I drive a 1993 Isuzu Rodeo 4WD with 138K miles. My mechanic told me about a year ago that both front boots were torn and leaking. I knew the left front had been torn for some time prior. He said I needed to replace both sides (not just the boots, but the joints/axels?, sorry not a car guy). He said this took a lot of labor ("$1000 worth of labor") because it was a big job but he would charge $950 for both total cost. Being as this is an old car that I am getting close to unloading and only driving short distances, I haven’t done the repair and have been driving it. Recently, I have begun commuting on the highway for work, 75 mph etc. Is it dangerous to keep driving it with torn boots long-term? There is no clicking or any noise and the ride is smooth. Is that just something I have to worry about when using 4WD? Hardly ever use 4WD anymore.
Also, am I damaging the axels/joints by doing this and digging the truck into a deeper, more costly repair hole? Thanks for any info.
If you are driving in 2wd, you are only using the rear wheels to drive the truck.
What you are doing is not dangerous, especially if you never use 4wd. You are smart to not spend $1000 on this vehicle to fix this problem.
If there’s no noise, I wouldn’t worry about it. The damage to the joints is already done, but since you don’t use 4wd you’re not stressing the joints and wearing them out nearly as fast as you would on a fwd.
I’m having a hard time coming up with any reason that replacing a couple of CV axles is going to run $1000 in labor. I don’t know the specifics of what is involved for this vehicle, but on the face of it, it seems rather nuts.
I hate posts like this because they remind me that my van has been running around with the same torn CV boots for the better part of a couple of years and about 50K miles. I keep waiting for the joints to show some signs - noise…vibration…anything. They never do. So then I just forget about it…until a post like this. Then I start to figure I’ll be one of those uncharacteristic cases where a joint just blows out one day without any warning.
Anyway, imminent doom is not the most likely thing for torn CV boots - especially in your case, as noted, since they’re probably almost never doing any work (unlike mine).
Thank you all for your helpful comments. A strong consensus makes me feel that I am not being an idiot for driving around like this. And now I have no excuse to buy a new car and will keep driving the old truck…oh well.
Since the boots have been torn for a while just drive it until they start knocking while cornering.
I’m in agreement with cigroller about this 1000 dollars worth of labor. (500 per side I assume)
I’ve done halfshafts on just about everything that rolls and I’m having an impossible time figuring out how they came to that amount. That seems way, way high.