dfinnegan

I've discovered that my front CV boots are torn.

Should I not drive until I fix it?

MisterRisky

Mine rear ones were torn and I drove it quite a bit before discovering they were torn. (The PPI let me down on this one).

Should you not drive it? I think it's OK to drive. This is particularly true since it's your daily driver, no? But I would replace them soon.

Here's my logic: What's the worst case scenario? In the worst case you get a bunch of dust and grit in there and wear out your front CV joints. What's the price for front CV joints? I'm not sure as I have a C2 and have not priced the front C4 joints. But you are probably looking at $100 each for parts. I am assuming you are going to DIY on these. Add labor if you are not going to DIY. If they go out, they just start to groan and make noise and give you plenty of lead time before they fail catastrophically.

However, having torn boots does not automatically cause your CV joints to fail. It just increases the rate of wear. If you drive on pavement all the time (no gravel/dirt roads) I can't imagine that the rate of wear goes waaay up. So get them fixed, but you are not going to burn up your CV joints driving 500 miles with torn boots in the city.

My caveat, however, is if it gives you so much heartburn to drive that you feel sick then you should stop driving it. If you live down a 3 mile gravel road... hmmm... that might be different, too.

Just my take. I'm looking forward to hearing other perspectives.

Indycam

Why wait ?
You can drive it , but the grease has grit in it and the cv is going south faster than if it had no grit and fresh clean grease .

dfinnegan

I've emailed Sunset and will follow up Monday. They will get replaced as soon as I am able, but wanted to get a pulse on how much driving I could do in the mean time.

I know they were not torn back in March so I potentially have a few months running them torn already.

Gary R.

Dave - the amount you drive that car I would fix them as soon as physically possible.

dfinnegan

That's the plan. Thanks Gary.

I was actually thinking that I would avoid driving all together, but I guess that's not required.

I still have that pesky clicking sound, too. While standing still, even with the car turned off, I can turn the wheel and get a click. Sounds a lot like the click you hear when the turn signal shut-off notch is engaged, but it happens without the turn signal on and appears to be coming from the front wheel area. It's difficult to track as it won't happen when the wheels are off and I can't turn the wheel and get my head in the wheel well at the same time. Arg.

garrett376

Are your plastic inner fender liners intact? I had my right side do that because it was cracked - was hard to see actually! The tire would hit it when turning the wheel sharply. Just a thought, which I'm sure you've already investigated!

Gary R.

If possible, when you have the front axle disconnected for the new boot see if the clicking is still present. That torn boot may be pointing you to the problem... or not!

Indycam

The cvs wear over time , with grit , they wear faster , they will not wear out in a hundred miles or two with a torn boot and grity grease .
When you redo the boots and regrease the cvs , the sound might go away .
I would drive the car until the fix is done .
If you pull apart a cv and its "gone" , the small stress from a few miles with the torn boot and grit isn't what killed it .

dfinnegan

You know, this is an interesting point! My fender lines on the front left are showing about a dime sized spot of wear. I'll have to look into this a bit further.

Thanks, Garrett!