Yea, you're probably looking at 4 hours labor... or at least, that's what they'll quote you.
It's a big repair bill, I know that. Honda charged me $350 to do the CV boots on my old Civic. Do you have a Helm's manual? If the CV joints aren't damaged, you could repack them yourself and install new boots. The hardest part is breaking torque on the axle nut. I had to use a 3 1/2 foot breaker bar to do it. However, now that I have worked on the front suspension so much, I can remove the drive shafts in about 45 minutes. I don't know how long it would take to repack the joints and install new boots as I have never done it, though.<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by 97BB6:
While changing the oil, I noticed that the cv boot closest to the transmission had spun grease around the surrounding area. The boot doesn't seem like it is cracked or loose. I'm going to bring the car in the shop on Monday. Will this be an big repair job ?
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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by VA Ludin:
As far as labor goes it will be about the same to pull of the axle and repack as it will be to replace, or atleast that is what a local shop tells me. Like 71dsp said, that hardest part is breaking loose the axle nut. I ended up using a big ass pipe wrench. It is a fairly easy process to pull out the axle and put a new one in, just be careful not to pull loose the knuckle. I would just spend the 45 bucks it cost to get a new axle and do it yourself.</font>
Pretty-much. The CV joint is covered in grease. The boot keep the dirt out, and the grease in. Grease is either getting out because the band holding the boot is loose, or the boot is cracked. It's usually hard to see the cracks by just looking at it. If you get in there and pull the folds apart you might find it.<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by 97BB6:
What exactly is repacking? Is it refilling the grease?</font>
I just assumed that the boot came off and the joint was exposed, if the band is just loose then you could probably get away with putting a new band on.<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by THATPRELUDEGUY:
If it's just a loose CV clamp why would you need to pull the axle? I mean the guy that did mine jsut stuffed it full of grese and used a new clamp...what else would need to be done? Just curious.</font>