Replace CV boot or whole joint?

[haveblue]

Sometimes I have a very slight knocking sound every wheel revolution when the car is under load. It looks like my right side inner CV boot might leaking a tiny bit of grease at its very base. I guess I can degrease the area and see if any new leakage show up. The boot body does not have any tears. With the car jacked up, the e-brake off, and in first gear, each wheel only shows about 1/4" of circumferential play, so I think the joints themselves are fine.

I know I can't be certain until I open them up one by one to do rebuilds, but given these symptoms, will I need to do just a boot or the whole joint? Might it be something else?

 

[sca037]

You might want to try opening up the boot , cleaning out the old grease (will probably look like mocha ice cream ;^) and CV joint, then repacking and rebanding the boot.
It's not much work to determine if the joint is OK, and the I believe Right inner is subjected to some exhaust heat so often needs service first.

Brian

 

[Larry Bastanza]

Frankly, a noise is a bad sign. High probability the joint is bad. Inspection will tell, but if you do not want the car laid up, better order a new joint, or get a good used one.

My $.02

Regards,
LarryB

 

[haveblue]

I think I'll order a Legend driveshaft and scavenge the inner joint to replace my inner joint, then rebuild both right side joints this weekend.

But for right now, will I be able to regrease and reband the the leaking boot if nothing is disassembled?

 

[Sumeronthechain]

Replacing the CV boot is not a hard task, but you might want to make sure you have someone with who has done them before.

I'm not familiar with the process on the NSX, but it is a pretty standard part.

 

[pgilliam1]

But for right now, will I be able to regrease and reband the the leaking boot if nothing is disassembled?

Yes. The OEM bands are easy to reuse. The new grease will likely stop the slight leak you have. The noise could be a bearing and have nothing to do with the axle. It's common for that boot to leak over time on these cars.
Good Luck!

 

[haveblue]

Found out the right inner boot was almost devoid of grease. It also felt like it had a millimeter or two of play, which was making my knocking noise. Didn't have too many options at my disposal, so I injected a bunch of black lithium grease from my neighbor's grease gun and since autozone didn't have a fitting band, I zip tied it. Unbolted the shield around the boot for now and moved it back a little so it would provide enough clearance for the zip ties. It seems the internet consensus on random car forums is that zip ties will work temporarily. I just need to get through another week until parts arrive so I can do a full rebuild at my AFB's shop.

Question: Will I need to flush the tranny fluid for the right axle? The tranny connects to the left axle, while the right axle connects to the intermediary axle.

 

[sca037]

Question: Will I need to flush the tranny fluid for the right axle? The tranny connects to the left axle, while the right axle connects to the intermediary axle.

No, not if you leave the intermediate shaft in place (you only need to drain the transaxle if you're pulling the Driver's side axle).

Brian