Axle boot is broken - need advice

There is an inner boot too. I went ahead and replaced both axles, but I did not catch mine so quickly, actually it was my daughters Maxima, not mine, so I did not hear about it until it was already making the famous clicking noise when turning...

if it just happened then get the CV joint cleaned and re-boot it.

Of course , use a Nissan OEM boot kit, it has everything you need to do the job and do it right.

Most dealers charge about 150 bucks +/- to do the job

YES!! The aftermarket "reman" axels are no where near as good as the original. Don't use a "split boot" either, they are a joke.

The outer is ussually the only one that fails.

Yep.

Please stop reading that manual, it's full of misinformation.

there is no need to replace the axel seal.

Remember, If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I do CV boot/axel jobs all the time, I never recommend to my customer to replace the axle seal "just because it is there" or "just because we are in there" , if it ain't leaking then there is no need to replace it.

This kind of useless upsell is what costs customers more money than needed to do the job.

when I did CV boots on my old 94 Maxima , I did not replace the axel seals. Why, because they were not leaking, I have since sold the car and see it on a regular basis and to this day it is not leaking.

I did the boots on the car when it had about 65k on it , now it has well over 100k , still no leaks

you be the judge

Ok, so I ordered a Nissan boot repair kit from CourtesyParts.com. There are five retaining rings in the kit. Why five? I can only see two that I can possibly replace.

Tonight I was able to get the axle out, and I did not have to remove the passenger side axle first. The nut is 36mm, and it didn't give me any trouble. The tranny seal seems to be in good shape, so I'll leave it for now. Also, there's still enough grease in the boot, so hopefully the joint is still good. I couldn't get the joint off the shaft, though. I'll try again tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for advice!

You might have better luck taking the inner joint off and going at it from that direction. The outer joint isn't hard to get off, you have to pop the inner part of the joint with a hammer just right and it comes off. It's imposible to describe how to do this without showinf you so again, take the inner joint off and go at it from that direction.

Yep, it's about as nasty a job as you can do on a car!