CV joint/boot
 

I took my '01 E320 4-Matic wagon to my indy to check for a leak around the fuel pump. While do an overall check of the car they indicated that my rt frt CV joint boot was looking so-so, but not broken open. Here is the scary part. My shop is as trustwothy as the Pope. The owner has a new policy of replacing the entire axel assembly anytime a boot fails. His reason is that the CVJ has too be completely disassembled for the new boot installation. The disassembly jeopardizes the integrity of the joint causing some to fail prematurely and he has to eat the job. I declined the work. Anyone out there have any info for future use? Dennis

Your 'pope' needs a refresher course on CV's.

What is the content of the refresher course? I'll sit in on the class. :D Dennis

I've not done boots on a 4matic, only axles. BUT-they were noisy before I saw the car. you have noise, you get axles. no noise and FRESHLY torn or damp boots, you get boots. these cars I see a lot. you're new and I don't know how long the boots are this way or they are torn with no grease and no noise, we're gonna have a long talk about prospects. you get boots and have noise later, you're getting axles and not no charge. never had a cv make noise after a reboot. i'm also lucky to have a competent axle builder here in town. sounds like a cya policy with flawed language. get a 2nd opinion from a shop who can see this. I can't see the car, the light here sucks. good luck, chuck.

as porkface said.

a CV can be rebooted if its not making noise. If its making noise you need a new CV.

make sure the reboot process also includes good CVJ grease like the tinfoil GKN packet.

All of this has taken place while I was not able to actually see the suspect boot. This boot was replaced about three years ago and has about 3k miles or less since the factory boot was replaced. Total miles on car is 137K. There was no tear in the boot. The shop readjusted the boot on the axel so that it had a little more room too expand during turning movements. They did not hear any unwanted sounds. Sometime later in this week I'll get under the car and visually check things out. Thanks for any details. Dennis