tomb1269

I have a stock 2005 F150 FX4. I have done no leveler or anything that would change the factory suspension, however I just had both outer CV joint boots split and do not know why. The only thing I can think is my limited use of wheel drive for any distance or speed combined with 128K that the rubber got hard one of the sub-zero nights we had in February and caused them to split. I know that they were not split the beginning of January as I had the tire changed and they would have spotted them at that time.


Anyone have any ideas? I know unlike most vehicles our CVs are not spinning unless 4 wheel drive is engaged. So I am thinking they cracked due to age and little use. Any ideas how to preserve the rubber in the future? I did see one guy spraying the boots with silicone spray like you do to preserve door seals.

techrep

iTrader: (1)

I use armorall

Project_Red

Mine split too but I thought it was from my leveling kit because they weren't split when I put my leveling kit on befor winter but during winter I rotated and they were split. I live in Ohio so that sounds right about them splitting on a cold night

ReaperHWK

My boots are 10 years old in my 2006, I recently did some suspension work and my boots are 100% fine.


I never applied or did anything to them. Maybe just luck of the draw..........

Project_Red

If they break while driving I'm screwed. But may this be a dumb question, I'm not going to do this but a me and my friend got in a little argument about what happens if you take your cv out will it be fine or will it be the biggest f up in the world and ruin all front end components?

Feathermerchant

Even though the axles do not turn except in 4WD, the boots flex as the suspension moves. If the truck gets put on a rack supported by the frame (like for a tire rotation), then the suspension drops to full extension.

grss429

You can take out the cv axle and drive fine... but dirt and **** will get inside the IWE/hub... when i was doing my hub/IWE swap i drove on the old parts with no cv axle for a day or two

ReaperHWK

I wouldn't do it, that hub has multiple small bearings that need to be clean, if you get dirt in there you're going to have problems.

Project_Red

Well I told my friend if I take it out it will be fine but I'm not going to because of the bearings and stuff but he says if I take it out my whole setup will be fudged up and my tire will end up falling off. Now I can prove to him I'm right haha