Spent Christmas weekend replacing the CV boots on my mother's 2005 VW Passat TDI. The one boot on the passenger side had cracked open, but all four boots had cracking in the bottoms of the pleats.
A few things really slowed me down on the first side. Fortunately, I found one online discussion that said you didn't have to take the control arm off to get the axle shaft out - like every other discussion/video was saying. That saved quite a bit of time. But there were many discussions of how to disassemble the joints, which gave me no love until I found a tap with a drift knocked it right off...
The band clamps were an absolute bear. The big ones were about 3mm too small and trying to hold everything to push the ends together enough for the teeth to engage took entirely too much time - each time.
I was really afraid that I was going to rip the tab off of them before they engaged. The smaller ones were sized perfectly - large enough to engage and then they crimped down perfectly.
A few things really slowed me down on the first side. Fortunately, I found one online discussion that said you didn't have to take the control arm off to get the axle shaft out - like every other discussion/video was saying. That saved quite a bit of time. But there were many discussions of how to disassemble the joints, which gave me no love until I found a tap with a drift knocked it right off...
The band clamps were an absolute bear. The big ones were about 3mm too small and trying to hold everything to push the ends together enough for the teeth to engage took entirely too much time - each time.
I was really afraid that I was going to rip the tab off of them before they engaged. The smaller ones were sized perfectly - large enough to engage and then they crimped down perfectly.
