Greetings,
I just wanted to thank everyone that contributed to this post re the boot / axle replacement .... I've never done one myself so this was my first experience. It was on a 2005 Outback .....
Main concern was a terrible smell after driving a while ... When I racked the car and took a peak, I found that both inner boots were torn completely in half and all the grease was on top of the cats ... STINKY STINKY STINKY .... I used paint thinner (cuz that's all I had in bulk) to clean the cats and rest of the exhaust off but then used brake clean as a final cleaning agent so it would dry and not burst into flames when started ...
After reading through everything it was clear what I had ahead of me. The only problem I really had was getting the ball jts seperated. I had to put a lot of heat to them therefore destroying the boots on the ball jts. Even with all the heat and PB BLASTER, the pry bar I had to use was over 5 ft long ... Fell on my ass a few times when it slipped out .... Humorous but a little painfull when I racked my melon on the lift the car was on ....
Since I already had everything apart, I thought it would be a good idea to just go ahead and replace them while it was down ..... I opted for the Moogs .. A little more expensive but since this is my bosses wife's car, I wanted to cover my tookus ....
To get them out of the lower control arms was a real pain as well ...
LOTTO HEAT and one really heavy BFH .....
Again,
I thank you all ... Have a great rest of your ownership days ...
.
The DOBERDEWD
