CV Boot ripped

Hi, this is regarding another problem discovered with my 99 Taurus. I went to get an oil change today and it was disccovered that there was a problem with my front left axle. The outter CV boot is ripped and had grease coming out. They make sound like it's serious and that the tire can stop working at any given time. What hould I make of something like that? Is it as urgent as they make it sound? How long can people wait on something like this? I don't have anything unusual going on when I'm driving as far as sounds oor control. Would hearing noises be the thing that shows it's getting worse or is it bad regardless of any noise or not? Thanks.

The boot keeps out dirt and water. Dirt will increase wear. Water will wash away the grease. It really depends on the size of the hole in the boot and how long it has been there. My son had a Tempo with a split boot. Probably been that way for a couple of years. The cv-joint broke. When it does you have no driving capability. And no park. This is because of the differential. Power goes to least resistance, thus just spinning the broken joint and the car goes nowhere. Park is lost because it is in the transmission, before the differential. If you jack up a drive axle that is in park, you can spin one wheel and that translates into rotation in the opposite direction of the other wheel. When both are on the ground, they can't rotate against each other and stay in place. With a broken cv, it is just like one of the tires is off the ground, so the other one will roll.
Boot replacement is important. How critical depends on size, amount of time since it opened, amount and type of driving and in what weather. I lean to sooner than later. Easier to replace a boot instead of an entire cv-joint.

I agree with most of what was said above. It's probably not critical that you get it fixed right away, but unless money is really tight right now, you'd be best off to get this fixed soon. However, considering how urgent the shop is telling you the issue is, your best bet may not be to let them change it out. It sounds like they may not be as honest as one would like their auto repair shop to be.

The only thing I don't quite agree with above is that it's easier to replace a boot than an entire CV joint. In the context of a split boot, that may be true, but split boots are generally just a temporary fix. To fix the boot properly, you're looking at removing the entire half shaft anyway. And now rebuilt half shafts (that come with new boots already packed with grease) are typically less expensive than having just the boot replaced and shaft cleaned and repacked once you account for labor.

-Rod

Agreed Rod. I guess I tend to gear my response toward the person doing the work themselves and automatically reject in my head having anyone else do anything. Which would include checking to replace the cv with the boot. The few people I trust to do somethng on one of my cars, is only because I already know exactly all the work needed and how much the parts and labor for that job should be. I've even seen them take a slight advantage (usually only with a jerk) from time to time. Not right, but it happens. I better stop before this becomes a full rant. This just shows the usefullness of forums to get opinions before having work done.

It's not necessarily bad, YET, but the boot protects the joint bearings, races, etc. from the road. U do want to replace it soonest.

Like said by the others, if U want an OEM repair, the axle has to be pulled. The potential problem is that the inner boot usually will have to be replaced, also. Or it should be replaced, as a matter of course after the shaft is pulled.

I've only had ONE CV boot tear on me in over 25 years of driving and that was on the very first car I ever owned which was serviced by a mechanic. I swear now that it was cut. The rubber on those boots is pretty rugged and unless you run over some heavy sharp object in the road and tear it that way, I think they should last at least as long as the axle and joints (which is probably the life of the car).

That said, I have also installed a split boot and it lasted several years for me. But it was the one that is made of black rubber with SEVERAL tiny nuts/bolts to hold it together. They also used to make a plastic one that had to be glued together. I tried that one but couldn't get all those accordian seams to line up before the glue set. With the black rubber one, I just sprayed the hell out of the joint with brake cleaner, turning the wheel every which way as I sprayed, then packed it with the supplied grease. It still clicked when I turned the wheel, but it stayed together for years. And IIRC, I drove with the clicking ripped boot for years before that!