I am getting my 96 volvo either up to snuff, or going to junk her. Engine and drive train are mostly sound, but enough peripherals are a problem that the expense might be greater than car value. I do not want the car's life to end here--it's been a great, great vechile, lo these 150k miles.

While changing the brakes and rotors the other day i saw the horrible gaping open wound that is the ruined CV boot. Rather than try to clean it, i am going to replace either joint and boot, or axles with joint and boot. There is no indication taht the joint is bad, no popping or etc. I just want it done right if I am going to do it.

I found axle on the net for a total of $214.00 taht include the CV joint, rubber boot, and axle. This is a new item.

http://www.car-stuff.com/carparts/volvo85019931997firstequipmentqualityw0133-16085511.html

Do you guys think this is a good way to repair this, rather than simply replaing the joint? I am not affiliated in any way with the above merchant, just want to know if this is a good idea.

I just did the boot job on the passenger side of our 855 turbo. The worst part was the circlip, took about 45 minutes to get the bugger out, using two screwdrivers and a vise to hold it (two person job - one for opening the circlip, one to knock the piece apart). The kit was something like $10 and I bought a 36mm socket for $9. WE used air tools, which I highly recommend.

Total time was 3 hrs for two people. If you can get the circlip out quickly and if you don't have the staked driveaxle nut, the job would be quicker. We'll see how it holds up. Doing the axle is probably an hour job, maybe more if you have difficulty breaking away nuts and bolts.

~matt

I put a raxle axle in 10k ago and it works great.
It was about 150 bucks. They give you plastic gloves etc to pull the old one out. I would use them again.
One side is hard to pull and get out, one is not. Mine was the easy side. Took an hour and half the first time. Did a friend's car next time in about 50 mins. Don't quote me and ask around first,but I think I did the passenger side axle.
z

I replaced both my outer boots without taking the axles off the car. It's a little hard on you back but if you're handy and don't run into any difficult problems it could save you a hundred or so.

Heck, it is too easy and "cheap" (relative term) to replace the axles. I would voice a third opinion of "don't try to rebuild the joint". I got my car with a replacement boot - lasted 35K miles. Besides, you don't know what got in there. You can bet something did.

I used FCP for my replacements. All I can say is they worked fine. One pulled apart before I got it in, but that may have been my fault. They replaced it NQA.

Klaus is right - if it isn't making noises, it will last some time yet. I drove mine for 30K with an open boot before the joint failed. You can be sure that it will, though :)

Don

$214 sounds steep to me. I can get "rebuilt" OEM axles at O'Reilly Auto Parts for around $60.00 each. You can buy brand new Chinese knockoffs at FCP Groton for not a lot more than that but I have heard of iffy results from them.

The one place that seems to get universal praise is www.Raxles.com but I notice that you cannot price nor order online from their site. I think they are around $150.00/side.

Given that you have likely lost a fair amount of grease and that it takes 3 times as long to replace the boot than it does to just replace the axle I would be inclined to replace the axle. Particularly since you really can't tell how much other road grit has made its way into the CV bearing through the split boot.

...Lee

Shop around some more. Even the dealer may be cheaper than that.

You are correct, it is easier to replace the entire axle than repair the boot. Replacement boots tend to fall off after a few thousand miles anyway.

So long as there is no noise, keep on driving with the torn boot. It takes a while to get bad.

Klaus
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I still miss my 164