Cv-boots
- Thread starter Brad Rumph
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
This is good help.
I came here on an issue from Clublexus and you guys are a great help with weenies like me, who's not off road and not very mechanical. Just mechanical enough to get myself into trouble usually. I have a general idea and know how stuff works, but have no garage space or time to do alot of my own work.
I have a regular mechanic that works on all my cars and is what I feel is honest with me. I have gone and got second opinions on certain things, and they all have been true. You understand, when your like me. I just have to make sure I can really trust someone.
Anyway, I got under my LX today and looke. The inner boot on the passenger side is leaking on the outside clamp. The boot looks fine, no cracks or tears. The CV joint is not making any noise. When I was a kid I had a Subaru. If you ever owned one, you will know what a cv joint sounds like. My LX has 100,260 miles on it. I expect some things to break. If you don't then your living in a vaccum.
Any way thanks. Any more advice or help is greatly appreciated!
Darren Stiff
auteeth@yahoo.com
I came here on an issue from Clublexus and you guys are a great help with weenies like me, who's not off road and not very mechanical. Just mechanical enough to get myself into trouble usually. I have a general idea and know how stuff works, but have no garage space or time to do alot of my own work.
I have a regular mechanic that works on all my cars and is what I feel is honest with me. I have gone and got second opinions on certain things, and they all have been true. You understand, when your like me. I just have to make sure I can really trust someone.
Anyway, I got under my LX today and looke. The inner boot on the passenger side is leaking on the outside clamp. The boot looks fine, no cracks or tears. The CV joint is not making any noise. When I was a kid I had a Subaru. If you ever owned one, you will know what a cv joint sounds like. My LX has 100,260 miles on it. I expect some things to break. If you don't then your living in a vaccum.
Any way thanks. Any more advice or help is greatly appreciated!
Darren Stiff
auteeth@yahoo.com
I used a small hose clamp for a while when mine leaked, it worked well until I found the time to repair it.
Welcome from New Mexico! Lots of good info on this site & You’ll enjoy it here.
DMX
DMX
Jim_Chow
V8_Fan
I have the first signs of seepage at 57.5K mi. I was thinking it was from raising the AHC to high/low, etc. Tech said the clamp should be tight enough that the end of the boot doesn't slide on the shaft. Told me the factory ones are preset in tension and tend to be looser than what you can achieve w/ the OEM reboot kit. Anyways, if you're getting some seepage, which is expected after 60K mi, just monitor it. If it gets bad, then have it rebooted.
I'd fix the leaks asap. CV Joints are definitely something where "an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure". Loss of grease and contamination are factors in early failure.
My inner boots leaked at ~60k, due to OEM clamps not tight enough (or boot material shrinkage/compression over time). I fixed the problem as soon as I noticed it, and it is still leak-free now at 104k. There was no need to add grease because I fixed the leaks quickly, before losing much grease.
If your boots are still in good condition, replacing the OEM clamps with new OEM-type clamps is fairly simple & cheap. I used stainless BAND-IT clamps and special tool made by KD Tools (#3191). Total cost about $30 for 2 clamp replacements ($5 each for clamps, $20 for tool).
You can tighten the BAND-IT clamps as needed to achieve a nice leak-free result. (No rebooting required if boots are OK.)
My inner boots leaked at ~60k, due to OEM clamps not tight enough (or boot material shrinkage/compression over time). I fixed the problem as soon as I noticed it, and it is still leak-free now at 104k. There was no need to add grease because I fixed the leaks quickly, before losing much grease.
If your boots are still in good condition, replacing the OEM clamps with new OEM-type clamps is fairly simple & cheap. I used stainless BAND-IT clamps and special tool made by KD Tools (#3191). Total cost about $30 for 2 clamp replacements ($5 each for clamps, $20 for tool).
You can tighten the BAND-IT clamps as needed to achieve a nice leak-free result. (No rebooting required if boots are OK.)
Last edited:
Jim_Chow
V8_Fan
Here's a link depicting the installation:
http://www.band-it-idex.com/pdfs/tools/P91787.pdf
What size of band did you use? The double loop or do they come in one length only and you manually loop it twice? It sounds like the band slides into the slot on the mandrel and the band coils up on that mandrel like opening a can of spam? Do you get it as tight as you can or reasonably tight?
http://www.band-it-idex.com/pdfs/tools/P91787.pdf
What size of band did you use? The double loop or do they come in one length only and you manually loop it twice? It sounds like the band slides into the slot on the mandrel and the band coils up on that mandrel like opening a can of spam? Do you get it as tight as you can or reasonably tight?
I measured the diameter of the leaky boot clamp area and width of original clamp, then selected the suitable size clamp (slightly larger than the target diameter and ~same width as original clamp). Clamp was double loop, pre-looped. You un-loop it, then re-double-loop it around the boot clamp area, threading back through the clamp "buckle". Your description of tool operation is correct. How tight? "Just-so" (If you tightened as much as you could with the tool, it would be overtight and probably cut through the CV boot.)
By the way, that linked BAND-IT instruction is not exactly correct - unless you want to leave the long "tail" in place. I cut my "tail" short and folded back over the "buckle", just like the original.
Jim_Chow
V8_Fan
So who carries these band-it bands? I can find the band tools all over the web, but not the bands.
I bought the clamps and the tool at a local (independent) auto parts store.
I just called around & asked for CV boot type clamps - they knew what I needed.
There's probably other brands besides BAND-IT that are similar. (The BAND-IT looks almost identical to the OEM clamp, but patent law allows very similar products with slight differences.)
I just called around & asked for CV boot type clamps - they knew what I needed.
There's probably other brands besides BAND-IT that are similar. (The BAND-IT looks almost identical to the OEM clamp, but patent law allows very similar products with slight differences.)
