Did my CV boot blowup?

[GeddyLee]

While doing my brake rotor install, I noticed on the driver's side, something that looked like a heap of grease on the engine cradle and several other spots around the CV boot nearest the tranny. When I swiped up a sample I discovered this.



Checking around the boot I also found this other collection of similar grease type substance.











The boot itself appears still intact, and the substance in the first picture was full of rocks and salts from the winter time which leads me to believe that if this did happen, it happened a while back. But I have not noticed any differences in the way the car drives and I have not heard any noises to would lead me to think there was a problem other than for the grease I discovered.

I guess my next question is...........What are my options at this point? I am guessing it would be wish to pull it and check the boot and regrease the CV boot?

Any other opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[s1795so2]

That looks like a seal that busted on the cv boot to me but I aint no expert either. I know the grease looks a lot like the kind that brian (reptile) used in his cv joint rebuild thread.

[SyntheticShield]

Ummm yep, that is the sign of a boot seal gone bad. Ive been through it on the passenger side, inside boot.

I am not much of an expert in this either, but at a minimum I would pull that axle out, clean that inner joint hospital clean, repack with grease, then use a zip tie, the heavy duty kind that are a little wider than normal, to clamp it back down. If everything works out with the zip tie on there then you can look at getting one of the metal clamps. Though I have heard of and seen people use zip ties on the boots in a more permanent way.

[archemedes]

that is a boot seal failure, and what you now have is a dry joint which is never good, usually when I see that I put new ones in as failure is coming

[SyntheticShield]

Well not to second guess you bud, but when my inner one went bad, it was at least three weeks if not more before I could get the boot replaced. I ordered a boot kit from ZZP and then it took me a while to get to the shop on a day they were open. But I got to watch them do the work and there was still a lot of grease in the joint. They cleaned it all out, installed the new boot, repacked it and re-installed. Drove on that a couple years before both got replaced last year due to a vibration.

[Sabrewings]

The dealer fixed an issue like that under warranty for me. Passenger side inner joint. Ended up starting to go bad a year later anyway, so both were replaced with A1Cardone axles (which still look new over a year later).

[archemedes]

Well not to second guess you bud, but when my inner one went bad, it was at least three weeks if not more before I could get the boot replaced. I ordered a boot kit from ZZP and then it took me a while to get to the shop on a day they were open. But I got to watch them do the work and there was still a lot of grease in the joint. They cleaned it all out, installed the new boot, repacked it and re-installed. Drove on that a couple years before both got replaced last year due to a vibration.

that is just a rarity, I have had 1 or 2 that still had grease out of about 200 I have worked on (and I did them back when you actually replaced the joint not the shaft, that was a pain)

[Iron Indian]

I'd replace the whole joint if I were you. Especially if you don't know how long its been leaking. Once those bearing are exposed to any water/dirt, the bearings life will be shortened a bit.

[Zef_66]

I would say you have a leaking boot. I recommend to just replace the entire driveshaft. I would get a used one from Ed Morad. I have never had any problems with his axles.

[archemedes]

I asked a couple guys from the local dealership to confirm my memory, and they agree that you should rarely if ever have an inner joint failure on a car that isn't lowered, the outer ones take the most abuse, but the inner ones do tend to blow out grease for some reason

[GeddyLee]

I asked a couple guys from the local dealership to confirm my memory, and they agree that you should rarely if ever have an inner joint failure on a car that isn't lowered, the outer ones take the most abuse, but the inner ones do tend to blow out grease for some reason

Well my car is not lowered, so I guess its a freak incident? I guess its another thing I have to add to my list of needs.

[Sabrewings]

I asked a couple guys from the local dealership to confirm my memory, and they agree that you should rarely if ever have an inner joint failure on a car that isn't lowered, the outer ones take the most abuse, but the inner ones do tend to blow out grease for some reason

Tell that to my car. After it blew grease, the dealer fixed the boot. Like 10k miles later (just over 42k miles) I had harsh vibration while accelerating with the wheels even slightly turned. Plus vibration at 60-70mph. I ended up replacing a hub, both front rotors/pads, tires, balanced, rebalanced, tie rod ends and it finally went completely away when I replaced the axles.

Opened up the passenger side axle and the inner joint was all chewed up. Outer joint was fine.

[archemedes]

that is from the loss of grease (the inner ones seem to do that fairly often, but don't fail if they never did lose grease)

[GeddyLee]

that is from the loss of grease (the inner ones seem to do that fairly often, but don't fail if they never did lose grease)

Are you saying the vibration is caused by the loss of the grease from CV joint? Hummmmm that might explain my problem I am having then with the vibration that I thought was coming from my Wheels???

[GR8racingfool]

ewww........

Where have your fingers been man?~~!?

WAIT! Don't answer that!

But yes, thats CV boot grease seeping out, or, you might have a small tear or hole in it and its throwing it out.

It doesn't look bad yet, I've seen worse, but its something you might want to fix sometime soon.

~F~

[GeddyLee]

Well I figure if I am gonna hafta replace one? I might as well replace both sides, that way they are both new. I have several options I am looking at. I wanted to get input on them before I make any choices. It wont be until Mayb when the Government Cheese checks are shipped out, so I have to be a bit careful on how much driving I do between now and then.

ZPP has these stage II jobs that seems pretty good.

ZZ Performance

And then there are the bullet proof half shafts from South Florida Pulley HQ. But they are a bit on the expensive side and I dont really see my car going over 500hp

South Florida Pulley Headquarters - Your source for supercharged performance products!

Others have mentioned the Cardone half shafts, I am not to fimilar with them so if anyone would like to shed some light on them? That would be greatly appreciated!

Here is a picture to their half shafts from Rock Auto. They are looking at $51.79 per half shaft.

Manufacturer Info

They also had the GSP half shaft for $60.79 per half shaft. The picture is interesting, but I truly dont know anything about this brand.

Manufacturer Info

And lastly the WBody Store's half shafts. They are wanting $99 per half shaft.

Halfshafts (HD & Non-HD transmission)

I should state that I am wanting a reliable half shaft for BOTH sides of the car. My car will be lowered using my SSC Gen II lowering springs, which maybe will drop it about an 1" to an 1 1/4" so I want a half shaft that will accomidate that need as well.


All the input so far has been most helpful!! Thank you again

[Sabrewings]

I have Cardone's in my car right now. I'm not making as much power as an L67 yet, but they have done well in the 10k miles (little over a year) I've had them. Very smooth, no issues. Taken several long trips. Even a few hard launches.

That's really all I can offer is that they "work". No leaking. Even still look new. I couldn't find anything bad about them, and the price was right.

[webracin]

Hey James,

I'm with Farns on this. It looks like your boot is leaking around the band seal. This has happened on MANY Grand Prix's. It takes about an hour to change one out, but trust me, this one is no where near a bad one. When I replaced mine, I had the green grease piled up so high on the cradle under the shaft, that the shaft was spinning in it. I would say to get it replaced before BGPM if you just noticed it. Sheryl drove hers like that thru the fall and winter. I just got it replaced a month ago when I did her brakes, not because of failure, just because it needed to be done and I was right there.

I have been running the Cardone NEW CV shafts for about 4 years with no problems. They have a lifetime guarantee and I have yet to replace one. My view is it only takes an hour so if I break one it cost nothing, or I can pay for a "bullet proof" one and pay 2 to 3 times as much and get a 90 day guarantee, but thats just me.

FYI...they usually dont stock the NEW units, only the remans, so if you want to get the new ones, you will need to call and order it. Usually takes a couple of days to get it in.

If you need some instructions on replacement and some good info check out here.....

CV Shaft Replacement

webracin

[Sabrewings]

FYI...they usually dont stock the NEW units, only the remans, so if you want to get the new ones, you will need to call and order it. Usually takes a couple of days to get it in.

When I ordered mine from RockAuto the listing said "New, not remanufactured" and the boxes said the same as well. I paid about $120 for both including shipping and they arrived a couple days later.

[GeddyLee]

Yeah I just spoke to Chris tonight on the phone. And I am going to get both new half shafts from Rock for the CarDone1's. I figured it is best to replace both of them, that way I dont have to worry about the other one maybe going out.