The Lemon Fool

My garage reported the following when doing the MOT today. Does anyone know the implications? The garage said that with our low mileage we could carry on without repairing for now. It's a 1997 Toyota, 158k. Had the car for 20 years, no history of problems.

"Drive shaft joint constant velocity boot severely deteriorated nearside front inner".

If the boot tears, dust, dirt and moisture will enter and eventually prematurely wear the cv joint, which will then need to be replaced. If the boot splits prior to your next MOT I believe that will be an MOT fail, as has happened to me in the past.

If that's the worst thing that's happened to a 26 year old car, then you're doing pretty well. And at 158K it's not unreasonable to need to replace it.

Personally I wouldn't ignore it, because it'll be getting (more) road dirt in through the split rubber boot, and then the universal joint inside the boot will wear out rather faster. But if you're really doing a very low mileage, it might see the car out. At some point your car will fail the MOT, but that's all in the calculation I guess?

Here's what it looks like: https://www.google.com/search?q=drive+s ... nt+Toyota& Ask your garage whether you can just replace the boot and/or the one joint, or whether the whole shaft will need to be replaced with both joints. I'd guess you'd be looking at £350-ish for the full works on one side, maybe a bit more, but see what they say?

BJ

I've no idea how good they are, but it is possible to buy universal split CV boots. The old one can be cut off then the new one put one without dismantling anything.

For a low cost job on an older, low value car which doesn't do many miles, might this be a worthwhile bodge?

Just one example after a quick google...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JUST-BOOTS-U ... ect=mobile

We had exact same on my wife's 2007 Peugeot 206 at the last MoT, our local garage man replaced it (the boot) for £20

Cheers, FT

I would go back to the garage and ask for advice. Not just about the CV joint.

It does sound like it's worth trying a replacement boot. Especially as parts for a car of this age may start to become expensive. As said you do want to keep grit etc out of the works.

However CV boots are not the only thing that age, regardless of mileage. Hence my recommendation of asking advice. It may even be worth paying for inspection time.

I recently had a CV joint replaced which cost me £115, which I regard as fairly cheap. Likewise I had an exhaust problem that nobody would deal with. They sent me to an exhaust fabricator, who dealt with it for £97. Older cars need maintenance and parts. I do feel that the cost can be worth paying.

Urbandreamer wrote:I recently had a CV joint replaced which cost me £115, which I regard as fairly cheap. Likewise I had an exhaust problem that nobody would deal with. They sent me to an exhaust fabricator, who dealt with it for £97. Older cars need maintenance and parts. I do feel that the cost can be worth paying.

There is a lot to be said for this approach, as long as rust isn't about to strike a mortal blow to the car.

Whilst the odd £100 or so expense might sound uneconomic for a car worth little more than that, the alternative might be spending multiples of that every month on a depreciating newer car.

staffordian wrote:

Urbandreamer wrote:There is a lot to be said for this approach, as long as rust isn't about to strike a mortal blow to the car.

Dare I ask?

My first cars were structural steel monocoques, The Ford Escort, Capi, a Mini and a Fiat Strada. EVERYTHING from that time rusted like mad. Some 30 years ago every manufacture started galvanizing cars. Rust may or may not be an issue for a 26 year old car, but not for car's younger. Seriously I was talking rubber boots, seals, etc when I said age.

Ps, My current car dates from 2009, though I didn't buy it new. No sign of rust at all, though I don't wash my car as often as other TLF's. I'm talking every five years or so.

Urbandreamer wrote:

staffordian wrote:

Dare I ask?

My first cars were structural steel monocoques, The Ford Escort, Capi, a Mini and a Fiat Strada. EVERYTHING from that time rusted like mad. Some 30 years ago every manufacture started galvanizing cars. Rust may or may not be an issue for a 26 year old car, but not for car's younger. Seriously I was talking rubber boots, seals, etc when I said age.

Ps, My current car dates from 2009, though I didn't buy it new. No sign of rust at all, though I don't wash my car as often as other TLF's. I'm talking every five years or so.

Agreed it's far less of an issue than it was a few decades ago. These days there tends to be little obvious rust, but it can sometimes 'sneak up' unseen, only obvious when an MOT tester has it on the ramps and finds it near to structural elements such as subframe or suspension mounts.

Even then a repair might just about be worthwhile, but unlike the odd mechanical repair, once one patch is identified, it's probably the beginnning of an unstoppable process.

I've seen several Youtubers buy seemingly sound cars which only reveal their true colours under a detailed examination. A 2005 Beetle springs to mind which looked immaculate but had serious rust near rear suspension mounts and seat belt mounts, only found when put in for an MOT

Hmmm, quarter century Toyota, MOT query. Calling MonsterMork!

BJ

bluedonkey wrote: ... MOT today. Does anyone know the implications? ...

"Drive shaft joint constant velocity boot severely deteriorated nearside front inner".

Boot will eventually split and let out all the grease inside it, and allow all the water and grit, dirt etc outside into it. And the grease from inside the joint will get sprayed around the inside of the engine bay. Lovely Once this happens this will allow the CV joint itself to wear out at a faster rate than it would otherwise have done so. Eventual outcome is failure of the CV joint and either a loss of drive or a snapped driveshaft (and also a loss of drive). [In reality it is far more likely to reach it's next MoT and fail before that happens]. In actual fact other than outside the world of Land Rovers getting abused off road I have only ever seen two snapped driveshafts, one on my own car, and neither were due to a CV joint failure

Personally I would have it done sooner rather than later, but 99.9% of people will ignore it as an MoT advisory means that "actually there is stuff all wrong with the car and the garage are only touting for work"

Ignore the split CV boot idea mentioned elsewhere. Never seen them used in the trade, and if we don't use them there must be a reason, cos this can be a pain in the bollards of a job occasionally! Doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but I have never seen them used.

MM

MonsterMork wrote:the grease from inside the joint will get sprayed around the inside of the engine bay.

This is how I noticed it happen to us; it was on an unsealed "road" going the high route across Bruny Island off Tasmania where a big stick/pothole combo must have torn the boot - and about a minute later we got "the smell" in the cabin.

It was horrific and we thought in the first instance we'd picked up some road kill with one of the front wheels - it's like driving on carpet sometimes round those parts with the number of dead beasties about

Got back to civilisation about a week later - needed the transaxle replaced by then - and the B***er didn't bother to clean the gunk off the exhaust manifold while he had it in the shop (so I had to get inventive with degreaser and flexible rods)

bungeejumper wrote:Hmmm, quarter century Toyota, MOT query. Calling MonsterMork!

BJ

Our 33 year old Toyota needed a brake light bulb this year

No advisories.

DrFfybes wrote:

bungeejumper wrote:Hmmm, quarter century Toyota, MOT query. Calling MonsterMork!

BJ

Our 33 year old Toyota needed a brake light bulb this year

No advisories.

The original clutch on our Toyota wore out after 100,000 miles. I was livid!

Seriously, I do suspect that rust will write off the old girl eventually.

My old VW Golf 1.9Tdi failed it's MOT at 220,000 miles due to rust.

The garage offered me a discount against an older Mercedes auto they had sitting in the forecourt which I took.

The garage kept the Golf and the apprentice they had not long taken on practiced his welding skills on it. A couple of months later they were using it as a pool car.