CV boot failed within 10 months

[StewMang]

Hi all

My 53 plate 2.0 TDI failed its MOT last year due to split CV boots on both sides. I had them repaired last November, cost me circa £45 each iirc. I've just recently had new tyres fitted and, to my surprise, the chap mentioned I needed new CV boots. I'm not sure about the driver's side one as difficult to fully inspect it without raising the car but the passenger side one is completely shredded. Chap at the tyre place said they were either cheap/wrong parts or weren't fitted correctly.

I'm taking it back to be repaired again tomorrow and the chap at the garage said he'd sort it out. I'm assuming this means I'll not be paying anything. Always being skeptical of garages it wouldn't surprise me if he claims the part was faulty and tries to charge me labour.

What are people's thoughts on this? Ever heard of CV boots failing in that amount of time? Should I expect it to be repaired free of charge?

Cheers
Stew

 

[LEE69]

My last car liked eating the inner cv boot.

 

[DarkBunny]

They're a perishable item, so I'd be expecting to pay again for them.

On the other hand though, they shouldn't go off that quickly... Odd one really.

 

[LEE69]

You only need to drive over a twig or something and it will rip it

 

[B5NUT]

They should last longer than, however I put an aftermarket set on my A4 and they only lasted 45K miles, got them for ECP for £20 each. So I just purchased 2 new kits form Audi, the boots are far better quality however they were about £40 each and you need to by the hub bolt. (Which was included in the EPC kit) The genuine boots that I've had on Audi's over the years have always lasted around 100K miles.

 

[DarkBunny]

They should last longer than, however I put an aftermarket set on my A4 and they only lasted 45K miles, got them for ECP for £20 each. So I just purchased 2 new kits form Audi, the boots are far better quality however they were about £40 each and you need to by the hub bolt. (Which was included in the EPC kit) The genuine boots that I've had on Audi's over the years have always lasted around 100K miles.

There you go then - go genuine and they should be better quality (hence the price!)

 

[danb986]

Some people go the other way and avoid the genuine. On my old '07 A3 I had a cv gaiter go and bought a new one from Audi. I was surprised at how rigid it was. Almost like plastic.

A guy at works dad is a taxi driver and uses an A4 (or Passat, I can't remember) and kept going through the genuine boots so decided to try non-genuine ones. These non-gen ones seemed to be more rubbery, like a traditional cv boot and didn't seem to split as easily as they could flex more. He went through 4 genuine boots in 40,000 miles, before switching to the aftermarket ones. These have been on there for about 30,000 miles and are still holding up well.

I'm not saying you should use non-gen ones (I didn't on mine), but I thought I'd mention this as an option as it might help someone if they've got reoccurring issues with the Audi ones.

 

[chris.vincent3]

Don't forget not all aftermarket boots are the same, you could all be using different brands. Some being cheap quality and some good quality.

 

[StewMang]

Well I didn't have to pay a penny so fair play to him given some of the comments on here. The guy that spotted they were torn mentioned that the original ones are more like plastic than rubber, these are definitely the more rubbery flexible type. Will keep an eye on them, hopefully they'll last a while now.

On a separate and highly annoying note. I noticed when I was driving to work from the garage that the car was pulling quite heavily to the right, before I took it in the steering was perfectly straight. I felt a bit bad phoning the guy back being as he'd just repaired my car for free but it had definitely only started pulling after coming out of the garage. He argued tooth and nail that there's no way it could have been caused by changing the CV boot but surely if they were working around the front wheel and axle then something could have been knocked etc? He's agreed to take it back in and have a look and check the tracking, just really annoying having to take it back and being made to feel like I making it up!

 

[Granta]

When I fit cv boots and always recommend genuine kits as the aftermarket ones only last a year if that as gen are much better quality!

 

[NHN]

£45 to supply/fit cv's seems very cheap tbh, so probably used some really cheap parts, hence why they had issues after such a short period & if he supplied a warranty then he should also allow for the alignment aswell, if he's that moral as such to repair for free.