CMS4

I STFA and found a lot of information on torn CV boots. But has anyone actually had a CV joint failure (resulting from the torn boot)? Seems like people probably drive hundreds or thousands of miles with torn boots and don't even know it until the next oil change...unless you sleep under your car!

How many hours labor is it to replace the CV joints/boots. You have to take off the joint to get the boot replaced...correct? How do you know to replace only the boot versus the CV joint?

Thanks!

übertek

it not only blew my left outer joint apart, it took the lower control arms with it and damaged the inner joint. They said it will take about 3 hours of total labor to replace everything. Hope this helps.

Uber Wagon 2.0

I caught it right away, luckily. They pulled the whole shaft to do it, so I would imagine labor to replace the joint / shaft would be the same as replacing the boot. Yes, they did have to take teh joint off to put the boot on.

They mentioned that it was $500-$600 if the joint was bad vs $30 for the replacement boot.

If you hear a clicking sound (usually when turning if it's the front outer) from the joint, it is going bad.

In a previous car (dodge) that had a cv joint failure, they had to replace the entire half shaft, not just the joint itself.

S4_Cinci (I S'edTFA)

grease and has dirt, water, and other crap in there) then it may have to be replaced. If you have not put more than several hundred miles on it and can still see some grease on the joint or inside the boot you are likely OK. Once they dry out they start to bind and make noise and by this point they are cooked. If they shop wants to replace the joint before inspecting it, they are likely padding the bill. If they replace the joint, ask for the old parts and you should be able to see rusted and/or scarred ***** and the race. I just had the two outer ones done on my B5 Passat (similar to FWD A6) and it was $360 for parts and labor - and that was on the high side, but these guys are good so I willingly paid extra $ to insure a good job. Anything higher than that is getting screwed - and if only one is torn, just go ahead and do both sides, The other side will likely fail shortly unless it was due to some accident or road hazard collision. Over 70k miles, just replace both at same time, IMO.

LaserAvantS4

my cv joint is start to go bad after 2 blown boots, now i'm repalcing the whole axle instead

gk1

Driver's side outer boot went. I decided to just replace the entire axle from RAXLES.COM. Marty was a pleasure to deal with.

I then inspected the passenger's side , and the outer boot was showing signs of fatigue (cracks in the rubber along the folds). I opted to just replace the boot on that side.

If you have the right tools, it's a few our job each side. (Rust bolts are a pain) It's a very messy job. IMHO replacing the whole axle was undoubtedly easier than just replacing the boot, but neither option was exceptionally difficult.

New Audi axle is something like $500, new outer CV joint is sometihng like $175 from an online retailer. Raxles was $200 for the whole axle shipped with brand new CV joints. The boot was something like $25 with clamps, grease, clip, and new hub bolt. Labor charges would have been about the same for either I think it's quoted as about a $300 job for the boot replacement at the stealership.

Uber Wagon 2.0

It was worth it to have it done.

I had a seized bolt at the upper balljoints, and it was a nasty messy job.

gk1

Either a poor design, or lack of antisieze on that bolt. Took a 7-ton gear puller, and a 6lb sledge to get it out.

On a side note if you remove the whole axle, you don't have to take that bolt out.