halfshaft replacement help???

[passatik01_5]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum. I own a 2001.5, 1.8T passat GLS. My outer boot on the left halfshaft burst a couple days ago. Anyone out there who actually bought the CV joint kit and rebuilt the thing? If so, is it worth the hassle??? If not, can someone suggest a good place online to buy a brand new or remanufactured halfshaft? The dealer wants a fortune to do this so I decided to do it myself. I replaced halfshafts on subarus before and just reading the passat manual it seems fairly straight forward. Anything special I should think about before doing this, such as special tools and so on? Thanks a million for the feedback...

[Will12]

I changed the cv joints on both sides (the whole). It is very simple, don't even have to take the control arm out. I believe six allen screws hold the cv joint to the transmission and one to the wheel. Turn the steering wheel out and it comes out. My mechanic said that the outer cv joint can be knocked out with mallet. Also, for new cv joint, you have to pull rubber boot with metalic jacket down for innet joint and apply whole grease bag into the bearings. Mine was around $110.