kajtek1

W211 is reaching 13 years on the roads, but seems nobody DIY front boots yet.
Mine inner boot on passenger side did show some grease, so I had to "break the ice" and get on it.
I did several boots on VW and W210, but W211 is a bit different and harder.
First, I bought boots at autohousaz as those I install on my brother's W210 over 2 years ago work well,
But when W210 boots come German-made, the W211 boots had no marking on them at all. The only word were on grease tubes that say "Made in Italy"
But those boots turn a junk. They were made from very stiff material, that having no clear grooves on the end would not hold on joints flanges too well, while soft clamps turn weaker than the boot material, who on turns would stretch the claps and whole thing would open.
DON'T BUY THAT STUFF !
MB boots cost me $112 at wholesale (sometimes it is good to befriend the part person) so the cost is not that bad.
What makes them different from other boots is that inner boots comes with aluminium sleeve attached and the clamp on boot is factory made.

kajtek1

First, taking the big,( 27mm head ) bolt out.
I removed the wheel to knock the cap from the inside, than put 3 bolts back, lower the wheel on the block and put my breaker bar on it.
Don't have big torque wrench, but my 200+ lb body on 16" bar made about 225 ft-lb. That was the force to break the bolt loose and that was the torque I put new bolt in.
I lifted the car by front center point and left the key in ignition, so turning the flange and axle was easy.

kajtek1

Next disconnecting the joint, pushing the suspension to the rear, while pushing the outer joint out of the flange.
I don't have puller of this size, so old-fashion hammer stroke did break the joint loose.
I also disconnect sway bar link.

kajtek1

The inner joint shaft comes out of its housing.
Make sure you don't drop the 3 bearing into dust.

kajtek1

Taking old inner boot sleeve out was the hardest part.
It was frozen and hard to access. Pulling it with vise-grips did not work, so I finally cut and chiseled it out.
It is aluminium sleeve over steel housing, so cutting is relatively easy, but be gentle to not score the housing.
After cleaning, replacing the oring the new sleeve with boot slid on quite easy.

kajtek1

Lost the picture of disconnecting outer joint from the shaft.
It is slide-in with spring clip connection, but for some reason on this car the fit was pretty tight.
I had to hammer it pretty long.
There are 2 ways to do it.
1- insert 3/8" wrench extension into the axle hole and keep hammering.
2. slide the boot from out and while holding the shaft at outer joint in the air, find the angle where you can hit the inner "spider" with a hammer.
Brass hammer is recommended.
Once you have the outer joint removed, clean old grease, leave the outer joint on the bench and take the shaft back to the car.
I put almost all new grease inside the inner housing, slid the shaft with inner boot from the back of shock fork, put the bearing on the inner joint and put the assembly into the housing. Once it there, I add some grease on the top of the inner joint.

kajtek1

The boot kit come with new outer spring clip, but seeing how tight the fit is, I decided to leave the old one in.
After finishing the inner joint, slide the outer boot on with clamps on it already, put grease inside the outer boot (why the grease has different color?) and tap the joint back on the axle.
Before putting the boot on , tilt the joint make sure it is all the way in.

kajtek1

Now this is not MB crimping tool, no Hazzet, nor Rolex, but some older members might have seen it before.

kajtek1

Make sure you put the joints back the right way, reattach sway bar link, clean the grease from rotor, put the wheel back, torque the axle bolt and take it for test drive.

kajtek1

What I overlook in original installation, the inner boot sleeve was "mushroom" on the back of the flange.
After some driving I noticed that it is coming out of CV joint and spill some grease around.
Spend over 1 hr with long pry bars to bend the sleeve into mushroom.
Don't know how MB does that, but the inner CV joint has no access from the sides and you can only work on it from the side hole.
Bottom line, I did replace boots on W210 in about 45 minutes per axle, this one with the cheap aftermarket boots and then redoing the job with MB boots cost me well over 10HR. Mostly becouse of access.

OCKlasse

Great write-up!

butter123

My front driver side CV axle needs to be replaced soon since both the inner and outer boots are ripped. No symptoms of bad axles yet. My question is, does the 2008 w211 4matic require any special tools for the axle replacement? My local european specialist charges twice as much for the replacement than a "regular" auto shop. Anyone had any luck with reman CV axles from oreaily's because the dealership one cost $1100 vs $120.

kajtek1

I was trying to pull inner CV joint as that would make installation of neew boot easier, but on passenger side there is no access for putting pry bar on it. You might want to check WIF what tool MB use for the sucker.
The Chinese axles are not long lasting, but several members installed them on W210.
I would rather clean the old axle, inspect the joints and put it back with new boots and grease.
This is what I did in brother's W210 who I bought for him with torn boot. He made over 30k miles on it since. I made full pictorial about it on other site. German boots for W210 were $40 per axle.

butter123

My local shop told me they could reboot both ends of the axle, but it will cost a lot more for than install remanufactured axle. The boots are $75 outer and $40 inner plus the labor to install and regrease the joints. The remanufactured axles are just damaged original mercedes axles reconditioned and rebooted. Similar to a rebuilt alternator in a sense.
My mechanic told me if I want to go with the reman axles, I can just drive the car till it shows symptoms haha.

kajtek1

I can confirm that taking CV joints apart for cleaning and inspection is pretty big and VERY messy job.
Since you are posting here, I assume you DIY to some degree. This is definitely a job where it would pay big.
Also I had very bad experience with aftermarket boots on W211 as I wrote above.

butter123

I'm not talking about aftermarket boots, I'm taking about the whole axle with boots installed on them. It would be cheaper to get a remanufactured axle than to replace the inner and outer boots. Would changing the driver side w211 cv axle be very different than other cars? Any special dealership only tools required?
I can do some electronic diy and simple stuff, but anything underneath the car besides oil change I would bring it to a shop.

kajtek1

You are not reading the replies asking the same question over and over again.
I think the quoted $120 is new axle form China, but regardless they don't have good reputation.
Buy it and report back in a year?
One report says that reluctor rings from China had problem working on W211, but that will be obvious right after installation.

butter123

$120 are remanfactured axles from oreaily's meaning they use original mercedes axles and replace whatever it was broken on it and fit their own boot on it. But they may very well be remanfactured/reconditioned in China. I talked to many mechanics in the area including the stealership and they all say remanfactured axle is the same as the oe axle just reconditioned. I believe the term remanfactured and aftermarket are different. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Plus there might be damages in the axles and a new boot wont fix. Overall I think getting a remanufactured cv axle would be a much economical and easier solution. My shop said they will warranty the axle even if the parts were not directly from mercedes.

kajtek1

When "aftermarket" is relatively easy to understand and in US in 99% it means "Made in China"
the "rebuild" is one of the most abused term here.
In CV joints case, most of the time it means new boots and grease. Some rebuilders claim to grind the seats and put bigger *****, but that means they grind off surface hardness and now seats have softer metal.
But think about it. New boots cost $112. Even bought in bulk they can be bought cheaper, consider shipping, sale and advertisement cost.
That leaves basically no money left for any physical work ... if that in fact is reused MB axle.
When something sounds too good to be truth......

butter123

Those rebuild axles are autoshop brands like oreaily or autozone and they do have a small core charge. Like for my particular axle, oreaily charges $99 with a $20 core charge.
That means they get my old oe axle for only $20 and put on their own boots, joints, or whatever it's bad in them.
I understand it's skeptical to think a $1000+ part would only cost 1/10 of the original...
Only one shop in my area would do the reboot for my inner and outer cv joint, even they recommend going with a remanufactured axle.
If there is no remanfactured option and the only option was to buy a new axle from the dealership, then hack yes, the reboot option is a no-brainer.

04Fire

Just like to add a few more things. In order to help keep everything we need to know in one place.

If you're wondering how to properly (special tool) remove the entire axle half shaft the MB tool# 203 589 03 63 00. Or you may try and use this method: http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...eplacement.htm

In addition to what has been posted by kajtek1 I'd like to add that if you're just doing the outer CV boot you only need to loosing the axle bolt and steering knuckle at the lower ball joint. Then use a floor jack to help keep knuckle out of the way. Once the knuckle is out of the way take that same axle bolt and reinsert it into the axle (IMPORTANT: be sure the CV joint is parallel to the axle as though the vehicle is sitting on all 4 tires) and slowing began to tighten the bolt. This will slowly separate the CV joint from the axle without the risk of damaging it with a hammer (if a hammer must be used as stated above be sure it's a brass one).




The silver circle in the middle of the CV joint is the end of the bolt.

kajtek1

I did wonder what tool dealer use, but the given number shows no images on google, when comes with $200+ prices.
Pelican site shows different box, when I remember W211 is not giving you any access behind inner joint.
Since posting I run into pictorial, where hobbyist bought 1" wide aluminium strap at Lowe's, bend the ends and with 1 end clamp to the inner CV joint, he used huge socket as sliding hammer to hit bolt mounted on the other end of strap.
Pretty ingenious and bulletproof.

rtbrjason

Do you have a link for this?

I did mine today but was unable to remove the inner piece and had to rebuild with it on the car. I'm not sure how well it really went back together and expect there is at least a chance I'll end up replacing the whole axle..

kajtek1

No, sorry. It was so simple that I did not feel like need to bookmark the site and now could not find it on google, even I found lot of my pictures
The problem with changing inner boot on the car was with mushrooming the aluminium sleeve and would I do it next time, I would rather build the tool.
The only difficult thing I have seen in this method was manufacturing clamp that would hold the strap on inner joint body.
Than on different site I have seen owners fitting C bolt on it.

_Ryan

3" exhaust clamp is the size you need. Works the same as the Mercedes tool.