Question for the mechanics...CV joints

[moparguy]

In another thread I shared the story on my recently purchased 2001 Buick Park Avenue. It's been great. However......I've noticed in the 2,000 miles of driving (now at 72,200) grease is coming out of the passenger side cv boot at the trans-axle. The hard for me to understand thing is the boot appears good, the band clamp appears snug. There is no perceptible slack or noise. This is the original half shaft.

So, with all the above said what gives. Why is it leaking grease and is it possible to reclamp the boot? If the only cure is to pull the axle, then so be it. Rockauto has; AC DElCO GM Original Equiptment (23423789) halfshaft for $219. Looks like a good price for a new GM part. However since the boot isn't torn what about a quality "lined" stainless worm gear clamp. Perhaps two if narrow enough so the gear drives can be offset 180 degrees for balance.

And if I go the reclamp route I'd source and add more oem quality grease.

Thanks,
RR

 

[DonFitzwater]

My advice is to run it! My family has had several of these newer front engine GM cars and they all sling some grease from the boots once they get a little old. All of them went well over 150k without failure and were traded off. Don't sweat it unless you are just anal about that kind of thing.

 

[Wayne M.]

I don’t have too much experience with that particular car and it’s issues, but there’s probably a hair line crack in the rubber somewhere. You can try and reclamp it, but I’d run it out till it starts clicking, or it develops a lot of slop and then just change it. I’ve used heavy duty zip ties pulled real tight with success.

 

[moparguy]

Thanks for the replys! I cleaned everything as well as possible today and it appears the grease is excaping at two points between the boot and half shaft bearing end. It looks like if I could tighten the factory clamp all would be good. But lacking the proper tool guess I’ll just run it and see what happens.

 

[moparguy]

Eureka, I just had a idea I might try. Walmart carries (in the boat dept.) Attwood Marine Polyurethane Sealant, Quick Cure 7200 which is like 3M 5200/7200. It's the best adhesive I've ever used outside automotive panel bond. Actually some of the guys on the Factory Five forums use it for panel bond.

Think I'll clean everything to within an inch of it's life with brake cleaner and acetone then sand a bit for a mechanical tooth, clean again and put a bead of Attwood Marine sealant around the rubber/metal seam of the cv joint. It dries flexible and can't hurt and I think it's got a fair chance of stopping the grease leak.

Time will Tell.

 

[Dl5treez]

Leaking grease, seeping grease, or weeping grease? If it's not flinging onto other areas, leave it alone. Maybe someone has been in there once and overpacked it, and the clamp isn't as snug as it could be.

Grease will find its way out of a lot of things. CV boot clamp pliers are cheap, so are clamps. I'd just leave it alone unless it's flingin' around all over.

 

[6V92TA]

I don’t have too much experience with that particular car and it’s issues, but there’s probably a hair line crack in the rubber somewhere. You can try and reclamp it, but I’d run it out till it starts clicking, or it develops a lot of slop and then just change it. I’ve used heavy duty zip ties pulled real tight with success.

I'll second the zip ties.. old beater Camry I just picked up had a torn CV boot.. found a cheap chinese knock off and zip tied it right in place.

for the OP, if you search craiglist around where you live, you can probably find someone who will sell you and install a rebuilt halfshaft for less than half what you will pay for a new GM part.

 

[moparguy]

Leaking cv boot leak story end. On close inspection, both axles were leaking on the transaxle end, one a lot, one just starting. I pulled both axles, not a big job at all, like an hour for both. Placed the worse offender in a vise and was able to slip the factory clamp off easily with my bare hands, no need to cut as I'd expected.

I had borrowed an inexpensive cv joint clamp tool and two clamps. With the first clamp off I squeezed a tube of cv joint grease (from Oriellys) into the boot. I then cleaned the inside of the boot and joint's sealing contact surface with acetone and put a small bead of the afore mentioned Attwood Marine Polyurethane Sealant, Quick Cure 7200 on the cv joint sealing surface, positioned the boot and clamped with a new band camp.

On the barely leaking joint I did the same, except didn't add any grease. However I flubbed up the last clamp I had and needed to improvise. Using two screw type radiator hose clamps that I had, cut them to length so they were just long enough to connect with no excess and the screw mechanisms were 180 degrees apart. Put em on, tightened em up and reinstalled both axles.

3,000 miles later all's still good. These were factory axles with about 72,000 miles on em and the boots looked new, just leaky clamps. When they do fail sometimes in the future (distant I hope) I'll go back with new/rebuilt.

RR