Broke it already

Blue2002 · November 6, 2001

Well guys, I have 687miles on my truck now,and it has to go back for warranty work.Today I noticed bluish green grease on my passenger side inner front wheel well.I took a closer look and saw grease on the lower control arm too.It is coming from a tear on the cv boot.Is this a common problem?I also notice a rattle coming from the front end,especially when I turn right.Does any one else have this on thier trucks?

Thanks Rich

pouly · November 6, 2001

well i have 470 miles on my hd cc and the rattel i have to was told it is upper steering arm

Firetiger(MN) · November 12, 2001

steering arm? I have a rattle also when going slow over bumps, and I am assuming its the intermediate steering shaft that was the problem with my '99. I guess they still are pumping the '02s out with the defective part even though they were found to be bad in '99. Nice job GM! No TSB yet for the 2002's on this, but I'm going in soon to have it looked at. This is rediculous.....oh, it started at 500 miles too.

Kansas Kid · November 12, 2001

Quote from Blue2002, posted on Nov. 06 2001,00:51

Today I noticed bluish green grease on my passenger side inner front wheel well.I took a closer look and saw grease on the lower control arm too.It is coming from a tear on the cv boot.Is this a common problem?

This is the worst part about IFS on 4x4 trucks. The main cause of failure is tearing one of the boots, and loosing all your grease. Either that or tearing the boot and letting all that dirt and dust into the CV joint. Both of them are equally as bad.

As for being common, I don't really think so. My truck has 150k miles on the original CV joints, without a single problem. And it has probably spent more time off-road then almost all new 4x4 trucks ever will. The one time to really watch out for this is during the winter. Do not let snow get packed up around the CV joint and allow it to freeze around the joint overnight. When you take off in the morning, it will rip the boot without a doubt. This should only be a something to check for is if you drive in 1-2 feet of snow all the time.

Jpshostr · November 12, 2001

I agree with Kansas here, it does happen, but not as often as it is made out to be. You will definately want to get it fixed, but I wouldn't get very worked up over it being a common problem. We've run Chevy IFS trucks hard since 1990 and never had a ripped boot (there, I just jinked myself ).

wolfie · November 12, 2001

funny you should mention snow... last year I got stuck in a snowbank while plowing and when I was shoveling myself out I noticed one of mine was torn... I think it was probaly damaged in the deep snow.

TxDoc · November 13, 2001

If you are interested, there is a company that makes CV boot protectors, like you see for ATVs. I don't remember if they are steel or aluminum. I have never torn one, but anything can happen.

TeamGreen · November 29, 2001

My cv boot tore on my 89 chevy and some grease is coming out. If I keep driving wil all the grease eventulally coe out? Is it a hard job to replace it or could I do it myself?

gja · November 30, 2001

I just picked my 2500HD up on 11/19 and with less than 500 miles on the clock I noticed the same grease all over the wheelwell. Come to find out it was a cracked boot. Wonder if GM got a bad batch????

Dealer took care of it without an appointment. Two thumbs up to Talarico in Manchester NH!!!!

Kansas Kid · December 1, 2001

My cv boot tore on my 89 chevy and some grease is coming out. If I keep driving wil all the grease eventulally coe out? Is it a hard job to replace it or could I do it myself?

Yep, if you keep driving all the grease is going to come out eventually. It will probably go bad about the time you need 4wd too. ???

Its really not all that hard to replace a CV joint. You will need to have a 3 jaw puller, and use it to push the end of the CV joint out of the hub. While its not a hard procedure, it is time consuming because of all the other junk you have to take loose to get the joint out.