Hello Members,
First; a wish for a happy/healthy holiday to all and family.
I have not posted on the site for quite sometime but I am so very thankful for the guidance I received from so many members when I queried to sell my car or buy a new car after the extended warranty ended.
With the forum help I kept my 2014 MB E350 4MATIC (Model212) and I still love this car from the day I bought it in October 2013.
The car is at 105K MILES and with thankfully no issues; only ordinary maintenance....tires; battery; A+B scheduled checkups as per the manual LIKE CLOCKWORK---I NEVER MISS.
I placed four new tires yesterday and was shown that the boot cracked and the oil/grease was not encased on the LEFT FRONT AXLE.
I NEVER HAVE HAD ANY DRIVING ISSUES, NOISES; ETC and I would never have known of this issue unless I did the tire replacement.
My question is:
Do I go to a MB dealership or find an indie and ask to just replace the boot or replace the entire unit. What price area would I be looking at and what is the usual number of hours to perform such a repair.
I truly appreciate any advice and/or suggestion.
THANK YOU !!

 

MB dealers in USA 'Don't do boots" so new axle can cost you more than $2k.
My W212 is not 4M, but I did boots on W210 and W211.
Could buy German-made boots for $40 in the past, while MB boot for W211 was about $100.
This is about 1 hr job even for DIY.
I made pictorials about those jobs on benzworld,
But since you drove the car with lost grease, make sure the joint is still in serviceable condition.

 

What's the vin number? Maybe someone can look up the correct MB part number for you. I would either get a boot kit or a cv joint kit because the dealer will probably want to replace the entire axle but they should be able to just replace the joint/boot. If it's not making noise, it's probably ok to just throw a new boot on it. If it was making noise, then you'd do the joint kit. In theory you could go to an indy and try an aftermarket CV axle, those are in the $100 range but in the W211 it caused a vibration, don't know if it will do the same with the W212 but save the old axle so you can rebuild it if a new aftermarket one causes any problems. While it may just take an hour or so to replace a boot, you do have to take apart a bunch of stuff to get at the axle and then get it out so it's several hours. That's why they like to just replace the axle, no need to spend time replacing the boot. There are some aftermarket boot kits out there but they don't seem to last as long as OEM so that's why I'd get the MB part, they use better rubber.

 

Thank you...appreciate the advice !!!

 

Thank you very much; I appreciate the advice !!!

 

I have to do my front left outer boot, and maybe the front left inner. I can find parts, but I'm having trouble finding the procedure. I'm sure I could wing it, but I would like to prepare myself with the right tools,etc,..

Is a re-boot procedure in the WIS? Seems like it should be in there even if the dealer "won't do it", if Mercedes sells the boot kits...

Thanks.

 

You can search this forum and it should be out there, mentioned in several threads. The inner boot kit isn't really very good, got the Febi and it didn't work, maybe some other one will but it wasn't easy and wasn't worth it in the end. The outer boot kit is fine though. Main thing about removing the axle is to get a 3" muffler clamp and put it on the axle. Otherwise there's nothing to grab onto when trying to get the inner part of the axle out of the transmission. You use a slide hammer on the muffler clamp so you can back it out. Also the aftermarket ones used to cause a vibration but the last one I got was fine, different brand than the first one I got. I'd first get the aftermarket axle and keep the old one, if the aftermarket one causes the vibration, have the old one rebuilt. I got the GSP axle from Rockauto which was fine. They also have a GKN axle which was supposed to be OEM but even with that one, people said it vibrated. And I'm not surprised the MB dealers don't want to do it, they'd rather sell you a new $1200 axle. But it's a basic axle, you can have any auto shop that knows how to rebuild them do it or even send it out to a national company that rebuilds axles. I thought about doing that once and they said it'd be about $50 to rebuild it, probably closer to $100 once you factor in shipping both ways. The OEM boots are better than aftermarket ones though, should last longer.

 

I just replaced the left front axel on my 2011 E550 4matic (233K miles). The job took an unusual turn, found myself in a pickle, and was able to pull my loins out of the fire with what turned out to be little fuss. I'll do my best to describe my adventure. It should be noted that I was also replacing the LF air strut as well, a job which I have done a few times before.

Disassembly went very smooth until the inner CV joint. My inner boot was torn so as soon as I removed the bolt and pounded out the outer joint the axel came right off. Cool, (I thought) I'll heat up the inner spline joint connecting to the intermediate axel and tap it off with a hammer and chisel. Um, nope it did not budge. I got out a slide hammer and heated the connection as much as I could. As I'm hammering away with the slide it finally comes loose or so I thought. What happened was that the intermediate axle shaft and bearing which is held in place with a snap ring behind a flange on the transmission housing BROKE!! Yikes...I was seeing $$$!! So, I have the intermediate axle and CV axle(inner joint housing) still together but off the car. I kept trying for the rest of the afternoon and I couldn't get it to budge. It is still together to this day. It's about an inch too long or I would machine it off with my lathe to assert my dominance.

I quickly ordered a new intermediate axle and bearing from FCP Euro and started brainstorming solutions to the broken flange and retaining clip problem. Ultimately I was recommended trying Loctite 620 bearing and sleeve retaining compound by a close friend. Just clean everything up and apply to both surfaces and assemble. Thats, exactly what I did. Reassembled the CV axel, air strut and good to go. I'm actually kind of shocked it worked as well as it did honestly. 20/20 hindsight I should have just planned on replacing the intermediate shaft along with the CV axel. The bearing was toast anyway. The dealer wanted $1500 for the CV axel plus labor. So, I guess I made out well considering. However, my left headlight went out the next week to the tune of $3200?!?!? I guess it always evens out. Still love the car and it gets lots of smiles per gallon.

Good luck!

 

I had the leaking passenger outer boot in my 2011, last winter, luckily it was less than a week of time I caught it, I was under the car changing the oil and did a visual inspection, everything was fine and dry, next Sunday I took the wheel out to change the low beam bulb and noticed a very small leak, ordered a boot kit and grease from FCP, parked the car and did not drive it for a few days, since I have a 3rd vehicle it was not a big problem, I was going to re-grease and re-seal it myself, started to looking for some tools in Amazon then decided to call a local axle shop, after a phone conversation he said they would do it for $100

Took the axle and the boots&grease to them, picked it up the second day, when I was picking it up he mentioned that they only did it because it was the original axle, they wouldn`t touch an aftermarket stuff. Drained and changed the diff fluid as well since I was there, also changed the seal. So far so good since January 2024.

I have used GSP from RockAuto for my wife`s 2008 Infiniti about 2 years ago and still holding up pretty good, no vibrations, no leaks or tears. After reading so many comments about MBs dont do well with the aftermarket axles and since I caught it pretty early, I did not bother with aftermarket.
Also have an X164, both fronts have slight wetness for a while now, probably I`ll tackle with that in coming summer.

 

Bit of an update, I decided to get 2 used axles and reboot them before I install them. Therefore, I don't need the WIS. I have 2 used axles and a used center drive shaft, along with 2 inner and 2 outer boot kits on the way. The kits are Febi, so probably not great, but I got them from FCP Euro so I can get very experienced with removing and installing axles every time they fail using free replacement parts.

I think I'm going to do brakes, brake lines, brake fluid, axles, lower control arms, and front diff fluid all at once. Will replace the center drive shaft as well if it looks like it's probably better than what's in the car.

 

Please let me know what I did wrong. rebooting left front cv shaft inner boot, everything worked fine until trying to assemble the cv shaft back on the car.

The retaining ring on the inter-shaft blocks the cv shaft goes in. Without the ring it can easily slide in and out but not with the ring. I just can’t push it in.

I am thinking to not put on the ring and don’t know if that’s ok.

thanks for any input.

 

Do not remove the ring. Put the ring's opening on the inter-shaft at the 12 o'clock position and make sure the axle is straight as possible when you try to join the two. You should feel a click when you push the axle in and pops back onto the inter-shaft. The ring keeps the two joints locked.

 

Thanks a lot for your feedback. Because the kit I bought has a new ring included, so I already bend and removed the original ring. After putting the new ring, I did make sure the opening is on the top. I am not sure at this moment what should I do.

 

Take the axle and put the rear of it over the splines of the inter-shaft and push the axle in into the inter-shaft. You might have to twist the axle left or right slightly so it seats on the splines correctly and push it in till it clicks into place on the inter-shaft and locks in. You know that it is locked when you try to pull the axle little and it is firm and you get no movement at all horizontally. Do a search on YouTube and watch the procedure before tackling it on your vehicle.

 

I find the MB dealer a great option to buy the parts to replace the boots. I paid around $16 for the outer boot with the two clamps and sealing ring. I did buy the GKN grease from FCP.

Only advise I can think of when installing the axles back is to grease the sealing ring then it should fit right over.

The replacement part #'s are easy to find. The boots have the MB part #'s stamped right on them. The clamps are stamped with there size on them. Clamps are Oetiker. Or you can get them off the parts diagrams. I looked on the W212 diagrams and seems they only show the part# for the boot kits and not the separate parts. This is the same as the W204. But the diagrams for the W221 show the separate part #'s. It appears the W204, W212 and W221 use the same parts.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will be patient and take my time to try again. The parts are all from local MB dealer and not expensive.