CV Boots ’99 Taurus 3.0

[robert]

I just finished watching your videos about CV Boots and Axles, so here’s my story. My serpentine belt shredded yesterday morning on my way to work and got wrapped around my passenger side axle ripping the CV Boot closest to the engine (inner boot?), I was thinking of buying a split boot kit and putting that on, but from your video you say don’t worry about it till you hear clicking. My questions are does that apply regardless of which boot is torn? Also, if I choose to just replace the boot are the split boots cost worthy or should I just get a new axle? This is for a ’99 Ford Taurus 3.0 DOHC with 89000 miles on it.

Topic

[Roy French]

If it was me I’d go with the quick boot. As long as you haven’t driven it far, that cv shaft should still have lots of life left in it. A new cv shaft is pretty cheap these days, but you still have to replace it. That means dropping the transaxle oil and pulling apart your suspension on the one side.
The outer joint works harder than the inner one. The outer joint also is more exposed to stuff thrown from the tires.

[Daniel]

When a boot is torn you want to replace it as soon as possible because the second a bit of dirt or even road dust gets in there it will start to destroy the cv joint. The split boot will be much easier but the new axle will be more reliable. That being said, I would just go with the split boot. It takes a fraction of the time and a fraction of the money. so even if a new axle would last twice as long, your still spending less money to do the boot twice.

[EricTheCarGuy]

I don’t recommend split boots. Inner boot replacement is different than outer boot replacement. This video should help even though it’s on a different car the process is similar.

[Author]

Replies