So today I went and had my tires balanced. I have a 2 inch leveling kit that I installed and 33.5 inch tires. While the guy had the tires off I was checking things in the front. This weekend I had the truck in 4wd and the left front would pop when it was in a bind with the tires fully turned. Driving straight there was no issue. Well today I noticed that there's a fair amount of grease coming out of the left front outside CV boot. The passenger side also had some. I couldn't find a hole in it however.

Clearly the CV axle wouldn't be bad at this point? I'm starting to regret the leveling kit..... I didn't remove the cv axle when I installed the leveling kit. Haven't seen anyone else with this issue either.

Truck has 12k miles. Should I go to the dealer? Any chance it will be covered under warranty?

 

Very unlikely considering you have a leveling kit and you did the install yourself

 

How the heck could both have grease coming from them... I don't get that.

 

Did you inspect the boots. It's possible they came unseated or tore when you pulled down on the lower arm and the shaft was at an extreme angle.

 

I looked briefly. I can't find a rip or see where it could've rubbed something. The band looks tight and seated still.

 

I had my whole driver side CV shaft and boot replaced under warranty. I have 2.25 ready lift level not dealer installed. If your dealer is an ******* they may not cover it but mine didn't even question. Said they can't blame the hole in the booth on a level and the tech decided to replace everything.

Also had a passenger upper ball joint go, again covered u set warranty no questions.

 

I'm guilty of poking a pinhole in a CV boot once while working on a car. Not sure how I did it, and didn't notice it until grease started leaking once it was driven. Luckily it was while I was working at the Mercedes Benz dealer, and I was able to just replace it and put it under warranty. I think it was the cotter pin in the lower ball joint poked it while I had the steering knuckle off replacing a wheel bearing.

 

Thanks for the reply. It's definitely the boot. No idea how I did it. I thought I was pretty careful. Oh well, live and learn. Going to check with the dealer and go from there.

 

ya if you have a good dealer they should replace it anyway. but really once you do a level they can deny claims for CV axles, tie rods, and upper ball joints. this is why its good to have a good relationship with your dealers service department.

 

Every level install ive seen for these trucks you have to remove the cv from the knuckle to gain enough clearance for install… it would be very difficult to do without doing so on these vehicles so the boot being unseated is probably the most likely cause