Well, I think I just replaced mine about a year ago and it's broken in half again. How long do they suppose to last? Is there any qualilty difference buying from auto parts stores vs directly from Subie parts dept? This is regarding the front, left inner CV boot.

Something was wrong with quality if that's what happened. It's usually the outer boots - more sollicited by suspension movements and closer to ground obstacles - that go first. When an inner boot goes, it's usually the right side one cause of the heat generated by the cat converter.

I would expect at least 60k miles from a Subaru genuine part. More if you don't do too much city driving, since the joint is turned less. Parallel parking is a big source of stress in this area.

Just replaced with a semi-universal one last night. Hope it will last this winter (if the car doesn't die before then). I cleaned all the old grease out and used semi-synthetic grease on it. Not sure if it does it any good or not, though.

On 97 OBW I had a Right side inner go bad at 110K mi. It is very close to CAT therefore subject to much heat.