Just fitted this to father's Octavia on monday. By using a split boot I was trying to save time by not having to remove the hub ect. ect.

Didn't save too much time because of the limited space caused by components still being in situ.

Also I did have an issue in that the joint end of the boot isn't a tight fit over the joint because of the universal nature of the boot, which the slack of which has to be taken up by the clip. But the glued joint seems to be holding up so far.

Still probably saved £100 on dealer costs.

If I can remember I'll keep updating on the long term reliability, in case others want to fit one.

I'd be keeping an eye on that if I were you.

Edited 30 September, 20232 yr by petrolcan
speeling :)

Did you take the photographs before fitting the clips?

 

How do you avoid the glue joint becoming contaminated with the CV grease when you wrap it round the shaft in such a confined space?

19 hours ago, J.R. said:

Did you take the photographs before fitting the clips

Yes, as you can see the clips aren't installed in the photo.

 

19 hours ago, J.R. said:

How do you avoid the glue joint becoming contaminated with the CV grease

With great difficulty, I was lucky in that quite a lot of grease had escaped from the old boot, so there wasn't as much to contend with. The seam gets glued together in stages, after it is stretched over the driveshaft, so it's not as awkward as it would be if it had to be done all at once. But I could have cleaned the grease away first then re-packed the joint after the boots seam was stuck together.

I couldn't believe the strength of the glue, there is a note in the instructions that I found comical, that said "do not wrap your hand around the boot/driveshaft, otherwise you may become permanently stuck to the vehicle" and it wasn't wrong at one point the glove that came with the kit became stuck to the boot.

 

20 hours ago, petrolcan said:

I'd bee keeping an eye on that if I were you.

Ye the reason for starting this thread was because after searching around I couldn't find any reviews of the long term abilities of one of these boots.

So far it's holding up, but that's only 4 days.

I keep updating this thread.

Thanks for the explanation, I had incorrectly assumed that the joint would be glued with the gaiter in its fitted position, that would be the reason that its such a loose fit but the tywraps or clips should take care of that.

Here are the instructions that came with the kit.

 

So as promised an update:

It would seem that it has started to leak again, by the looks of it part of the glued joint has separated. But even the rubber of the boot seems to be degrading after just a year.

I'd say that they are only good if you need a quick fix, say for a last minute MOT pass, or if the driveshaft can't be split due to seized nuts, otherwise there's no point.

Now I've got more time, I'll be fitting a normal one.

I used one of these about 15 years ago and it seems to work OK.

The missus' Rover had an advisory on the last MoT for both CV boots, so I was thinking of using them again.

Having spoken to a friend about it at the weekend, he advised against it.

After a little cleaning it's only a little pin hole split, I could have probably fixed it with the glue that comes with the kit, but my father thew it away.

Edited 9 July, 20259 Jul by R_U_AFA
Spelling error

It's quite hard to see the spit in the pic

But there is some degradation of the rubber, with cracks.

So a replacement it is.

What a pain that was to replace, nothing seems simple on these cars, well not compared to the Felicia anyhow, on that the CV joint just taps off, it can generally just be pulled off by hand. I'd have never have thought off separating the joint this way so a special thanks goes to the creator of this vid (probably a well known trick, but I was stuck at this point)

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dod2wfj76iFQ&ved=2ahUKEwiDkfHr7q-OAxWnaUEAHTD9KOgQwqsBegQIDhAF&usg=AOvVaw0a-I16l4haAwJ4cSjkt737

I'd have given up and been searching eBay for CV joint puller tool right now.

On 28/09/2023 at 23:01, R_U_AFA said:

By using a split boot I was trying to save time by not having to remove the hub ect. ect.

Didn't save too much time because of the limited space caused by components still being in situ.

After fitting the standard boot, the split CV boot does save a LOT of time, and your back as these hubs are heavy and take some manhandling to get the driveshaft back in.

So in conclusion I can't really give a definite answer on whether to use a split boot or not, just that the quality of the one I used was dubious.

Edited 9 July, 20259 Jul by R_U_AFA
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