My girlfriend was driving the 87 300d we picked up to work. Got home a little bit ago and complains it clunks. I took it out for a ride and it lurched into drive and that was enough for me to throw it on stands. Man handled the driver side axle and moved the whole side of the diff around and discovered a ripped boot with exposed axle guts. Found diff mounts too bad.

So now shes back to driving my 99 while I find a used good axle. They're 350$ new. So used it is with a new boot.

Moral of the story.. check your boots! This all would have been avoided if P.O. maintained the boots the CV axles would last forever.

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Only diesels in this driveway.
2005 E320 CDI 243k Black/Black
2008 Chevy 3500HD Duramax 340k
2004 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 220k

My car (recently) clunks too but the boots are not torn.
I will have it on stands Monday and try get a closer look at the boots.
If they are not torn or severely cracked, what could it be?

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1998 Ford Escort ZX2 5 speed - 279,000 miles My Daily

1992 Mercedes 300D 2.5 202,000 - Pure junk
2000 Mercedes E320 Black - 136,000 miles - Needs repair

Don't forget to grease the screw and threads on the spring compressor.

Check the axles and man handle them and see how much in and out slop there is. They won't be perfectly right but they shouldn't be sloppy. It depends where the noise is coming from. The noise could be your flex discs, center support, beating. Most likely the diff mounts if of its the rear end. Check all those and report back

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Only diesels in this driveway.
2005 E320 CDI 243k Black/Black
2008 Chevy 3500HD Duramax 340k
2004 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 220k

I have a leaky boot on my gas to diesel conversion car. I'm going to try and get some oil in there and strap the boot closed with a new clamp. I hope that last until I get in the mood to take the axles off, check them then decide if I need to change the axles or the boots.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic