. When I went back to put my rims back on, I still had some gunk there and upon closer look I have a rip in the driveaxle boot. Not good. I'm keeping my stockers on.

Just inspecting the mess in the Haynes it looks like replacing the boots is a big job. Has anyone done this and how much work is it?

No wonder I was cutting 2.4 60 fts. yesterday.

ouch

I've noticed a power loss. Is that from the loss of fluid/grease or is that a sign of a damaged joint?

I heard its better to just change the whole axle.

will you please keep your crap off my sawblades... geez.

best of luck.

I think my mind is jut playing tricks on me or something. My brother and I just took another look at it and my bro, who is very nowledgeable, said that a ripped CV boot is no big deal really. They just go sometimes. He said that is it sometimes recommended to replace the entire axle which isnt that expensive. He also said that the car's performance wouldnt be affected.

The replacement isnt that difficult it's just going to be really messy. I'm going to get a quote from the dealer tomorrow for the heck of it. My bro says it's one of those things where the parts are cheap but the labor sucks because no one likes to do CV boots.

Sadler: I only have a little grease on one, the other three are perfect :D.

Ive ripped 2 cv boots and have snapped 2 axles completly in half trust me im a pro with axles. When my boots tore (left axle went first than right a few months later) I figured that since i race my car and it was actually faster i replaced the whole axle. Take that into consideration on when was the last time the axle has been changed (if ever). Since you are an avid track guy and on the bottle it might not be such a bad idea.

Jon

I'd replace the whole axle andrew.. and I'd get my axle from www.raxles.com and bring it to a shop that does good work at good prices. I dont wanna mess with that big monster nut unless I got air tools. And even if I had an air wrench, I think I'd still go ahead and get the whole axle anyways. Cleaning the gunk out from the joint, repacking with grease, and wondernig if you put in enough grease or if everything's done right, and doing all this in a dimly lit garage or a parking lot with barely enough clearance.. whew sounds like a lot of work.

Changing an axle is an easy 1 hour job.

Driver's side is the easier side too.....2 bolts for the strut, 1 bolt for the control arm, - then pull the brake/rotor assembly off in one big piece (don't unbolt your caliper) and then just pull the axle out (give it a good yank).

Push the new axle into place, replace all bolts, put cotter pins back in, and go for a drive.

Get a new axle and do it yourself and keep the cash you would have spent on labor.

IanS

Wow, forgot about this thread.

Long story short: bought an axle from raxles, put it it, wasnt hard.

The classic maxima overreaction.

I would recommend replacing the whole axle. You can get them for relatively cheap at any Autozone, PepBoys, Advanced Auto (recommended), etc. They are around $70.00 after you get the core charge back.