RIPSAW

Here's the drift. Grandson is away at college but only an hour away. Have done boot's on an 85 and 94 Civics.

Now my 2007 Civic Sedan 100K Small tear in outside boot V on the way out at last V toward wheel. Only a little grease has gotten out. Axle fills OK and no noise. Appears pretty much the same work as my other cars. Pop lower ball joint by raising wheel assembly with car raised and wedge a angle breaker bar to the side and lower wheel to effectually pop it without hurting boot. Remove wheel and axle nut. Pull off knuckle letting it dangle along with upper strut. Appears spring is all secure.
Use large screwdriver to pop axle out of transmission. Remove boot clamps. Clean up and inspect universals and re-grease with proper amount and type and reinstall boots.

At 100K, should I just replace axle? After market AutoZone (new lifetime warranty $80 or rebuilt $70) or dealer (parts are about $58 boots ..axle is $162.50) ?
Is the spring going to cause any problem?
Would the dealer just replace two boots or would he replace the axle? What should I expect a dealer to charge for labor?

Thanks for the help and advice.

ezone

If no noise and the tear is very recent, I'd probably reboot it with a factory boot kit.

Note, many of our axles are to be disassembled starting at the inner joint and the factory boot kits will give you enough new bands to do this when needed, and new grease (check parts catalog on this)

Aftermarket boot kits usually suck.


But.....If I have to put axles in my GFs Fit because they are going to break in half, it will get new aftermarkets.

RIPSAW

Interesting but this guy removed the three bolts on the ball joint and remove the torsion damper rather then pop the taper.
The two axles I rebuilt required the snap ring to be removed on the inner, the inner joint removed since the outer boot went on that way. Did not appear the outside came apart but it appears on the parts fish that the outside comes apart on the 2007. I plan on replacing both boots if I go that way. That new Duralast part looks quite inviting however.
What this about the fit axles breaking? I am still looking at one. Wife actually wants another CRV and did not like the HRV since she said she could not see as well do to blind spots for her. Tried to sell here on a Jeep Wrangler 4 door hard top but that did not fly after she saw the window sticker 43K ..HA

ezone

8th gen and newer are built using this. Much easier to undo 3 bolts/nuts than trying to pop a taper free.

Mine has about 208k or so. A customer who has a daughter driving one of these at 270 and counting, I've been paying attention to what this car has needed LOL. In the last year it had to get both axles replaced so I gotta check out the GFs pretty soon.

In the center of the axles there is a rubber damper ring clamped to the shaft. In the rust belt, water and salt gets trapped under the rubber ring and they rust through and fracture there. Actually I've seen it happen to several cars that have the rubber damper clamped on the axle, not limited to just Hondas.

RIPSAW

Well I finially got the grand son down and Gmaw took him to the dentist for clean and a filling. Carefully inspected driver side outer boot. Grease was only in outer last V up near large hub next to band almost like someone had rolled a line of grease in it. It was no longer slinging it. All four boots look good with no cracks and are still soft.
Also discovered noise was brake pad wear indicator. Pulled the caliper and discovered one of the float pins was tight. Got a new set of pads and caliper kit and rebuilt both sides (passenger side was only half worn out since pads only had apx 40K on them).
Wiped off axle boot and drove car 20 miles breaking in pads. Came back and inspected boot. Could see a small pin head spot of grease. Obviously, somehow, it has a pin hole size hole that once wiped off cannot be seen. I put the new axle on the shelf however for another cooler day. How the crap can a boot get a pinhole in it so small you cannot see it????

I got the AUTOZONE axle. Lifetime warrant is worthless since it does not cover boot and it does not have the axle rubber damper on it... Will use it as a temp and rebuild original axle and I tear it down and inspect it closely inside.
The car was serviced by the Williamsburg Honda dealer for the free lifetime oil change and state inspection.. Think this may not be a very good deal.