Last week I made arrangements to have the outer c.v. boots replaced on my Toyota. A local shop quoted me a price to replace the outer boots.
Today, I brought the car in. Half hour into the job, owner comes out and says that the inner boots have to be removed to get the outer boots on, at additional cost (more parts and labor).
Should he not have known this when writing up the estimate? I was asked to pay for .5 hour’s labor after telling him to put the car back together… I called two Toyota dealers and without even seeing the car, they knew that r/r of the outer boots without taking out the inner would not be do-able. Was the independent shop right to charge me? I feel I paid for their education.
A competent shop should/would have known. Most if not all rely on an on-line service or even old school of printed material to get an estimate of hours to do the job.
I don’t bother with replacing CV boots. I replace the half shaft assembly.
By the time you remove the shaft assembly, disassemble it, clean the CV joint, grease the joint, install the boot, and reinstall the half shaft, you’ll probably pay more in labor than if a remanufactured half shaft were just installed.
Also, there’s no guarantee that the original CV joint wasn’t damaged while it was exposed to the elements. That’s not usually found out until 2-3 weeks after the new boot was installed, and the CV joint starts clicking while cornering.
You then you end up installing a remanufactured half shaft.
Yes, he absolutely should have known. I would not use that shop again.
As tester said, the half shaft (axle) needs to be pulled to replace the boot anyway. It makes more sense to change the half-shaft.
This by now is a no-brainer! Our Nissan Sentra had both shafts completely changed at 150,000 miles or so. Use quality parts and drive on worry-free for another 100,000 miles!
Since labor is a major component, replacing the entire assembly males the most sense!