Honda Car Forum

I need to change my right side cv boot and I wanted to know what it entails? Do I just have to remove the wheel, or do I have to dismantle the control arms and sway bar, remove the rotor and brake caliper, and more things I have never done before and probably dont have tools for? If someone has done this job before or knows the answer, your advidce would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know the specifics of your car. But for most Honda cars, you will need to remove brake caliper and rotors, then takes the wheel bearing axile nut out. After that, you should be able to lift up the entire assembly and take the whole CV joint & boot out. All can be done with standard tools, except the wheel bearing nut. Honda uses 32mm nut, and you can only remove these with air impact. I've done this in several honda civics. It takes about 1.5 hours.

The easiest way is to get a repair boot, It is split in half already. After removing the old boot, clean the bearings as good as you can, repack as much bearing grease in as you can,( in the bearings as much as possible and in the boot), then apply the split rubber boot, use the glue that usually comes with it, glue it together and clamp both ends. Make sure the bearings haven't been messed up by sand, dirt, etc. If you know when the original boot failed (most don't) you might get lucky and fix it very cheap. I have gone through the job the old way and it takes all day if you haven't done it before. Axles, bearings, clips and a million other things have to be replaced or checked for damage at least, before you re-assemble the whole deal. Try the split boot first, they work xlnt. Good luck!! If you hear bad bearing noises after you have worked on it, I would recommend you get a good price from at least three different Honda mechanics before taking it in. They will recommend doing the others before they fail. I would have them put the split boot on all of the others. You never know when they are going to fail, inspect them about as often as you check your air in your tires (about a month)

I own a repair shop,,and have done this job a lot,,it is not a hard job to do,,but if you have never done it before,,you would be better off having it done,,because as far as tools go,,you need a good assortment of tools,,also a good work area to do it in,,also you spoke of just replacing the boot only,,i really don't recommend this ,,because in my past experience i have done this a few times at the customers request,,and i always have to go back and replace the whole axle,,later on,,sometimes as quick as a week or two,,the reason for this is that once the boot bust open it lets all the grease come out of it,,and it also picks up dirt ,,and debris,,from driving it,,you may think that you got it clean enough to re-use but the damage is usually done to it,,if you do use the same joint and axle,,it may make a popping noise on you,,the best idea is to get a replacement axle,,from a parts store like advance,,or auto zone,,and it will come with a lifetime warranty on it,this way you don't waste any money,,believe me this is a lesson you don't want to learn the hard way,,i have been at this for 35 yrs,,and i have learned the hard way a few times,,i hope this help,s.

remove wheel, remove lower ball joint from lower control arm, remove axle nut, remove lower strut bracket A arm from lower control arm, with care pry axle out of trans, replace the whole axle it will cost you about the same and save you a hole lot of heartache.