Pennies Earned Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 I have recently noticed that my passenger side CV boot has cracked and sprayed a bunch of grease in the back of my engine bay. The joint itself is now starting to make a light clicking sound when slowing down. I have taken corners and bumps very cautiously. I may have to take a trip next week that will be about 600 miles round trip. I dont have the money to fix this for a few weeks. My question is how long can I expect to go? Am I damaging more things by continuing to drive it like this? Whats the worst that can happen while driving? '87 GL 4X4 Wagon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjw Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 (edited) It's anybodys guess as to how long it will last. With the boot torn and the grease leaving the joint,it's certainly on it's way out. It could last another 3-4 thousand miles. It could let go the next time you drive your car. It will eventually seperate at the joint and it'l make a bit of a racket until you coast to a stop. But,your done driving until you remedy the situation. There is a recent thread about Duct Taping a boot to get a little more life out of the axle. At the very least,read the thread and follow some advice given there before you go out on a 600 mile drive. Here's the link. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=106059 Edited December 2, 2009 by markjw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 (edited) they will go soooooooo long at stock height. they will dry out, click, bind, pull, make noise, and not break for thousands of miles. the outer joints have a bit more strain on them than the inners (and will hold less grease in them without the boot), so they will fail a bit quicker. but you've still got a long way to go. if you go through a swamp today, though. they'll probably break tomorrow (go ahead.....ask me how I know ). worst case scenario? it breaks. coast to a stop, pop it in 4WD, drive on in RWD. yawn. just know that if it's an outer joint, at full lock the shaft can pop out of the joint and get caught up in your brake lines and such (so....don't try to whip donuts in you're newly RWD wagon until you get the broken half out of there.......again, ask me how I know ). carry a punch and hammer. if it breaks, jack up the car, pop out the spring pin, pull out the shaft/inner joint (you'll have to turn the wheel to full lock to get it loose without disassembling the suspension), drive on. BUT! a new CV boot kit is about $10. 2 of them per axle. You're axle is still well worth saving (assuming it's still a subaru one). spend the $20 now to return your axle to new. or spend $50+ later to have a crappy remanufactured axle that will just fail again in 6 months (lifetime warranty = it will fail often until you get fed up and spend the money on a decent one). Edited December 2, 2009 by Numbchux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akc Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 if you go through a swamp today, though. they'll probably break tomorrow (go ahead.....ask me how I know ). worst case scenario? it breaks. coast to a stop, pop it in 4WD, drive on in RWD. yawn. just know that if it's an outer joint, at full lock the shaft can pop out of the joint and get caught up in your brake lines and such (so....don't try to whip donuts in you're newly RWD wagon until you get the broken half out of there.......again, ask me how I know ). . I just got to hear the story on these ones.....:banana: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 really pretty self-explanatory. my old '85 wagon. torn outer CV boot. joint had been binding a bit for awhile. Went mudding in it one day, lots of nasty, swampy, dirty water splashing up the windshield. next day, I drove into town to the MNSubaru meet, and as I was leaving, the joint snapped. I dropped it in 4WD and continued on. That night I did a brake stand in front of a buddies house, and then we went off to do some donuts. steering wheel full-lock, floored it, horrible sounds and the ebrake on that corner locked up. got out the flashlight, and yea, the axle shaft had caught the cable. pulled the axle out, drove on for about 5k miles after that before I parted out the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 i had a bad experience too driving through sand in south georgia, that destroys an axle terribly fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAugur33 Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 My cousin drove a 87 XT from CA to PA with both front CV boots torn/ripped. And that was after a day on the beach. True story. You can go a long time with torn boots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardtail_pride Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 I had an ingenious idea the other day, To remedy a cracked or worn boot, maybe just get a bicycle inner tube, wrap the axle a bunch, and either zip tie it or tape it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 I had an ingenious idea the other day, To remedy a cracked or worn boot, maybe just get a bicycle inner tube, wrap the axle a bunch, and either zip tie it or tape it. yeah there's all sorts of ways to do it - saran wrap, duct tape, garbage bags, cut tubes, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveAP Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 I've driven far more miles on noisly cv's than on quiet ones. Had subys since '88. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesFox Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 what numbchux said. been there with all of that, including the brake lines (and bent caliper) i got over 10,000 mi on a ripped inner boot in my sedan, this included an off road meet and 2 winter driving seasons. i replaced the axle before it ever broke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLoyale Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Chux, LAMO! "Ask me how I know" that put a smile on my face today and thank you for that I have a small rip in my inner boot, alot of grease came out (And still is) and I've been driving it for 1000miles so far. I might just do the duct tape thing for this winter so no salty water gets int there and starts rust. Good luck you ya! -Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quartus Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 (edited) To remedy a cracked or worn boot, maybe just get a bicycle inner tube, wrap the axle a bunch, and either zip tie it or tape it. Yep that worked for me, put grease in joint, clean boot surface off with alcohol, cut the tube in a nice strip, coat both sides with rtv and loosely wrap cv/doj boot (quite messy), tywrap it in place, let dry. Edited December 3, 2009 by quartus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petersubaru Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 hopefully I can wait long enough for other problems to develope that can be done together when replacing a torn cv boot..in the mean time I will get another boot and cut it, end to end, then clean up the torn boot, add more grease, wrap the new boot with the cut side 180deg from the torn side and use 4-6 plastic tie straps for fastening and then seal the cut side useing black rtv ..good to go after drying..if I here it "click,click" after 1 or 2 yrs then I will deal with it before it breaks..I don't want it to break just when I am trying to get out of the way of a transport truck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zyewdall Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 I put about 10,000 miles on my '89 wagon after the outer boots failed. was clicking pretty loud on turns by the end, but still no clicking going straight. On the other hand, I had the replacement set of non-subaru axles get so bad they were almost undriveable because of the vibrations in 10,000 miles after they were new, even though the boots were still good.... YMMV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 I had a replacement axle go bad after about 100 miles.It was offroaded for most that time though.The vibrations were terrible until the inner joint died.Just poped it in 4wd and off I went- to blow up reverse in a mud hole... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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