DIY: CV Boot change on an EG
Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!
Aim:
To replace worn/cracked/split CV boots.
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Required:
-CV Boots. You can do all four at once if you need. 2 x inner and 2 x outer. I only did the outers as the auto store was all out of inners. They should come with grease and tightening rings to tighten the boots to the axles, if not you may need grease. I found it easier to use the old tightening rings as the new were a little difficult and need a tool.
-Split/Cotter pins.
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Tools needed:
-Jack
-2 x Jack stands
-Socket set and spanner set (10mm, 17mm, 19mm)
-Breaker bar/wheel brace
-Various circlip pliers (You will need one with small tips also)
-Blade screwdrivers
-Pliers
-Ball Joint Splitter (Is possible with a mallet/soft hammer and jack)
-Mallet/Soft hammer
-CV Boot Tool (Used to tighted new rings on the boots, may not need depending on what rings you have)
-torch/lead light/LED Light
Steps:
Firstly, there are numerous ways you could go about replacing the boots. Its possible to go about it removing the hub assembly and having you wheel bearings pressed off, but not many of us have hydraulic presses at hand. This is just the way i chose to go about it and it worked for me, was quiet easy and you dont need really expensive tools, better than paying someone to do it IMO.
1. Jack your car up and use 2 x jack stands to raise the front of the car. Set them at a reasonably high setting as you will be under the car for a while.
2. Remove Wheels (19mm socket and breaker bar or wheel brace)
3. Remove the two nuts holding the brake hose to the knuckle. (10mm)
4. Remove the Master Cylinder cap, push the pistons back slightly on both passenger and driver side calipers with a screwdriver or g-clamp (this is only to loosen them so you can easily remove the calipers from the disc, dont push the piston completely back, just slightly). You should be able to put the cap back on the MC now. Remove the two 17mm nuts from behind the caliper. I recommend you to hang them off something. I cut up an old coathanger and bent both ends so i could hang them off a coil on the springs. It is a bad idea to just leave the caliper hanging by the brake hose, dont do it! Also be careful as the brake pads may fall out of the caliper.
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Above: How to push the piston back.
Passenger Side:
5. Firstly remove the nut and bolt which goes through the bottom of your shock and through the LCA. You can see what im talking about in the picture on step 6. The bolt may be difficult to pull out, make sure you dont have this side of the car jacked up and it should come out quiet easily.
6. Next there are three 17mm castellated nuts with cotter pins you will have to remove (These are all ball joints). When removing these nuts, first take out the cotter pins (using pliers) then loosen the nut but dont remove it completely. The first castellated nut to loosen is connecting the UCA to the knuckle, the second is connecting the LCA to the knuckle and the third is connecting the tie bar to the knuckle. Loosen all three. You will need a ball joint splitter for these ball joints. It is possible to use a mallet/soft hammer but i tryed for about an hour with no success so went out and purchased a ball joint splitter. It is a handy tool to have if you will be removing ball joints often and splits the joints in seconds!
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Above: One of the ball joints with castellated nut, this is the LCA to knuckle joint. You can also see where i removed the nut and bolt from the bottom of the shock and LCA that needs to be taken out (step 5).
7. Remove the ring off the large part of the inner CV Boot (the rest can be done once the axle is off the car, it is easier this way). Keep all these rings in good condition and remember which boot they come off, you may want to reuse them and will notice the outer boot is larger than the inner boot so you will need to remember where each goes for perfect fitment. You can slide the large part of the inner boot away from what its connected to once the axle is ready to come out of the car so you dont get grease everywhere yet or drop a bearing that is inside this boot.
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Above: Left is the outer boot, right is the inner boot.
8. This step would be easier with another set of hands. Remove all three castellated nuts you loosened earlier but be careful as you can now remove the whole axle along with the hub assembly from the car. Now, when you first start to remove it you will need to remove three bearings from the inner part of the axle (pictured). These will just fall off otherwise. Make sure you note which way the bearings go back on aswell, they have a flat side and a roundish side. Go ahead and remove it and take it to a bench. It isn't overly heavy, just awkward. It would just be much easier to have someone help you remove it from the car. It is also a little awkward to get it in a good position on the bench, im sure you can work out a way though.
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Above: bearings, the tripod came off is pictured at step 11
9. Now you can remove all the other rings off the boots and rubber thing in the middle of the axle (unsure what this is for). Make sure you note where to reinstall this rubber thing though.
10. If you havent already cleaned up the grease a little from the inner end of the axle, wipe it up so you can see what you are doing. Now you will need your circlip pliers to remove the first circlip (i think these ones are actually called snap rings, or something like that). This one is reasonably easy to remove.
11. Remove the tripod which holds the bearings on. This isn't very difficult to remove with all the grease helping it slide, you may need to give it a soft tap with a mallet/soft hammer if its not coming off easily though.
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Above: This is the inner part of the axle. The thing you can see which the bearings came off is called a tripod.
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Above: Here is tripod removed.
12. Remove the second circlip. This one is the difficult one. I had to go out and purchase a new set of circlip pliers, ones that arent even made for this purpose just so i had a set with a small enough tip to fit in the little gap where you remove it. This took some patience but i got there. These pliers are pictured.
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Above Top: Bottom are a normal set of circlip pliers, top are the ones i purchased because they had small enough tips to fit in the small gap on the circlip with the small gap.
Above bottom: Left is the difficult circlip with the small gap, right is the easier one.
13. Now you can remove the inner boot, the rubber thing and the outer boot.
14. Slide on the new outer boot, the rubber thing and the inner boot and then put the circlips and tripod back on the same way they came off.
15. Secure all the boots with the securing rings that came off them (or with you new ones using a CV Boot tool). I had both but found it easier using the old ones. Make sure that there is plenty of grease in the joints before you secure them down! The only one you cant secure yet is the larger inner one as it connects back onto the car, this is the one you first removed.
16. The axle is now ready to go back in the same way it came out, remember to place the bearings back on the same way they came off, make sure there is plenty of grease here also.
17. Put the nut and bolt back onto the shock/LCA. Then put all the joints back together by screwing the castellated nuts on by hand, you may need to jack up under the LCA to help with getting the UCA to knuckle joint together. Im not exacty sure how all these joints should be tightened. I would recommend checking a manual as im not positive on the correct way to tighten them (or what tension). I wasnt sure whether they should be tightened under load or not. I ended up jacking up under the LCA to tighten them all then placed the cotter/split pins through them. I then removed the jack. I have been driving around and they seem ok, i havent had any squeaks or any noticeable problems.
Driver side:
18. Repeat steps 5 to 17. It is possible to do this side keeping the axle on the car by removing just the LCA to knuckle ball joint and the nut and bolt at the bottom of the shock. With a bit of messing around you can slide the axle out from under the fork and let it hang down so you can access it. It's easier just to take it all out from the car though IMO.
19. Put calipers back onto the disc the same way you removed them, be sure to press the brake pedal down a couple of times to be safe before you drive your car away as the pistons had been pressed back a little.
20. Clean up any grease that you may have gotten on the underside of the car and from around the boots.
21. Put wheels back on car and lower off the jack stands.
22. Test drive your car and make sure everythings all ok.
Done!
Other comments:
This is my first DIY, i hope i did ok. Any feedback is welcome. If im missing something please point it out. I will read over it better tomorrow when i have time, so ignore any bad punctuation :D Sorry if pics arent the best, im no photographer or computer whiz, i didnt take anywhere near as many as i planned to either unfortunately.
I dont know what else to say. Hope this helps someone at some stage and i hope its a good procedure for changing boots, i did it via experimentation.
Paul.
