Hey Brucey, I did the same thing but ... Mine was much more annoying and comical if you were watching it.

I notice you didn't show the other side. The manual says you can't take it apart and I couldn't figure it out but, I wasn't sure the grease was compatible so I wanted to clean it up and regrease it. Well, they said don't use petroleum cleaner and to use hot soapy water... that's where the hilarity began. Basically you end up with a gloppy slimey mess and it doesn't work.

I've done this a dozen times out in the dunes with brake cleaner and paper towels and never had an issue. For some reason I decided to listen to the "experts" and tried that pointless messy fiasco first which, only made the whole thing harder. Basically what I ended up doing was to take a long nozzle air blower, blow as much of the grease out [whole thing in a bucket] then hosing it down with brake cleaner until it was clean.

I only did one side last time because only that side failed. I'm going to do the other one when I do the struts and swaybars and will use the tried and true method this time.

The only thing I would add to the side you did would be, they say to keep the bearings on the same stems and reassemble in the same slot due to wear patterns. I have an engraver so I just made a little mark on the end and on the housing and laid the bearings in order.

They make a banding tool and special bands that make that whole thing easier. Unfortunately mine is up in my trailer 3 hours away and was when I did my axle. I used the pinch type that came with the boots and it worked ok but I did notice a very little bit of seepage when I did my rotors the other day [only on the bottom boot].

Not sure what the tool cost me and if you don't do more than one car, probably not worth the investment but... way easier and locks it tight.

The other thing I'd suggest is to have the axle slid in half way when you tighten the boot clamps. If you have it all the way out and get an airtight seal, when you get it in normal position [half way out] it will balloon up the boot.

Good luck for any DIY'ers out there, like Brucey said, it's messy but, definately cheaper. Did mine about 15k ago and havn't had an issue.

 

I used brake cleaner. I thought about using some industrial dish washing soap I had but brake cleaner worked great. It was a total mess though.

The other CV boot wasn't even torn, so I didn't bother with it. The one that tore on me was the one right above the Catalytic Converter, so I'm sure the heat from that guy baked it apart.

Good tip on the bearings and boot spacing too. Mine doesn't seem to be having a problem so I guess I lucked out and did them right the first time.

I marked the camber bolts on the strut where they needed to be, and I put it back in the same place and it's obviously not in the same spot. Ugh. I'm going to mess with it this weekend.

 

I just took the ball joint pinch bolt out, used a prybar to drop the control arm and the strut just swung out of the way.

It is messy, I've used brake cleaner, carb cleaner, gas, race fuel ... pretty much any solvent I happened to have out in the dunes.

The clamps work ok if you have the correct tool or, a set of dull bullnose cutters.

 

Awesome thread. Thanks so much for posting this. I've gotten to this point (your pic above) and the spider won't yank off the shaft. The circlip is off and everything. Any ideas?

TIA

 

Well, I ended up using this tool from Autozone. It worked perfectly.

Posi-lock 3-Jaw 2-Ton Puller

 

Oh, you got it. Hmm

The C ring was the only thing holding mine in place. It literally fell apart after I took the ring off. What year is yours? It might be a slightly different design. Would be nice to know in the future.

Good job though!

 

I actually have an 08 Forester. But it looks to be pretty much the same. Everything involving spleens was like **** to separate! I figured I'd try the above puller since I was returning a loan on the axle puller anyway. I took the axle to Autozone and they let me use Posi-lock puller right there in the store. Worked out great.

Thanks for the thread Brucey. It really helped me visualize everything.

 

Hello Brucey,
I'm planning to change my passenger side outer boot this weekend. I have bought a kit with boot, grease and clamps. But in the thread about CV replacement Mr Driveby talks about new axle spring pins, and axle nut and oil seal... Did you need those? Or the kit I already have is enough?
Thank you,

Jarek

 

I re-used the axle pins, axle nut, and seal, but I did give it a little bit of bearing grease. The seal looked fine to me so I saw no reason to replace it.

I'd also suggest remove the strut instead of the ball joint. It's easier to mark/remove/reattach it in the same mark than it is to get the ball joint off intact if it's an older car.

 

Thanks! I guess I will see what condition these pins and others are. I hope I can re-use them.

 

So I finally figured out what to do (I think), I put my car on jack stand, went under and I took another look, inspect my inner boot (I checked it before it looked fine then) and I see it has cracks on the rubber... I'm afraid it might tear soon. So I guess I will have to change them both now. Double re-boot... Of course I don't have inner boot kit at this time... It will be very messy. I hope I can do it.

 

I haven't disassembled an outer joint yet. I'm sure it's nothing complicated (just messy)

Would you mind grabbing a few pictures while you're at it?

 

I just did the reboot tonight on the passenger side inner CV (2005 OBXT, 56k miles). Parts $18 (NAPA). Time about 2.5hrs (I'm slow - it took me 20 minutes just to find where I left my 1/2" breaker bar). Reason - Rebooting was much less cost than replacing a perfectly good axle at the expense of just a little bit more time vs. replacing with a reman axle. Level of difficulty = about a 5. Mainly 'cause the ball joint was corroded. That took some creative leveraging to get separated. If there's interest I'll post some pics but most are repeats of what is already in this thread.

 

I'm about to tackle this job on my wife's 05 outback, with 75K miles, BOTH left and right side inner boots are totally separated - the H6 has catalytic converter on both sides right under the boots - nice design. Two things i'm intimidated about - the ball joint - I'd love to leave it alone and see if I can get away with just disconnecting the strut and tie rod end (any thoughts)? And second, how difficult was it to get the axle in and out of the transmission? Doesn't seem like there's lots of room to get a pry bar in there to pop it out (more room on passenger side than driver side). Plus, how do you re-engage the axle in the transmission on reinstallation?

How'd you end up getting the ball joint out?

 

2005+ axles - replace only OUTER boot?

Folks, I have a 2005 Outback with a torn OUTER front boot after 60,000 miles.

I picked up a replacement OUTER boot kit at NAPA. I figured I'd replace the inner boot "while I'm in there" But nobody has the inner boots in stock for 2005+ axles in Washington State at any of the parts stores or dealers! The parts guy at the local Subaru dealer said they don't normally stock them cause the inner boots don't tend to break on the 2005+ models. I guess cause they re-routed the exhasut so it doesn't heat the CV up so much? Anyway they said the outers break all the time and most shops will either:
- pull the whole axle and replace it with a re-man
- or replace the boot with the axle still attached to the tranny

He said the advantage of leaving the axle connected to the tranny is that you don't have to replace the oil seal. The wheel hub/bearing has been updated compared to 2000-2004 cars so you don't need to replace any oil seal there either.

With 60,000 miles and no clicking or anything, I think I'll just do a boot swap with the axle still in the tranny. Dunno how I'll clean off all the old grease without being able to dunk the whole shebang into a bucket of solvent.

Just curious if anybody has heard this story before about the 2005+ cars?

 

I didn't remove the ball joint when I did mine (or did a friends)

Instead, I mark the strut bolts where they are to keep the alignment set. Then I just unhook the strut. Safer than trying to get that ball joint off. Every time I've tried I end up breaking the damned thing where it's so corroded by the time you need to do the work. Saves a ton of work and money.

As far as getting the axle out, the models with a cotter pin I can vouch for they slide in and out freely. Even when grimed up.

The ones without the cotter pin are usually a little tougher, but still easily done with a good grip with just your hands.

 

I can verify firsthand on the 2005 that you can indeed remove the axle without touching the balljoint or tie-rod. You just need to disconnect the swaybar and the two bolts connecting the strut to the wheel-bearing housing. Then you can finagle the axle out of the wheel bearing housing. Its a tight fit and you may have to put the key in the ignition to unlock the steering to get everything at a better angle.

NAPA has the best prices on the boot kits and they are manufactured by EMPI. Make sure to pickup new differential->axle oil seals just in case and new axle nuts from the subaru dealer.

 

Am I disconnecting the swaybar or the swaybar link (mine is a 4 inch goofy link that looks like it has 2 little ball joints in it)? Also, does that mean I need to have the car jacked up on both right and left side so there's no load on the stabilizer bar (sway bar)?

 

PS: I finally did enough of these jobs to justify the cv boot band tool, and have to say that it's worth it to just buy it when you do this job or find someone with it. It's only a few dollars more than the hose clamps you have to use anyway and I have a lot more confidence in them than the ACE hardware hose clamps I currently have on mine.

 

It really doesn't matter which end of the link you remove. Either will allow you to drop the control arm down for clearance.

 

Yes just disconnect the 4" link on one side of the car. Note that to loosen you might need both a 14mm box wrench and a 5mm allen/hex wrench. Loosening both ends of the link makes it easier to get outa there.

And yes, jack up both sides of the car - if possible jack up the side that you're working on higher than the other to tilt teh transmission so that fluid doesn't come out of the axle opening.

 

You can do this without disconnecting the sway bar, as well.

 

True, but I think its easier to move around the LCA and everything without it connected.

 

Yup, it is. Just saying if they want to be an ape and just beat on things till they work the option is open to skip that step. I actually thought it wasn't worth the trouble on the forester I did this on. With the legacy it was a little bit of a help.

 

Let me just say that I strongly recommend either you rehab your axles or buy OEM replacements from Subaru. I had a 98 Legacy GT wagon and a few years ago I made the NAPA mistake and bought a NAPA reman axle. That obviously caused some vibration, but I lived with it. Earlier in the summer, I swapped in a MWE reman axle (highly recommended on this site) to replace the opposite side and to my surprise, the vibration became twice as worse. When the axle boots on my wife's 07 Outback fail, I'll be replacing the boots immediately. No more reman axles for me. It's not worth the vibration risk.

 

I do plan to just rehab the axle instead of replacing it. I don't know how long the boot's been cut for, but seems to be driving okay without noise/vibration, so when I pull it out, I'm hoping it will look good enough to rehab it. I bought the boot kit from Subaru today. "Kit" consists of boot, 2 bands and grease. I'm assuming I can reuse the retaining clips inside the assembly (is this true)?

Cost of new axle is unbeleivable - Subaru wants something like $369 each.

As far as this DIY job, I'm not sure if I'm gonna try it myself or pay Subaru to do it. They charge $256 to do it. I don't have some tools for this job that I need, (like big enough torque wrench for the axle nut and strut bolts (mine only goes to 100 ft-lbs), etc.). by the time I work the numbers, I'm not sure it's worth my weekend to do it myself...I know if everything goes smoothly, it's a relatively straightforward job, but when do these jobs ever go smoothly - I've read quite a few horror stories on this forumn regarding ball joints, etc. If I can't get the axle out without messing with the ball joint, and I mess that up, then this will end up costing me WAY more than any potential savings.

On the other hand, the driver side boot is also split. AND I've got two of these cars between me and my wife, so it might be worth the pain of learning and tool cost.

On the other hand, Subaru will probably tell me that I need a new axle, and/or new ball joint, and or new tie rod end, and anything else they can try to justify while they're in there - so that $256 axle rehab becomes $1000.

Yes, the vicious cycle of "mechanic distrust, I can do it myself, no I can't", continues...

 

Try an independent auto repair shop. There is nothing special about subaru axles and any shop can do CV boot installs. Subaru dealers charge a very high premium on labor beause of the "book time" per job and you can easily save 50% on parts and labor going with an independent shop.

For DIY a good torque wrench is essential but the axle nut torque doesn't have to be exactly 164 ft-lbs - just in the ballpark. Probably anywhere from 150 - 200 is OK. You just don't want a 300 ft-lb impact wrench on there cause that will probably ruin the wheel bearing over time. And 100 is too low to be safe.

You don't need to touch the balljoints for this job. Subaru's shop manual is plain wrong. Ask any tech at the dealer if they touch the balljoint for this job and they will look at you funny. Now does every deaer do an alignment afterwards? Probably not, but they should. Chances are they will try to charge the customer for it...

 

Likewise, if you're in the area and money is tight you're welcome to stop and use my garage. I know it can be bad when you go to the dealership sometimes, but I'm not sure what part of "New England" you're in.

Another way to look at it is if you need buy the tools for this job, and they're equaling the cost of what it would take a mechanic to do it, you're still coming out ahead since at the end of the day you still have the tools that you wouldn't have otherwise.

 

whoa - i'm back from the ledge now - sorry for the whining! thank you for the kind and generous offer to use your garage - i'm in massachusetts, so i don't think that'll work

I will likely do this myself - can't this weekend, probably the one after that. Thanks for all your help.