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Replacing inner CV Boot?

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de8212

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Took my 2013 in for an oil change and they said the front right inner CV boot has a small leak. They are supposed to call me back with an estimate and how severe it is (once they have a guy in the back look at it).

Anyone ever done this repair themselves? Just trying to gauge how difficult of a job it is.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Thanks. Interesting read.


Looks like a false alarm. Dealer just called me and said they got another tech to check it out and someone must have dripped some oil from the oil change onto the boot. He said all is good.
 
#5 ·
I had FIrestone tell me a few weeks ago both of my boots (left and right) were bad on a 2011. I just inspected the right side tonight while doing other work and noticed that some splashed oil from the frame rail (oil change residue) was on the boot but other than that it looked fine. Curriosity got to me so I secured the drivers side and popped off the wheel to look at that boot. Again a bit of oil on the outside but no rips or tears from what I could see. Have them show you the torn boot on the axle. From my experience they hold up fairly well.
 
#6 ·
I actually do have to replace right axle on my 2012, can't seem to find any DIY guides for that. Are there any good guides available? And is consensus to go with OEM? Or are there comparable aftermarket out there?
 
#7 ·
For those reporting actual failures on the CV / boots, I'm very interested to hear exactly what failed and how. Both axles on my '99 with almost 230k miles are still intact, with new grease put in there several years ago.

Velocipedist, regarding instructions, there are tons of tutorials out there. Once you get the axle off, it is a fairly generic procedure. One "trick" to this is that there appears to be a c-clip or similar in-board of the inner CV, so when removing you need to apply pressure while rotating the wheel (both wheels jacked off the ground so they can rotate freely) to allow it to pop free. Brute force as the alternative might cause damage and/or be impossible. Reports of that on here somewhere.

When I replaced my sabotaged outer boot on my 2011, the boot was the only thing I changed. At least partly based on my experience with my '99, I have high regard for these original parts, and would not consider it a good deal to swap my original axle for a $50 lifetime warranted one. But that's also partly because I don't mind doing the boot swap myself once the axle is off.
 
#8 ·
3rd gen Ody's are prone to grease coming out from under the small clamp on the inner boots. Thats absolutely legit and I have seen it on nearly all 100k plus vans. Never seen an Ody with ripped boot yet. Only buy brand new assembly from Honda, they are very reasonably priced.
Alternative is to buy a CV boot kit from Honda and replace the boot, clamps and grease. Its a dirty job which takes time. I have rebuilt more axles than I care to remember, but most Honda ones, I replace as an assembly because of their cost.
 
#9 · (Edited)
maxud said:
3rd gen Ody's are prone to grease coming out from under the small clamp on the inner boots. Thats absolutely legit and I have seen it on nearly all 100k plus vans. Never seen an Ody with ripped boot yet. Only buy brand new assembly from Honda, they are very reasonably priced.
Alternative is to buy a CV boot kit from Honda and replace the boot, clamps and grease. Its a dirty job which takes time. I have rebuilt more axles than I care to remember, but most Honda ones, I replace as an assembly because of their cost.
Click to expand...
If it is just the inner boot small clamp that is leaking, wouldn't just replacing the clamp / fixing the leak solve the problem? Maybe pump in new grease if enough came out before the problem was found???

Good to hear of your experience on no ripped boots. My '99 with 230k is all good, and my '11 with 80+k was great until the dealer sabotage.
 
#10 ·
oldskewel said:
If it is just the inner boot small clamp that is leaking, wouldn't just replacing the clamp / fixing the leak solve the problem? Maybe pump in new grease if enough came out before the problem was found???

Good to hear of your experience on no ripped boots. My '99 with 230k is all good, and my '11 with 80+k was great until the dealer sabotage.
Click to expand...
Here are my POV. I see this issue with almost every Honda. I don't know if the clamp is actually loosening or the rubber boot is dry rotting, drying or shrinking.
Whatever the reason, what you are proposing is what I consider a hack. Not in a bad way, its just something I don't do.
Same thing with a brake job that is just a pad slap. I just don't do that. I don't want the responsibility, nor do I want to redo the job later down the road.
If I work on an axle I will properly rebuild it or replace it. For rebuilding, you need a new boot kit, new grease and new clamps. I break the axle into smallest
assembly pieces, balls, inner outer cage, tripod joint, cup, axle shaft and all C clips, and put alignment marks on everything, including which ball came out of which
slot. Everything gets cleaned until no original grease remains. Metal surfaces are inspected for pitting and wear. Then the axle is reassembled with brand new parts.
I don't replace boots on the car, I don't inject the grease, I don't put split boots.

Another common theme seems to be vibration that comes with age of the car. There were multiple reports that replacing axle assembly actually fixed that, so
for added benefit, I just don't bother rebuilding Honda odyssey axles.
 
#11 ·
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I agree with your POV. :cheers:

For me, I have no problem doing something like this on my own vehicles, knowing I can easily monitor how well the repair is holding. For example, I think I described my attempted hacks on my sabotaged 2011 - one side did not hold so I replaced the boot, but the other side with a smaller cut was sufficiently patched so I saved the effort of a bigger repair. But yes, doing something like this, professionally, on someone else's car would not add value to my brand, so I would not do it, just like you. And that is probably best for your customers, too. Also, it does not cost _you_ more to do the better repair, just your customer. Doing it myself, the cost of the part here is insignificant, but the effort may not be. So we come to different conclusions, while agreeing on the same basic facts.

On the vibration, I swear my 230k (now) hauler is smooth as glass with original axles and even the front strut assemblies. Amazing how well it drives. And considering its value in this perfect state is probably only around $2k, it will probably never be sold.
 
#12 ·
oldskewel said:
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I agree with your POV. :cheers:

For me, I have no problem doing something like this on my own vehicles, knowing I can easily monitor how well the repair is holding. For example, I think I described my attempted hacks on my sabotaged 2011 - one side did not hold so I replaced the boot, but the other side with a smaller cut was sufficiently patched so I saved the effort of a bigger repair. But yes, doing something like this, professionally, on someone else's car would not add value to my brand, so I would not do it, just like you. And that is probably best for your customers, too. Also, it does not cost _you_ more to do the better repair, just your customer. Doing it myself, the cost of the part here is insignificant, but the effort may not be. So we come to different conclusions, while agreeing on the same basic facts.

On the vibration, I swear my 230k (now) hauler is smooth as glass with original axles and even the front strut assemblies. Amazing how well it drives. And considering its value in this perfect state is probably only around $2k, it will probably never be sold.
Click to expand...
You got my point Precisely. Its one thing to do it on your car, where you are your own customer and got no one to blame but yourself.
Any time you put your services out there, you start seeing a bigger picture, and your responsibility level rises to a whole new level.
As John and I describe it, you become married to that problem. If you don't fix it once and fix it right, it will haunt you forever.
 
#13 ·
oldskewel said:
For those reporting actual failures on the CV / boots, I'm very interested to hear exactly what failed and how. Both axles on my '99 with almost 230k miles are still intact, with new grease put in there several years ago.

Velocipedist, regarding instructions, there are tons of tutorials out there. Once you get the axle off, it is a fairly generic procedure. One "trick" to this is that there appears to be a c-clip or similar in-board of the inner CV, so when removing you need to apply pressure while rotating the wheel (both wheels jacked off the ground so they can rotate freely) to allow it to pop free. Brute force as the alternative might cause damage and/or be impossible. Reports of that on here somewhere.

When I replaced my sabotaged outer boot on my 2011, the boot was the only thing I changed. At least partly based on my experience with my '99, I have high regard for these original parts, and would not consider it a good deal to swap my original axle for a $50 lifetime warranted one. But that's also partly because I don't mind doing the boot swap myself once the axle is off.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply. I had road debris puncture a hole in the outer boot causing the grease to leak out and now it's clicking when turning the wheel. I'm not rebuilding it, replacing with an OEM brand new axle. The trick that you're mentioning - thank you for letting me know I will make sure to handle it carefully and not just try to rip it out.
 
#14 ·
Here are some selected threads/posts with details on this. BTW, there may be slight differences between various generations of Odysseys, but they are all mostly similar.

http://www.odyclub.com/forums/24-1999-2004-odyssey/50467-axle-half-shafts.html#post470745

http://www.odyclub.com/forums/24-1999-2004-odyssey/50467-axle-half-shafts-2.html#post1687729

http://www.odyclub.com/forums/24-19...ssey/284714-help-2000-ody-currently-shop-tranny-repair-said-cv-axle-ruined.html

http://www.odyclub.com/forums/52-2005-2010-odyssey/226370-replacement-axle-cv-joints.html

http://www.odyclub.com/forums/52-20...orums/52-2005-2010-odyssey/317074-diy-cv-boot-replacement-axle-replacement.html
 
#16 ·
In principle, all axles are the same. There are variances in design of inner CV joints, some are tripods, some are bolted on (VW/AUDI), but as far as general principle and rebuilding/replacing them, once you do one, you can apply the same principle to 99.9% of the cars out there, including the rear axle shafts on the AWD vehicles.
Before somebody objects, I know wrangler uses U-joints instead of CV joints and we are not talking about solid axles here.

I find it useful at times to look at the parts diagram of the axle parts to familiarize myself with design specifics, but more often than not, I just dive right in.
 
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#20 ·
maxud said:
In principle, all axles are the same. There are variances in design of inner CV joints, some are tripods, some are bolted on (VW/AUDI), but as far as general principle and rebuilding/replacing them, once you do one, you can apply the same principle to 99.9% of the cars out there, including the rear axle shafts on the AWD vehicles.
Before somebody objects, I know wrangler uses U-joints instead of CV joints and we are not talking about solid axles here.

I find it useful at times to look at the parts diagram of the axle parts to familiarize myself with design specifics, but more often than not, I just dive right in.
Click to expand...
Disagree. If all axles in principle are the same then the cheap crap axles out of China would work wonderfully for years. The reality says these offerings may get you down the road temporarily but the overall quality is significantly less than real Honda OEM axles. Way too many examples of inferior performance to say otherwise.
 
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