Posted: 4/2/2005 9:06:13 AM EDT
|
I have a 93 Altima with a broken Cv boot. I can't afford, nore do I want to spend $600-800 to replace it. I was told that it can be dangerous if it locked up from lack of grease. This car is still running good with over 210k miles, but I don't think it's worth the replacement. Can't I just repack it with grease every other month or so? What say you? Thanks |
|
The problem is that if the boot is torn you're getting dirt and water in there. In most autos, if your CV joint fails, your wheel will literally fall off. The CV joint keeps the pressure on the hub and if you loose that, your going to have bigger issues. I personally wouldn't let a loved one drive the car in that condition but driving myself would be a different story. |
|
You can find split boots which work GREAT if you take time to clean the dirt+old grease from the joint, properly repack it with the supplied grease and install the split boot without contaminating the sealing surfaces. You then must apply the glue (a solvent welding procedure) perfectly and get the mating halves to align. This is not as hard as it sounds IF you use masking tape to prevent contamination of the surfaces and work slowly. Use the tape again to assure alignment as the solvent evaporates, letting it cure for 12 hours. After it cures, install the sealing ties and it will be as good as new. CV joints do not fail without warning. If it knocks now, it will not improve with fresh grease. Rebuilt units are available for 200-300 dollars but can caost 150-200 dollars to install. |
| Where in the hell are you getting 6 to 800 bucks from? Buy a REBUILT axleshaft, usually 1 to 200 bucks TOPS and just replace the whole darn thing. Its easier, cheaper, and a lot cleaner then replacing the boot. One big nut and 4 to 6 small ones at the trannie. Go to the local autozone and price them. At 600+ you are getting RIPPED!!! And if they tell you they have to take half the frontend apart to do it, thats a bunch of hooie, Usually all you need to do is go to full lock and most of the ones that you are supposed to take all apart will still fit will a bit of ooomph. At most you just pull the strut off the suspension and it'll go. Way to many frikkin thieves in the auto repair biz. And no, your wheel will not fall off, but you WILL cease all foward movement if it breaks. Forget the split boot, by the time you noticed it, it's contaminated already and not worth the trouble. My sis has 280k+ on her altima and it's still worth spending a coupla hundred bucks on easy. CVs will give you warning signs of clunking, grinding, and clacking when you turn when they are going out. If you can hear ANY noise while turning sharply, they are toast. All they really are is big balls in a cup arrangement, the noise is from the slack between the 2. |
|
That is a ridiculously high price for a cv boot repair or cv axle replacement. It is often cheaper in the end to buy remanufactured cv axles and install them yourself. For our Honda, they are about $60 each and about an hour's work for me to replace. Shouldn't cost much more or be much harder on an Altima. Autozone.com has a lot of manuals freely accessible online if you don't know how to replace the axles. Good luck! |
| How mechanically inclined are you? I had to replace a half shaft (the entire assembly from the transmission out to the CV joint) and from what I can remember it wasn't that expensive for the part (maybe $90.00 IIRC) and it only to 2 or 3 hours from start to finish. That is if you need to replace it. If the boot is torn and the CV joint is not damaged, you can buy a split boot to replace the torn one. A dealer will charge you an arm and a leg to replace the boots because they will use a one piece boot that requires disassembly of the entire wheel assembly. |
Well Duh, the mechanic is going to say you can't do it yourself. Go get a haynes or chilton's manual from Napa or Schuck's or whatever you got there. It will be the best $20 you ever spent. A rebuilt CV axle shouls be less than $100, with a $100+ core charge. The ones for the front of my Chevy pick up were $75 each. Do not just try and tape it up or whatever, because they can lock up without warning, a rock or whatever, who knows, but I did have to tow my sister's car out of the ditch when hers locked up and literally tossed her car into a snowbank. |
| Thats easy money for dealers, and I would not take a radio flyer wagon to sears. They seem to be run by idiots and leftovers from fly by night "tranny repair" places. Heard the same crap with an Audi, expensive, difficult, have to pull the entire suspension off, yada yada, 2 hours later I was done, they are SO full of it when it comes to repairs anymore. As a aside to how bad it is. Did a boss's brakes, quoted 1200 bucks for a 94 ranger. I did it for 300 in parts, [new hubs/rotors, bearings, pads, rear drums, hardware, shoes, bled system, charged him 500 and STILL made 200 bucks for a easy saturday afternoons work. Axleshafts are like struts, a whole lotta money for them with little outlay. I LOVE buying cars with bad struts, replacing them and reselling for a grand more. Most cost less then them 100 bucks, and as long as the upper bearings are good on the front, it's as easy as pulling a few bolts, compressing the springs, and voila, putting it back together. All you have to really have done is an alignment. Shops quote 800+ on that crap also when it really takes them less then 1/2 to an hour each side. Like I said F-in thieves. It should cost you between 300 and 350 to get it done by a decent corner auto repair facility. It's to bad some of them try to play using the "flat rate" from the dealer anymore. Pure BS as most of that is worse case scenerio and a good mechanic can do it in less then half the time to a 1/4 of the time. Thats how a good mechanic can make a lot of extra moolah. |
| Autozone has rebuilt CV shafts (the whole thing) for your car for 59-69 bucks. Go get a couple and either find a shop to do the work or do it yourself. Its not too hard to do. Better yet, get the lowest price from Autozone then take it to Checker and they will beat it by 5%. Save you some money...... |
You obviously have no mechanical experience whatsoever. Stop spewing misinformation. Only thing that will happen when a CV joint completely fails, is that you will be stranded on the side of the road since the axle cannot transmit power to the wheel. Your theory of a wheel flying off the car is completely false. |
|
I just had a half-axel replaced in my Civic. It took the mechanic 22 minutes from when he drove it on the lift to when the wheels hit the ground again. Including the 4 wheel nuts, he removed about 10 nuts or bolts, then used a big flat-head screw driver to pop the old half-axel out. It went back together in a few minutes, and it was done. I will NEVER pay to have someone else do this work again. Were I to replace the same half-axel myself, I'd need a floor jack and a decently tall set of jack stands (which I have), and some basic tools, like screwdrivers and a socket set. Sure, it might take a bit longer without a handy air wrench and lift, but after seeing it done, I could do the same thing in under 40 minutes. -Troy |
I've seen this happen on few different types of autos. They were both 4x4's. |
My parents discovered that theirs needed replacing, after the wheel fell off. Fortunately, it was in an intersection. My sister was making a left turn, and the wheel came off. It didn't go flying. I had both front axles replaced on my first car, for much less than 600 dollars. Don't recall how much it was, but it wasn't nearly that much. This was only about 3-4 years ago. |
|
If its not clicking, it should only be like 20 bucks to get a new boot thrown on it. Buy a set of pliers to clamp the rings supplied with the boot down and your ready to go. On a 92 GMC truck, the hard part is getting around the endlinks for the stabilizer bars. Its a bastard... That being said, I can have the think off, rebooted and swapped in around an hour. Not that hard. Remove tire, hub nut, bolts on the differntial side of the shaft and start working it out. YMMV on a different vehicle, but its a pretty straight forward operation. |
|
www.rockauto.com Part is only about $50. Do it yourself, or find some one to help. Check a Nissan forum. I'm sure some one there could help. Don't pay $500. That's crazy!! If you can figure out how to do it yourself, it's a simple job. Kris |
|
Done many of them. While some definitely are a bitch...you should be able to do it yourself, if you are resonably mechanically inclined. If it is not clicking when you go around corners, you should be okay with a boot replacement. The split boots are the easiest, and will definitely work...but, the "proper" way to do it is to tear it down, clean it, and put new grease in it. If you end up pulling the whole axle, make sure you get it all the way back in, and dont bugger up the seal. good luck...have fun...dont forget to buy GoJo  edited to add: The CV joint has zero to do with holding the wheels on. |