Grrr split cv gaiter

[tobz.]

Was standing outside having a ciggie a while ago and noticed a load of black stuff on one of my rims, I thought it was tar as I had to drive along a newly resurfaced road this morning 
On closer inspection one of my cv gaiters has emptied its contents all over my shiny wheel 
Am I right in thinking it should only take about 1hour at a garage to fit a new one???

[Agreeable Slick]

Do it yerself, it's a easy job to do.

[DavidGTi]

I doubt it would take a garage that long to be honest, I certainly wouldn't pay for than the average 1 hour labour for it (£30-35), you may even get a decent garage that charges you half-an-hours labour, although most won't do this.

Its a fairly easy job, but when mine went last year I got a mate to help me, its just messy and arsing about.

[tobz.]

Would do normally slick but
a) I'm already fitting new discs/pads/bearings on my van this weekend
b) I don't think I've got a socket large enough for the hub nut
and
c) I got covered in cr@p just looking round the back there last night to verify it had split and not just popped off!!!

One thing I would like to know though for future reference, how is the CV joint held onto the end of the shaft??? Is it just a circlip that is blatantly obvious once you have cleared all the grease out of the way???

[Judderi]

Its some kind of pressure fit. You just belt it with a hammer to get it off.

[Veedubgt18v]

precise careful mechanical surgery then..........

[Judderi]

Yup. You gotta use the special tool. i.e the biggest hammer you have.

[AudiA8Quattro]

The joint is held on with a circlip. Its a relatively easy job for someone that is experienced. For a newbie not that easy.

[shaft69]

You can get stretch boots now so you dont have to split cv from shaft. Turn it inside out and stretch over. Only seen them the other day lads use them on the jobs say there brilliant. Saves all the messing trying to split the joint.

[tobz.]

I thought I should just revive this thread as a word of warning to others not to use cheap CV gaiters!!!
My car is back in the garage today for its THIRD new gaiter!!!
When I got home after having the first done I noticed grease in the wheel again, jacked it up had a look and the was an abrasion and a split in it. The mechanic was very apologetic as we assumed he had trapped it with a spanner and he fitted another free of charge.
This was fine for a couple of days, then friday while cleaning the car I noticed the wheel was full of grease again 
Took the wheel off and this time the gaiter was covered in abrasions with about 3 splits in it! There was no way the guy was this careless. Thinking about my driving pattern last week the failures coincided with me putting my foot down on the way home on a private road to about 120 or so. We therefore concluded that the gaiter wasn't up to the job and had to be expanding at high speed and catching the bottom of the shock or the bottom ball joint bolts, there is absolutely no other way it could come into contact with anything.
Today it's back in the garage to have a genuine VAG gaiter fitted and hopefully this will end my saga!!!

So beware all there are some cheap gaiters for sale out there that aren't up to the job on valvers (I should ask tonight what the brand was).

Toby