busted grease boots

[foghorn23]

I noticed when doing the oil change this morning that I have two grease boots that are completely gone. One is on the drivers side on the pitman arm at the relay rod; the other one is on the passenger side on the idler arm at the relay rod. Looks like they are both gone. I've already talked to the "stealer" and they said you cannot just buy the boots that they come with the idler arm and pitman arm components and to replace would be around $300. They said if I'm not experiencing any problems they'd advise just keeping greased and wait and see. I tend to agree, if I have to replace the whole component I might as well wait until they really need it.

 

My questions are:

 

1. Has anyone had this problem too?

 

2. Is the dealer being honest about not getting just the grease boot? (I tend to think they are since they didn't push changing out parts immediately.)

 

3. What is your opinion as to what I can expect on the longevity of these parts with no grease boot as long as they are greased regularly? (I do almost all highway driving, very little off road)

 

Thanks for your opinions.

 

vroten

[99-2door]

Depends on what your idea of regularly is.

 

You could go to the wrecking yard and find boots off of a truck there. But they would still be a pain to install, you would have to take them off the relay rod to put new boots on.

 

I wonder why both boots are missing. Have you had any work done on your front end?

[silversub]

If it were me I'd grease them every oil change and keep an eye on them. They could last for years this way with no significant wear. I think the dealer is right on this one.

[foghorn23]

Sorry I wasn't clear....boots are blown out not missing. I ususally do my own oil changes and lubes and hadn't noticed it before. Don't know what happened guess I went to crazy on grease gun last time. Anyway they're blown; truck hasn't had anyone else work on it.

 

Vroten