CV joints on 97 Civic

Extreme conditions? Like what?

 

Driving over water puddles full of caster oil or unknown chemicals,
drying it out. Driving over crummy road surfaces, road salts or
extreme climates.

Protect your boots from the elements such as salts, solvents, ozone,
etc. Wash with warm soapy water then spray a CRC brand medium
silicone spray, i.e. not dry or too wet every six months.

 

Same thing happened to me a few months ago. Due to my not keeping an eye
open for tears or rips in the CV boots, I let my CV joints get to the point
that they were crunching in slow turns. If they've been like that a long
time, you probably DO need new CV joints, but $600 is bullshit. I had both
sides of mine done - axles and all - for $360.

 

Sounds like daily driving in 99.99999999999999999% of the world <g>

 

Looks like I should park my car from November to April.

 

Hahhahahh. Where do you live, man? ;-))

 

Where do you get your info from? Silicone spray is a dumb idea, and will
get on the brake pads eventually, with potentially disastrous results.

CV joint boot cracking is due to:
1) Steering stresses
2) Steering during winter driving
3) Extreme driveshaft angles, such as what's present in some AWD vehicles.

There is NOTHING you can do in normal use to prolong your CV joint boots'
lives. All you can do is catch the cracking before it develops into an open
split in the boot, and get them replaced. That's it.

Inspection takes literally seconds. If you can't do it yourself, have your
oil change monkey show the boots to you at your next oil change.

 

GM's shop manuals for Corvettes recommend rubbing silicon grease
into the weather-stripping once a year to prevent cracking and such. I'm
sure they tested it.

87 Chevy Nova owners manual recommended spraying the weather
stripping with silicone spray every 6 months.

Pat Goss on Motorweek recommends silicone spray.

Toyota dealer use silicone grease as a preventative measure to reduce
squeaks at the sway bar bushings.

Spray on a cotton rag or sponge and rub small apllication on trim.

Rubber breaks mainly due to surface cracks that develop into rips when rubber dries up and
looses its elasticity. Extreme steering only aids it. Silicone spray would help CV boots.

 

"Burt Squareman" <> floridly penned in

Burt, trim and sway bars are no comparison at all with CV joint boots.
Neither of the former are subject to the sort of flexing that CV joint
boots are.

CV joint boots split from steering, cold, and driveshaft angles, period.

If you want to wipe silicone on the boots, be my guest. But all it's going
to do is make you feel better.

 

CV joint boots split from steering, cold, or driveshaft angles only after premature
aging induced by heat cycling, oil contaminants or Ozone, to name a few. As boot
materials improve mechanical damage will become a leading cause of boot splits.

CV joint is a heat sink for the brake rotor. CV boots are asked to go from below
freezing temperatures to, at times, very high temperatures. The boots (and all
plastic and rubber parts) become more brittle and less pliable from heat cycling.

Ozone is a chemical element that destroys boots by dry rot. Ozone is every-
where and causes oxidation, or slowly burns, at a greater rate than oxygen.

My concern with silicon based product is that some grade may attract dirt and
will act like sandpaper when the pleats of the boot compress and flexes.

Dupont use Hytrel for boots. Neoprene, thermo plastic elastomer (TPE) and
other elastomers are common in most cars. If compatibility is a concern then
simply wash it off with mild soap and water, avoid using solvents that could
breakdown the boot.

 

water, oil, mud, etc will do the same thing, though. attract dirt, and
voila!