DID MY DEALER MESS UP ??? ( PHOTO ) - 2002 LeSabre steering

Go to the dealer parts counter and have them look it up...

I can't get there until Monday. The UV joint looks too clean for 70K miles, no way it would look like that if it was exposed the way it is now.

need some feedback from someone who is familiar with that area. tnx

I just took a look at our 98 LeSabre, and it has the white sleeve AND a black rubber boot, just as you suspected. Not proof positive that your 2002 would be the same, but highly suggestive.

Yeah, you don't want that exposed to road salt or other gunk. Being from out west, I never had to worry about road salt until moving to the mid west. Salt's so corrosive, so I hate driving my 2 year old car in the winter here, but oh well, it's got a 6 year rust warranty and probably won't be worth much anyway after 6 years, so I continue driving it in the winter. I asked the dealer about rustproofing. He said you don't need it, since they already do it at the factory.

I know people who drive 'winter beater' cars, but is that worth it? Seems to me, the added expense of buying, maintaining, and insuring a 2nd car for use as a winter beater would end up costing more than the relative depreciation on your new car by driving it in the winter and exposing it to salt. Plus throw in the fact that you'd be deprived of the satisfaction and safety of driving the newer/nicer car in the winter. Guess it depends on what kind of car you have and what it's worth.

Cars are greatly improved in corrosion protection over those of the 50' to

80's or so. When I got rid of my 15 year old '91 Buick, it had a couple of tiny spots of rust, not visible from 10 feet away. My 2001 LeSabre has no signs of rust. I agree with using the safest car available in bad weather. My new car has ESP and it does work, so I drove that one last winter.

Thanks hls !

I knew that had to be it, no corrosion on the u joint = rubber boot should be there.. I will now look carefully to see if the boot was slid up into the steering tunnel for lube work and not brought back down.

thanks again

"PM" wrote in news:469fe33b$0$8846$ snipped-for-privacy@news.aliant.net:

YEP! THEIR USED TO BE A BOOT BETWEEN THE FIREWALL AND THE STEERING RACK! and yes it did come that way from the factory........after that is said..the 'install lube kit is a couple of year old fix..they have supercedded that with 'hand job for the shaft' which does the same thing and costs nothing in parts..to get to the shaft u joint the boot has to be moved (pain in the ass), so many folks just cut the boot away and are done in 10 mins...........as far as the boot really being needed....who knows. cav., malibu, grand am etc. use the same outer mounted intermeddiate shate joint and dont have outer boots and take about 10 mins to service the popping noise that comes up sooner or later.....i imagine the outer boot is more for noise suppresion than anything else because the joint is a sealed type design..............kjun

Having lived in the northeast my entire life, and having had to put up with upstate NY winters, salt, etc., we've watched how cars have progressed in terms of corrosion resistance. Most vehicles today are good for upwards of

10 years before the salt causes problems. Most people don't keep cars that long, so for those people, rust has become a non-issue. The bigger problem comes in when people don't wash their cars at all. A weekly drive through the car wash in the winter time will do wonders for keeping a car rust free. Pay the extra buck and get the undercarriage spray, and it will be well worth the buck spent. Like you say - it's almost a shame to pay for a nice car and then not drive it. I've never purchased winter rats and I've never retired a car that was rusted out. My 94 Silverado is the first vehicle that I've owned over the years that is rotting out. It spends more of its time sitting in the driveway than going down the road and in the winter it plows a ton of snow. The most of the rust really happened when I quit driving the truck daily.