Has Anyone Tried This?

[JohnGunn]

A month ago I noticed my '90 Festiva L with 176,000 miles had begun to make a knocking noise every time I accelerated from a stop into a left turn. The more I accelerated the louder the knock.

I knew this would happen eventually, since the boots on the CV joints had long ago become shredded. Easy service in Southern California, on fairly clean, paved roads, with very little water and no salt allowed me to go like this for years.

When the knocking started I wondered if it was a matter of wear from lack of lubrication or just the lack of lubrication that was at fault. To answer that question I decided to spray some WD-40 into the right outside CV joint. After that the knocking stopped completely, no matter how hard I accelerated into the turn.

My plan is to buy a split "Quick Boot" at AutoZone and install it, with the supplied grease, over the dry CV joint. I would appreciate any tips on installing this boot and some idea of how long I can expect this fix to last in easy around-town travel?

[hotfordcat]

It will last till you are in the middle of Nowhere, or the Heaviest traffic in your area. Fix it Right.

[JPT]

If it's already worn (and if it's knocking, it is) grease will only postpone the inevitable. Do it for now, but save your pennies for parts to do it right. You're going to have to anyway.

[batstiva]

A month ago I noticed my '90 Festiva L with 176,000 miles had begun to make a knocking noise every time I accelerated from a stop into a left turn. The more I accelerated the louder the knock.

I knew this would happen eventually, since the boots on the CV joints had long ago become shredded. Easy service in Southern California, on fairly clean, paved roads, with very little water and no salt allowed me to go like this for years.

When the knocking started I wondered if it was a matter of wear from lack of lubrication or just the lack of lubrication that was at fault. To answer that question I decided to spray some WD-40 into the right outside CV joint. After that the knocking stopped completely, no matter how hard I accelerated into the turn.

My plan is to buy a split "Quick Boot" at AutoZone and install it, with the supplied grease, over the dry CV joint. I would appreciate any tips on installing this boot and some idea of how long I can expect this fix to last in easy around-town travel?

You should expect it to work only as long as it takes to get to a parts store and fix it right. Cool that it's working at all, but I wouldn't trust it any longer than I absolutely had to.

[TominMO]

My plan is to buy a split "Quick Boot" at AutoZone and install it, with the supplied grease, over the dry CV joint. I would appreciate any tips on installing this boot and some idea of how long I can expect this fix to last in easy around-town travel?

I would only use a split boot to cover the split in the real boot. I've even used larger Ziplock bags + duct tape to close boots that recently split, before too much dirt gets in there.

BTW you can get more life out of boots, and slow down or eliminate splitting, by squirting them with Armor-All every six months or so, as a preventive measure to keep them moist.