Aftermarket (inner/driverside) Tacoma CV Boots- reliability?

Had a 3" lift kit put on my 2002 Toyota Tacoma 4x4, and unfortunately the guy who put it on did a good job of tearing the inner driverside CV boot while installing the strut. I was not pleased to see axel grease sprayed underneathe after the first drive thereafter. I inspected closer and found that, indeed, there was about a half inch tear where the metal clamp was.

Of course this needs to be taken care of. I realise the risks that are happening and I'm driving very little on it as to not run the risk of letting any water or dirt in. Thankfully I live in a dry area so there has been no rain, and I've only done basic street driving since then.

I've been getting a lot of riff raff from the shops around here. Some won't even touch it unless you go ahead and have them buy and install the entire axel for you. Their logic here is that it would be easier to work on and for the extra $80 you'd just have a new axel. I keep telling them that I'm not interested in paying for parts that are not broken. That being said, the shops are quoting a then 1 1/2 hour job to 2 hours just to put the rubber boot on.

I went to Auto Zone to find out how much buying the boot would be myself, since I'd need to do this instead of getting bent over by a shop to do it regardless.

The boots they have are peculiar though. Unlike the stock boots, they actually have a split down the middle of them. The guy told me you can then just cut off the old/torn boot, and wrap this around the joint/ shaft and then it is fastened by a serious of small lockers and other fasteners, and it even gives you grease so you can put the grease in somehow as well (not clear on that step).

I asked him the long term reliablity of something like this would be, and he said there shouldn't be an issue. Like that, some miracle method that doesn't require you to mess with the axel or any of the CV body?

Anyone know the story behind these? It almost sounds too good to be true considering the horror stories all the mechanics were feeding me Apparently they must work because it's the only kind they sell amongst all the models of cars. Thanks for any input.

Reply to
Shinnokxz
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To add, the truck has 70k on it. I'm not willing to dish the extra flavor to replace parts that are rated 150,000+ miles and onward

Reply to
Shinnokxz

Still looking for input... (bump in a gravity-less world)

Reply to
Shinnokxz

Do you mean the outter cv boot ? It would be hard to tear the inner boot installing the strut. Anyhow, are you sure the lift is not the reason for the torn boot. If you don't have locking hubs up front the cv joints are spinning all the time, that combined with the steeper cv joint angle from the lift will cause accelerated cv boot wear. There used to be a few companies that made high angle cv boots for this reason but I think they may be no longer available.

I was not pleased to see axel

Don't use the split boots, they are junk. Get a replacement boot from Toyota if you are going to do it yourself.

The guy told me you can

Reply to
Mike

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