My problem: I was doing my first brake flush job (surprisingly easy) when I discovered this, times 3 out of 4 boots:
My son swears we can do the repair, and I think I’d be inclined to try
except for the fact that I just don’t have a lot of time on my hands at the moment AND the weather’s definitely top-down conducive, so I want it fixed ASAP.
My questions: I called the local stealership and he quoted me upwards of $1K to fix both sides, saying “there’s almost $500 in parts alone”, which I’m pretty sure is BS. I called an independent mechanic, one recommended by “ohioboxster”, a long-timer on this forum who said this shop was good and helped him when he got stumped working on his Boxster. (In case you don’t know, this is the guy who on his own installed a roots supercharger in his Boxster---which he has since sold---so I figured if he turned to them for help, they must be pretty good. He doesn’t post here too often anymore, but he is the one with the nice looking red Targa in his signature.) Anyway, they quoted me a figure of $525 to replace all four axle boots. In the alternative, he said they’d replace both axles for $400. Seemed like a no-brainer, so I said do the axles. My question is two-fold: (1) This quote ($400, which included labor) seems too good to be true. Is it?? (2) Is it typically smarter (ie is there any downside to doing this?) to replace axles rather than just doing the boots?
The other question I had is based on the fact that it’s going to take a few days for the parts to come in, specifically: (3) Is it a bad idea to drive the car in the meantime? For all I know, they've been torn for the last 1000 miles. The mechanic, after asking if the car was making any noise (which presumably would indicate the grease in the gearing was drying out), to which I replied “No”, then told me it wouldn’t be a problem to drive it. I haven’t driven it in the 2 days since I made the discovery. Should I not worry about it and go ahead and drive it? (I probably still would not be driving it daily, but there is a local car show this weekend about 25 miles away that I had planned on going to, and hoped to take the Boxster.) What do you think?
I just thought of a fourth question: I've heard people recommend spraying the boots with silicone from time to time. Does that prolong their lifespan?