So I was under my car today and noticed grease all over my down pipe. I look over and the inner CV boot is torn. Does anyone know how hard it is to change the boot? I feel confident I can get the axle out but just a little worried about changing the boot itself. I will be working on this during th day and will have no other car to take me to the dealer or somewhere that can change the boot. Anyone on here want to lend a hand? I have all the tools to do it with. Thanks, Eddie
if it's the inner joint, it should be a DOJ. If I were you and you can get a remanufactured axle for your car, I would do that. not sure if the 08s are the same as the previous years with regards to the axle if not, the boot is like $15-20. comes with the boot, bands and grease. you will need a set of snap ring pliers, but disassembling the joint itself it fairly easy. I did my rear one in about 30 minutes.
everything i have read, suggests its much easier to just swap out the whole axle. they are like <$70 at advance with a lifetime warranty.
Maybe for a WRX but no one local has a reman for a Legacy GT. I might try and order a reman from Subaru depending on how much they are. If not, I will be calling Raxles tomorrow.
FWIW, I had the exact same problem on my 03. I'd always wanted to learn, so figured I'd give it a shot. It's... a pain in the ass, but if you're mechincaly inclined it's certainly do-able. What everyone else says above is true though, it's less work to swap the axle. Should you feel daring, feel free to keep reading. (Standard disclaimers apply, if you & break it or hurt yourself, look in the mirror for the culprit). I went the all Subaru route, which ended up being close to $60 for the boot, grease, and the 2 boot clips. (Anyone else notice how different their CV grease is from anything else? - It's wierd enough that I decided to use theirs) Important sticking points to know about are that you pretty damn well need to remove the steering knuckle, which means you're going to want an alignment afterwards. The axle itself is attached to your tranny with a "spring clip", which is a fancy way of saying pin you hammer on until it comes out. This is probably the hardest part of the job, as there's not a good angle to get to it, and you need something the right size to push it out. I'm told a small/medium Phillips would work, but I have my doubts. I used a press pin meant for assembling bike chains. Also, the pin is only supposed to come out one way. I *believe* you hammer on the tappered side, but don't quote me on that. Once you have it off the car, you need to take it apart to slide the new boot in place. The cup is held in place with a large round clip just insde the lip. I'm pretty sure you don't have to remove the 3 balls or their supports, although I know I did for some reason. If you do, you're going to need a nice C-clip puller. Above all, don't forget that the 3 balls/cylinders all wear slightly differently, so it's imperative to keep them in the right order. This also means putting the cup back in the correct orientation. And naturally, you have to keep all of this perfectly clean. That's the basics. Add in a lot of swearing, & you're well on your way. -Chris!
I would say it's easier than you make it out to be. DOJ stands for double offset joint. front axles have DOJs on the inner side, rears have them on both sides IIRC. pulling the fronts doesn't require pulling the steering or anything. depending on your axle style, you may not have pins holding the DOJ cup onto the axle stub. If you have a later model year car, it is most certainly a MALE axle, which is just held into the transmission with a circlip. remove the wheels, axle nut, and unbolt the spindle assembly from the lower control section. this will allow you to swing the spindle and strut assembly out of the way and pull the axle out of the spindle. yank on the axle to pull it out of the transmission (assuming you have male axles) looking at the axle, you'll figure out how it comes apart. the inner joint (which contains the balls) is held on with a c clip. you have to disassemble the DOJ completely and slide the boot down on the axle and reassemble the DOJ. CLEAN THE JOINT THOROUGHLY. spray it down, clean all the shit out. getting contaminants into the joint is what KILLS it. since your boot is torn, it most likely has road grit in there. this acts like sandpaper to the balls and races. the inner ball cage (heh) only goes on one way so don't force it or be an idiot and try to hammer things on. it should all slide into place nicely repack with grease and tighten the bands and reinstall. I had never done it before and it honestly took me less than an hour start to finish (including axle removal and install) but I'm pretty mechanically apt. YMMV
Nicad, care to help a brother out? lol. The boot kit is about $50 from subaru. I am not worried about getting the axle out, I am just worried about changing out the boot or not having the right tool and no way of getting to a parts store.
if you have the space to do it somewhere this weekend I can help out (if persuaded with beer) I only remember paying like $30 for it at SoG. boot, grease and clamps
Yeah, for some reason the Legacy boot kit is $48 from all the internet Subaru Parts stores. I may call SOG and see how much they charge. Nicad, I live on the other side of town from you. You are more than welcomed to come this direction or I would be more than happy to pack up my tools and come out your direction. Beer will be free flowing either way
I just read where people have been doing this without actually taking the whole axle out. Basically you cut the old boot off, Undo the C-Clip, then unbolt the front hob and slide the axel out. Clean everything out, slide the new boot on, grease everything up, then slide the axle back in and everything else in reverse order. I guess they were doing this to save the tranny fluid. Do you guys think this is a good idea?
If it's going to make it harder to do it this way, I would just drain it all out into a clean container and reuse it, that's what I did when installing the new clutch. Just make sure you have the Torx T70 bit (IIRC) for the tranny drain plug, I ordered mine online for $3 + shipping.
I don't see how you could slide the new boot on that way. it has to be disassembled on one end or the other to slide it on. you have a big ass DOJ side, and a little axle shaft side. not sure how you would coax that little hole over the big shaft (ok I have an idea just ask your mom)
How in the heck do you get the 3 prong thing off the end of the axle? I took the C-Clip out and it does not budge? Am I missing something here? I dont see how else the boot can go on with out taking the 3 prong thing off. The manual just says remove but the damn thing doesnt budge. PLEASE HELP!
Dude, it does not just slide off. I have been out there for an hour trying to get it off. I even used a rubber mallet and tapped it and it wont come off.
:hsugh: Sorry, just trying to help. Mine slid off without too much force, but then again my 04 axles may be a little different. I did have to use a mallet tho. Wish u wasnt so far, I would come help.
the inner joint needs to push down and rotate a little. it won't come straight off (for a reason) hard to explain. push it towards the middle of the axle, and rotate. are you talking about the cage that holds the balls in, or the inner sprocket looking thing that just slides off the shaft? if it's the inner cage that is held on to the axle by just the clip, it should just slide off the axle. feel free to get rough with it but try not to bend the axle. spray some lube and whatnots in there to try and loosen it up.
Wow, my axles must be different then the Imprezza. I had to use a rubber mallet and get medevil on it LOL... A big thanks to Sean for getting me in touch with the man, King! THanks Nicad and Ghost for all of your help. It took me about 3 hours to do it, but I am sure I could do it in an hour now that I have done this one. I will write up a full report tomorrow when my brain doesnt hurt anymore.
Ok, here is what I did for anyone wanting to replace a front inner CV Boot. 1. Jack Car up and securely place on Jack Stands, 2. Remove Wheel 3. Remove FSB End Link 4. Remove 32 MM Hub Nut 5. Remove the 14MM bolt that holds the hub onto the LCA Ball Joint. DO NOT REMOVE THE 19MM Lower Ball Joint Nut with the cotter pin. The 14MM bolt is right above the Ball Joint rubber boot towards the front of the car. 6. With a pry bar, seperate the hub from the LCA. 7. Remove the axle from the hub 8. remove the Axle from the transmission by pulling on it or using a prybar between tranmission and the inner halfshaft. 9. Carefully remove the two band clamps on the boot. There are two wings that need to go up, then the center will pull straight up and the band clamp will loosen. These are much better than the replacement clamps that come in the boot kit. 10. Remove the big inner replacement clip. It should be pretty easy to figure out. 11. Get a WAX pen and mark which bearing goes on which stem and also mark the outer part of the half shaft. Basically, you want everything to go back together the same way it came out. 12. I went ahead and got a box cutter and cut off the old boot so I wouldnt have grease flinging around. 13. Remove the c clip at the end of the axle. 14. Put some electrical tape on the three stems. 15. With the wax pen, mark end of the axle so you know exactly how the 3-prong stem goes back on. 16. With a rubber Mallet, Bang each of the stems equally until you can remove the 3 prong stem off of the end of the axle. I was a little worried at first but I just started banging the crap out of it until it finally came off. 17. CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN. Make sure everything you just took apart is spotless. THis will require lots of brake parts cleaners and paper towels. It is messy but you need everything to be spotless. 18. Slip new boot on and remember to put the little band clamp downt he axle first. 19. Line up the 3-prong stem and tap it back into place with your rubber mallet. 20 Replace the C-Clip at the end of the axle. 21 Replace the bearings in the correct position it came out of. 22. Put some of the grease in the half shaft. 23. Place the axle back into the half shaft making sure it goes in the exact position it came out of. 24. Fill it up with grease 25. Slide boot back on the half shaft 26. Reinstall the band clamps. 27 Reinstall the axle in reverse order or removing it. It took me 3 hours to do this. About an hour of it was trying to figure out how to remove the 3 prong stem and another hour was trying to figure out how to seperate the LCA from the hub. I removed the 19 MM bolt instead of the 14mm bolt. I am guessing I could easily do the entire thing in under an hour now. If I had directions like what I wrote above, I would have done it easily in half the time. A few tips.... Get a WAX pen. Buy a throw away pan and brush to clean the parts off. Buy at least two cans of brake parts cleaner. If using the band clamps supplied in the kit, you will need to buy a tool to tighten it.
yeah, I'm not a fan of the new clamps they have. realistically it would require a bandit tool to tighten correctly, but you can pretty much get it there with grunt and some pliers
Thanks for the call Eddie! I picked up a new 2004 STi front axle from Advanced Auto Parts, they actually had it in stock. I'm hoping it's the right one too. $69.99 w00t! Looks like the STi has a female inner as well so no tranny leaks.
careful about 04 STi front axles. they switched mid year to a male axle design with no stubs in the transmission.