Replacing CV Joint Boots
 

A few weeks ago I discovered my 2000 S had split rear axle inner CV boots. As I posted in the other CV joint thread, my local indepedent shop quoted 10 hours of labor plus parts to repair! After a couple of questions and some digging, I decided to do it myself. I promised to post the results here, so this is it.

I bought, and recommend, the new Bentley repair manual. It was very helpful, and listed the fastener torque values I needed as well as most of the general steps. It also shows a way to jack up a Boxster without using the factory jack points, which is necessary when doing this repair the way I did it.

I have to give lots of credit to gharari, who blazed the trail for us all with this method, and really helped me out a lot via email and even once by phone. Thanks!

I've put about 600 miles on it since the repair, including a round-trip from the Columbia, SC area to Atlanta last weekend. Everything is still there, so I've decided to proclaim the repair a success. :cool:

Here are the steps:

1. Remove center cap on rear wheels, and break the 32mm rear axle nuts loose before jacking the car up. Use something to chock the wheels, don’t use the transmission to hold the car… make sure it is in neutral.

2. Jack the car up and place on jack stands. Make sure it is evenly supported at all four jack points. The front and rear suspension must be fully unloaded. The Bentley manual shows an alternate jacking location that leaves the factory hard points available for the jack stands.

3. Remove the rear lug nuts and wheels.

4. Remove the diagonal braces and the sheet metal brace (skid plate).

5. Loosen and remove the nuts from the bottom of the links on each side of the anti-sway bar. Move the links and rotate the sway bar out of the way. This may not be necessary, but it is easy and adds some working room.

6. On the driver’s side only, unplug the forward O2 sensor, and check the rear O2 sensor wire to make sure there is enough slack in the wire to allow the exhaust to fall downward about 2 inches. Then loosen the exhaust clamps between the catalytic converter and the muffler, remove the 6 bolts from the exhaust header at the engine, and let the exhaust drop down to rest on the suspension. It’s a good idea to use penetrating oil on the header bolts, as you certainly don’t want to wring one of these off in the engine!

7. Loosen and remove the 6 cap head bolts holding the inner CV joints to the differential. Do the passengers side first, as it is the easiest. Allow the CV joint to drop down to the gap between the differential and the exhaust. Having a helper to pull the e-brake each time you rotate to another pair of bolts is a huge help.

8. Attach the axle puller to the wheel hub, then get the floor jack placed under the lower ball joint/control arm. I used a block of wood as a cushion.

9. Jack up on the control arm until the car starts to want to lift up off of the jack stand. This gives you just enough of an angle to have room for the CV joint and axle to pass between the differential and the exhaust.

10. Operate the axle puller to force the axle out through the hub. Be ready to guide the axle out through the opening. I was able to do this using one hand on the puller, and the other on the axle. A helper would be better.

11. Move to the drivers side and repeat steps 7-10. The removal will be slightly tighter.

12. Remove the metal bands from the inner CV boot, then slide it back and cut it off the axle. Remove as much grease as possible.

13. Pry the metal cap off of the inner CV joint to expose the end of the axle.

14. Remove the C clip from the end of the axle, then carefully drive the axle out of the CV joint. I used a large brass rod as a drift punch on the end of the axle, and held the CV joint in my hands to eliminate any chance of damage.

15. Remove the outer CV joint boot, then clean everything.

16. Re-pack outer joint with grease, install outer boot, install inner boot on axle, then inner CV joint, the re-pack inner CV joint, then slide boot down and install metal end cap. I used a large socket to carefully drive the CV joint down over the axle. Everything is clean and lightly lubed, so it's easy.

17. Repeat on other axle.

18. Reverse the disassembly procedure to reassemble, using the axle nut to draw the axle into the wheel hub, then bolting the inner CV joint to the differential. Only tighten the axle nut to about 100 lbs of torque, waiting until the car is back on the ground to torque it down to spec. Of course, the suspension has to be jacked up again when re-installing the axle, just like the removal.

19. Make sure to torque all fasteners to factory indicated settings. Check the axle nuts again after 50 – 100 miles.

I hope this helps someone. I take virtually no credit for this, and I take absolutely no blame if you try this, and something goes wrong! Do this at your own risk, and only if you feel comfortable doing it, please.

Jack

The picture proof!
 

Passenger side axle on the floor!

That's fantastic Jack! Thanks for the great info! :cheers:

Thanks!
 

Thanks! great info

I can tell you that this IS necessary. I tried without doing this and you can't jack the carrier up enough for the cv joint to clear the tranny - the car starts to lift...the sway bar is doing its job. I'm in the middle of doing the boot replacement and I've got the passenger side out. Hope I don't wring a bolt off in the engine cause I can see the exhaust must be dropped on the drivers side -- there is not as much clearance.


btw, I've got a 2000S with 41K and ALL 4 boots are fully torn. This must be a huge issue. I'm guessing every 2000S with 40K miles has torn boots???

Nice write-up!! Thanks!!!!!

Jim

Thank you!! I'm glad someone is getting some use from this. You're right, that exhaust header must be dropped down, and it was definitely the part that made me the most nervous. Get some aluminum anti-seize paste, and lube those bolts up before you torque them back down.

Good luck with it!

Just got thru it
 

Alright you guys, I just finished doing the boots on my 2000 Boxster S (six speed)....and I say that because there might be some size differences between the 5 speed and the 6 speed.....I will explain later...

Looking at your steps while doing this I decided to modify the proceedure to fit my needs....and add to the notes...kinda like nice to knows... And as a note all of my boots were fully torn...

The first thing I want to mention is before doing this is go and get a 32mm socket with a cheater bar....I got mine from Harbor Freight Tools you will need that to get the axle nut off....I had the cheater bar AND an impact wrench...they were stubborn.

Next thing is I dont know what this driveshaft puller is, so I unbolted the brake and brake line clamp an moved the brake out of the way and took the hub off.
when the time came I used a bearing puller to push the axle out of the hub, This worked great. I didnt want to pull against the hub for fear of warping it.

I only jacked up the rear of the car, instead of unloading all of the wheels. The most important thing here to me was it was necessary to remove the sway bar bolts to allow full motion of the arm. So i had a jack under the car and a jack under the axle to raise it during the removal of the shaft.

The passenger side came out easy once the axle was loose, but the drivers side was a complete different story.
I didnt want to remove the exhaust, so I backed the axle out as far as it would go and seeing that it only lacked about 1/4 inch to be free, I lightly tapped it.... :o with a short handle 5lbs sledge, and it came right out. There was just enough give in the combined parts to allow for the deflection. Going back in, I did the same thing, got everything lined up, the shaft on the splines and got to that 1/4 inch spot and did a deflection shot back into position.

I have over 20 years experience as a jet engine mechanic so dont blast me about the 5lbs sledge hammer, It has taken me a long time to learn what takes a whack and what needs a deflection tap...And maybe there is a size difference in the case which what makes this worth a deflection whack vise exhaust removal. I dont know, but it worked for me.

I didnt have anyone to help me with the tightening of the cv joints so i got 3 long extentions and put a torque wrench on the end and went around shaft tightening it.


I will say this, i ONLY looked at the Bentley manual for the Torque specs on the CV nuts... you did a good job of describing the procedure.
Nice job Jack

Chris

Super Information both JackG and Dohertycm.

I'm going to try the passenger side likely tomorrow or Friday.
Dohertycm, what size of bearing puller did you use? 8" or 6"?.

The drivers side sounds like the toughest for clearance. Did you guys find that you didn't need to drop the exhaust (header) on the passenger side?

I'm going to try and take pictures as I go.

Hi Sputter,

The axle puller is a device that mounts to the lug bolt pattern, and has a center threaded bolt that pushes the axle out of the hub. I borrowed one from Advance (I think). They are common for working on front wheel drive cars.

The drivers side on an "S" is the tighter side, and requires dropping the header. The passenger side does not require this step on an S.

Good luck with it, and make sure you get those CV joints clean and greased back up. Don't want to have to do it again anytime soon, huh? :eek:

I've got my boots/mobil1 grease. I'm just waiting for the new axle nuts. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that I don't snap a header bolt.

Nice write up.

You said they quoted you 10 hours labor. Any idea what it took you?

From the time I drove it into my shop until I backed it out, I had just over 10 hours of my time invested. I think now that I've done it once, I could do both sides, innner and outer, in 6-7 hours.

(passenger side)
I had to move the wheel carrier out of the way. It might be due to having the PSE option but I couldn't get enough room to drop the shaft out.
I used a brass drift to tap out the shaft. I spent more time sorting it all out than actually doing work. So far, i don't see this job being more than 4 hours with experience. (maybe less,for both sides as I was really taking my time)

I think I can do the same thing on the drivers side when I get there.

I'm still sorting out how exactly the end caps come off to install the new boots.
Is it both ends that come off or just the inner and slide the outer all the way up?

Too bad Bentleys doesn't really cover the boot replacement.

Read these steps carefully:

13. Pry the metal cap off of the inner CV joint to expose the end of the axle.

14. Remove the C clip from the end of the axle, then carefully drive the axle out of the CV joint. I used a large brass rod as a drift punch on the end of the axle, and held the CV joint in my hands to eliminate any chance of damage.

15. Remove the outer CV joint boot, then clean everything.

16. Re-pack outer joint with grease, install outer boot, install inner boot on axle, then inner CV joint, the re-pack inner CV joint, then slide boot down and install metal end cap. I used a large socket to carefully drive the CV joint down over the axle. Everything is clean and lightly lubed, so it's easy.

Does that make sense? The flange that bolts to the diff has a metal cap that has to be pried off, and under it is a clip that retains the axle. You should have a new metal cap in the boot kit.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Jack, no new cap, just the boots and bands.

Quick question - if I only need to replace one side, do I need to touch the other side at all?

Thanks!
BV

I wouldn't

Agree. Once you done one, the job becomes simple. I would do them as they break.

Regards,
Fred

A quick question the the knowledgable.
I am in the process of replacing the inner R (drivers in Aussie) side boot. I dissassmebled the CV joint and am ready to repack. Does the inner race that contains the ball bearings only go in one way? I have tried both and it seems to rotate quite freely either way.

I'm not that cheap.. but I'm in a pinch here. What are the torque specs for the Axle Nuts, 8mm hex bolts and others?