I have noticed within the past week, a few drops of grease on my o/s/f alloy and lower arm and i'm 99% sure it's down to the outer CV boot being split. After a quick look on full lock it doesn't seem to be damaged but am quite sure it is.

I've been quoted £90 for the job but was wondering would it be cheaper to do it myself.

If i remove the driveshaft myself is it just a case of cut the old boot off, stretch the new one over, pack with grease, fit new clips?

Chris

 yes pretty much, if you know what your doing its about a 20 min job.

i did mine with no prior driveshaft experience and it is straight forward

 You would need a stretch type cv boot and expander tool to whip the cv boot on m8.

my 2p worth.

Is my best bet just pay the man then?

Chris

It depends m8, do you want to pay someone your hard earned or you do it yourself, if you take your time its pretty straight forward.

Try this link out its where I got my cv boot and fitting kit from when I had to when one of the boots split.

http://www.bailcast.com/duraboot-cv-fitting-static

Hope this helps m8.

Gtlee

 90 quids a fair bit. i replaced a whole joint including boot and that cost me 20 quid

depends how confident in your mechanical skills  you are

Mechanical skills, we'll i've had the gearbox out, replaced the clutch, re-bled it all, that's probably the biggest job i've done.

Chris

 Chris, You've answered your question then m8,more than able to do the driveshaft boots.

Far cheaper than £90 I'd say £20 tops then!

Where's the best place to get a strecth boot kit then?

Chris

 I did one on a clio, Not a hard job at all, just very very messy,

I used the cone tool to slide the boot over the cv joint.

TBH, Unless your in a heated garage and have the tools already I would just pay the 90 quid. It will cost you 20 quid for the parts so 70 quid IMO is worth the knuckle scraping and the cold and the 2 days it will take to get the crap off your hands.

I have a split inner boot and I plan to just buy a complete 2nd hand driveshaft, Bolt off, bolt on. I'm just awaiting the return of summer.

I was considering the new d/s option too, but soon enough a boot would go on that too!

Chris

 they aren't supposed to stretch on, you remove the outer joint via a circlip. easy!

There are a few types, so a stretch boot would stretch over with a cone, and then the split ones i'vre read are useless.

With a genuine kit, with the joint, how easy would that be? Just a circlip you say?

I could do with ELSA...

Chris

 Chris,

this is a relatively easy job to do if you have the right tools. You've done a gearbox already and that is way more difficult/scary.

A new boot kit from VW is about £15 to £20 and comes with all the right bits. Some aftermarket kits don't.

1. take the centre cap off your wheel and loosen the driveshaft nut/bolt with the car on the ground. DO NOT DRIVE OR MOVE YOUR CAR NOW. It could damage the wheel bearing. Alternatively loosen the nut/bolt after you've jacked the car up and put it on axle stands by getting a mate to stand on the brakes real hard.

2. from underneath the wishbone mark the profile of the wishbone on the balljoint, or spray it with some paint, so that you can line it up again near enough where it was. Now remove the balljoint bolts from the wishbone.

3. get a hub puller and fasten it to the hub so you are ready to press the outer cv out of the hub.

3. slide the balljoint out of the wishbone, being very careful not to damage the rubber balljoint boot on the wishbone as it comes out. This is a bit of a pain as you have to push and pull the hub around abit to get the balljoint to come out of the wishbone, but it is possible.

4. you now have a choice as to wether you want to remove the whole driveshaft or if you want to try and remove the cv joint/ boot in situ. I recommend removing the shaft, its alot easier if you have the whole thing on a bench. if you choose to take the whole shaft out, then you now need to remove the bolts at the gearbox end.

5. now using the hub puller, press the cv joint out of the hub. I recommend using a hub puller as it is very easy to damage the threads on the cv joint if you try and whack it out with a hammer, and it doesn't do the wheel bearing any good. 

6. take the shaft to your work bench and cut the old clips and boot off. have plenty of rags as there is a shed load of grease. Clamp the driveshaft in a vice and whack the outer cv joint with a soft faced hammer on its outer edge and the cv will pop off the shaft(see picture below).

7. replace all the bits on the shaft with the new ones in the kit(check the sequence in the picture below), fit the new boot, grease it all up, put the new circlip on the shaft, tap the cv back on and put on the new clips.

8. now put it all back, and don't forget to torque up the driveshaft nut properly.

9. job done. 

If I have got anything wrong or forgotten anything then I apologise. I'm sure someone will correct me.

 stretch boots are rubbish, only good for clio's where the shaft doesn't split.

well it's not really even a circlip, more like a spring clip.

you can leave the shaft attatched gearbox end and pull the hub out of the way.

pull the cv boot back, wipe out + catch excess cv grease then with a mallet simply tap the outer joint off the end of the shaft.

pull the old boot off, fit new boot on to shaft then tap the joint back on - make sure it goes all the way on to engage the spring clip in the groove in the splines on the shaft.

far easier than heating/greasing and messing about with stretch boots.

 damn he was too fast, top description though!

Looks like i'm going to do this myself then!

The boot hasn't lost much grease at all so i imagine the joint is fine, however, may aswel replace it whilst it's off!

How is the joint kept on the shaft then? Does it press on? Or is item 3 a circlip?

Chris

So just tapping the joint off and on won't damage the circlip?

Chris

 no, it's fine. like i say it's a spring clip. 99% of the time it just pops off, the other 1% you can pry it free from the groove with a small flathead screwdriver while tapping it free.

So it's one of them things where as soon as i see it i'll understand it??

What comes in the kit from VW?

Chris

Chris_Wales:

So it's one of them things where as soon as i see it i'll understand it??

What comes in the kit from VW?

Chris

Best to replace the clip. You'll know it when you see it(after you've knocked the cv off).

Vw kit comes with items 8,7,6,5,4,3 in the second picture. Item 3 is the clip. Oh and you also get a packet of grease.

 Genuine parts should come with everything, including a boot that won't need doing again in 6 months like most aftermarket kits...

Just my 2p.

 Just changed mine with a Genuine VW part. Includes everything except a new drive shaft bolt. Cost £30 iirc.

Took about an hour with lots of coffee, and phone calls. 20mins if your good.

After a browse on ETKA i found the kit to be:

1J0 498 203 A / (3B0 498 203 E) - boot kit

N 905 876 02 - Outer nut

Think i'll order this and do it myself, sounds easy enough...

Chris

1J0 498 203 A was superceded in 2004 by (3B0 498 203 E) and (N 905 876 02).

:)

Chris

From prior experience, pay the man the £90 lol.

Nate

Did it myself in the end , wasn't a bad job at all.

Just needed gloves, loads of newspapers down and a load of rags!

Chris

I'm half way through it myself, the problem is that the kit i bought didn't come with enough grease. Need to pop out today and buy some spray grease. Got the boot half over the cone and on the driveshaft but the small end aint playing ball!

Fitting a new CV boot, it's like being in sex-ed putting the condom on the banana - after plenty of practice, some lube and lots of sweat and tears - it'll finally go on!

Nate

Have you tapped off the joint?

Chris

You mean the CV Joint? No I haven't, tried hitting it with a rubber mallet a few times but it won't budge, is there any special technique?

Nate

Whack the f out of it! Obviously with care. It'll tap off eventually

Chris

Fair enough, shall give it a go tonight if the ol' lube doesn't do the job.

Nate

Basically do what the above diagram shows!!

Chris

Fair enough, not able to actually take the driveshaft off the car though, so may not be able to get enough power behind the mallet to pop it off.

Nate

for you guys that are doing this with the shaft still on car ,  be carefully not to let the shaft dangle when you hit it or you will egg the inside cv case. this will make your inside boot pop off when its rotates.