Hi folks, I had my 2016 75th Renegade (75k miles) in for an oil change at the dealer, and they noticed the front passenger side CV boot leaking fluid. They told me that on the Renegades they can't replace only the CV boot, they have to replace the entire axle on that side of the car, and the repair work would be about $1400. Yikes. I've had my CV boots repaired on my VW without replacing the entire axle, so I wanted to check with you all here and make sure this is legit. It seems crazy to me that there's no way to replace or repair the CV boot without replacing the whole axle. Is that right? We've had a 1.5" daystar lift with 1"wheel spacers on it for almost 2 years. I'm hoping that stress from the lift kit didn't contribute to the issue, but since the daystar kit is just a spacer kit that uses the stock suspension, that shouldn't put any extra stress on the CV joint, right? Thanks for any insight you all can offer!
Short answer. No, the boot and grease can be replaced without having to replace the whole CV Axle (Half-Shaft) (but the half-shaft has to be removed to perform the boot replacement (stay away from the split boot replacement kits (these work great under emergency situations but are not recommended for a quality repair))). BUT, by he time to pay the additional labor to replace just the boot, it is more cost effective to replace the whole CV Axle. MOPAR sells just a boot, right at $100.00. That is just the boot. you will still need the CV Grease. The whole half-shaft need to be removed to replace just the boot. MOPAR sells the whole CV Axle (Half-Shaft) for about $641.00. AutoZone, for example, sells a Half-Shaft for your vehicle, with a limited Life Time warranty for $202.00 and only take a couple hours to replace it, if you chose to do the work your self. OR, I am sure a local repair facility could replace the half-shaft for you MUCH cheaper than the dealer would.
Used half shafts are readily available to, I used to carry a spare front shaft cause I broke a few on the trails, and the junk yard down the road from me had tons of low mileage Renegades, shafts from them were $69 each, cause nobody was buying them but me..., Gotta to where I could change over in about 30 minutes.
