My 4Runner has torn CV boots, do I have to replace the whole CV’s, or can I just have you put new boots on them?
What is the vehicle and year? 1999 Toyota 4Runner Limited
Does it have lock out hubs? No
Does it have a lift and if yes, how much? Yes, about 3″ of lift.
How many miles? 175K miles
How long have the boots been torn? Don’t know.
Diagnosis by phone: It’s really a matter of close inspection of them then. Most of the time if the boot has recently been torn open or is only cracked and starting to spew out grease then they can be re-booted. If they have been open a while and the grease is dry and caked then it is probably best to do whole CV’s.
Final diagnosis: Pulled the CV’s and inspected them. One of the outer boots was just cracking and spewing out fresh grease. The two inner boots had torn and were open but the grease wasn’t completely dried out. I gave the customer the lowdown and said it was a 50/50 chance that they would be OK. Customer said that he wanted to try putting new boots on it to start with.
Solution: We installed the new boots and put it all back together. Seems to be working fine and running OK. I suggested that we do a 1″ diff drop on it to help prevent the boots from tearing so easily in the future. I’ll cover that in Part II.