The boot covering the axle

My repair shop says that the boot covering my axle has a small leak in it – and that soon it should be replaced. I don’t see any oil leaking on my garage floor – should I be concerned?



I have an I30 Infiniti, year 2000 with 98,000 miles on it.

There is no oil in there, just grease. And it’s not the grease leaking out that is a concern, rather the dirt and water getting in.

The CV joint grease will slowly be spun out of the torn cover, but it will not accumulate on your garage floor. After the grease is gone the CV joint will start to make noise, and then it will have to be replaced.

The implied message being–If you replace the boot now, you may be able to avoid replacing the much more expensive CV joint.

However, since the boot may have been punctured for some time, it is possible that damage had already been done to the CV joint. But, since you can’t really tell how long the boot has been compromised, I would recommend replacing the boot NOW in the hope that you can avoid the much more expensive repair.

sometimes the cost of replacing a half axle (with new cv already on there) is nto much more expensive then replacing the boot, especially if they have to remove the axle to replace the boot. So, ask for the difference in cost between two, in the long run it may be less expensive to replace the half axle now, especially if dirt has already gotten in there

You should not be concerned or cheap. You fix a car like that.

Its one of those thing where you pay for example $200 for the boot replacement or $600 for the axle replacement when the CV joint fails which happens very quickly after a torn boot is discovered.