So last night I took my left front wheel off so I could get back at the control arms and figure out what needed to be replaced and during my inspection I found my CV boot behing the brake has a tear in it and its pretty big. The tear looks clean, and there is still grease in it. I filled it up with more grease so it should be alright until I can get it looked at. My question is, I found a new boot replacement for $12 and a new boot/bearing kit for about 110. Should I bring it in and try to have mechanic replace the boot or should I just have him replace the whole joint?

 

if the joint is not making any noise (clicking usually) then there's a good chance that replacing all the grease and the boot will be sufficient.

 

If you caught it quick enough, and your not driving it anymore in the meantime you should be able to just get away with the boot kit

 

They key is if you caught it early enough. If you got some dirt in there and then just replace the boot, you are just trapping the dirt inside the joint and it will go bad anyway. Hopefully its pretty clean and you can save a few bucks and just replace the boot. If it looks dirty at all, I would probably just suck it up and replace the whole thing. Judgement call.

 

Its all about early detection for sure... Although, I have been driving for over 2 years/24k miles on cv boots that are split in half on my 96 maxima and no noises or signs of wear.. For some reason I doubt you could get away with that on an audi.

 

onepoint, if you have known about ripped boots for two years, why have you neglected to replace them? Are you just waiting for the clicking to start?

 

Ya im waiting for the clicking to start. Even though they are torn, they seem to still hold grease and not allow much road debris inside.