2001 S Manual CV Boots - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Anyone here have any recent experience with replacing the CV boots or entire axle shafts on their 986? I have a 2001 manual S and all 4 boots are shot. My indie said they will not replace just the boots anymore, they recommend replacing the entire shaft on both sides. I was quoted around $2,500 for the whole thing, and that is with aftermarket shafts. That is way more than I want to pay at this time. I have other repairs I am doing at the same time, including the immobilizer for roughly $1,500. Just looking for thoughts or opinions on this from the group. I really don't want to tackle this myself as I don't have a lift and am not a huge fan of working under cars anymore. I could be convinced if it really isn't that bad of a job, but I've read mixed opinions on that. Should I try another indie to see if they will just replace the boots? Do you agree that the shafts should be replaced as well? If I were to do it myself, is it easier to replace the entire shaft than it is to mess with the boots and grease and all that? I do not know when the botts went bad. It has been in storage for a few years, and before that it has only been driven around 7k miles since 2021. 107k on the odometer in total. Look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks.

doing the boots yourself is not so much a hard job as it is a finicky job that requires a few non-stanard tools. you need to get a huge amount of torque to the wheel nut (whcih means big torque wrench and breaker bar). you have to make sure you don't get any grease on the fasteners that attach the cv to the transmission flange when reassembling. sometimes the cv is really difficult to get off the shaft and you need a slidehammer or somesuch (and the outer cv has to come off to fit the inner boot. *** edit - the other way around - inner cv comes off to change the outer boot ***). depending on the boot clamp you need a special tool to put them on. and it is a dirty job. having said that i had no luck with aftermarket halfshafts - mostly garbage in my experience. given i didn't trust my cv's as the boots had been torn for sometime and i wasn't sure how much crud the bearings had been exposed to, i just bought used oem shafts off ebay.

It would be good to know which shafts he would want to fit. I am not aware of any shafts available from reputable brands. But if not from a reputable brand, why on earth would they be that expensive? So also get a price breakdown on parts / labour. If the outer CV joint is still ok, I would guess that the best option is to replace the boots and, if needed, the inner CV joint. Second best might be to replace with good condition used shafts (I paid about $100 for 987 shafts). If these options fail, replace with new.. Just my few cents.

I appreciate the responses. I think I'm going to order the stuff to replace the inner joint, and replace the boots on the outers. That way I can remain with OEM shafts and joints. Sounds like a pain to replace, but after reading, not super difficult. I've read a few people have had luck with cheap aftermarket, making the whole process easier and cheaper, but I've read twice as many stories of failure within the first hundred miles. As tempting as it is to try aftermarket, I think the best thing to do is refresh the existing OEM shafts. Well, really the best thing would be to order new OEM shafts, but I'm not willing to spend 3k just on axles on a car worth 10k when there's other things that need attention.

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I have replaced the boots on 2 cars, but during engine swaps, so the shafts where easily removable. Normally some suspension and exhaust parts have to be removed to gain access. I verified the CV joints on all the half-shafts and regreased them before installing new boots. Not a hard job but very messy. Just installing new shafts is much easier but regreasing likely costs less than $100 including the boots.

You may want to get more information from this page https://www.pedrosgarage.com/site-3/cvj-boots-and-axles.html Good luck!

You should be able to replae the boots alone without pulling the axle nuts/outer joints. Just disconnet at the gearbox, and you can cut off the old boots. disassemble the interior joint, then slide outer boot on before the inner boot. regrease & reassemble. Having said that, the axles themselves are available from trakauto on rockauto for $87 a pop... I'd maybe just replace them both, as assembling the joint after replacing the boots is probably more work than just replacing everything. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=12607069&cc=1388358&pt=2288&jsn=498&_nck=eAAcbbIvRAkzRlt0s9jXR52PM9fLZcic0fDSLE1mMuOjm ayPHerWk6A2R%2FbYjxMcbEin84Z%2BtSpwzO8np%2FLoyrb%2 F04QbNcxvAkJxmRFuXL0HSrrz7dvTo4HLTX%2FAwH4p6FfoXQl v%2F6zv9ZPcZOznUv89tPlarn3cC4i0UHmp3BySOowm1pXV52f qWMUMdoEmIIPzqN7SIOgvfjOyp3jHROLFns1hkjNDLI%2Bi8EO Sj5Ncs1K9pRFoBysisEd0N0kSCle3g4HkHA3U9G0LXlwR726h3 rydfavuiXP8zHdmsH%2FT0RDRUwhtFw%3D%3D

When I was working on my 2003, I could not remove the nut despite 2 ft breaker bar. Those are hard to remove and then to install. You may need help from another person to step on the brake.

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It's been a few years, but I'm pretty sure this is how I (with my son's much-appreciated help) did mine. As I recall, we had to lower some exhaust components to be able to work things in/out—but it's possible that was because we had installed headers on the car (a gift from that same son & his little brother many years ago) way back when. Messing with the grease was indeed messy but not awful. I considered aftermarket, but the more I thought about it the more I figured gently used (well, sorta gently) Porsche shafts were probably preferable to new aftermarket ones from who-knows-where. They seemed in pretty good shape and have performed well over the subsequent 4 years. Remember that if you do go about this by removing the axle nut(s), you can do a pretty good job without the big ol' torque wrench. Dust off your physics and use the formula utilizing your weight and distance from the axis nut. I held onto my son's arm for balance, then gently stood on the breaker bar-extended handle the proper distance out, with the bar parallel to the floor. This was when I did a wheel bearing and it has been fine since...and that was 14 years ago.

I appreciate all the replies. I ordered all the stuff to replace the inner, and new boots on outer and inner for both sides. After looking on EBay, I kind of wished I would have just ordered used shafts as there are a few on there that look to be in very good condition. I have to tackle this along with pads and rotors all around next weekend. Hoping everything goes smoothly. There is a car show the following weekend that I would like to drive my car to. I won't be entering it into the show, but it's nice to cruise around in it with all the other sweet cars. And with the Manzo headers and Fabspeed Supercup exhaust, I can hang with the rest of the loud cars that like to assault your eardrums. Can't wait.

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Relatable. I put the ebay dual muffler exhaust, seondary cat delete on my car. Ran baffles in the exhaust for about a month but took them out (it gave weird rattle on dropping rpm). Most importantly, heavy throttle followed by lifting/downshift will give that amazing, immature burble.