[Mr Teddy Bear]

I have just suffered a spate of these things failing in ridiculously short time frames and mileages. One was a pattern part bought from John out at Wickwar and the rest came from RIMMERS. All have failed within the last 4/5 years.

Talking to Mark at MJN who changed the last one yet again yesterday. They are all old stock that has sat on a shelf for 10+years, they fail at the inner bellows. This is route one toward a failed C.V joint, while some were shown in stock I don't trust RIMMERS any longer and at the price were likely to be cheap copies.

I'm told that MJN can source new stock on the day to be fitted and he agrees with me that they should last 10 years at least. He showed me one and they are of a good quality and a thick construction.

I should add that the other one fitted last year and has covered 3000 miles is failing again too!

The message here is to let a reputable specialist source & fit these boots, especially if they have the hydraulic boot spreader as featured by Matt of 'Furious Driving'. Mark charged me 9.50 +vat for a boot yesterday.

[itcaptainslow]

If they’re using a hydraulic boot spreader on one that’s designed not to be stretched (i.e. one that should be fitted by removing the CV joint from the shaft) then that could be a reason for the premature failure…

[g259fsg]

Good point. If they are failing at the inner shaft end it could be they are stretched too much. I've done mine by taking off the CV joint so no stretching. From my records, it looks like the last time I did them was in 2012 when I fitted both CV joints and bellows. One of the old boots had failed and water got in destroying the CV - certainly a weak point on FWD vehicles. The sets I fitted then were Comline ECV024. Seem to have lasted well and no problems at the last MOT, 11 years and 26,000 miles later. Getting decent boots for these could be a problem as time goes on with NOS stuff gradually degrading. Had a similar problem with the big trailing arm bush. The original Rover part lasted 12 years, the next cheap aftermarket part only three years. In that case I fitted plastic bushes which seem to be doing OK.

[Johnny 216GSi]

To be honest, the person I take my car to has a strong opinion about the quality of CV boots in general.

I ordered a couple from Rimmer Bros, but they're selling Shaftec boots in Rover boxes (the two steel bands were stamped Shaftec). This confirms my theory that someone somewhere is authorised to now make substitutions of OE parts with aftermarket parts and sell them in Rover parts boxes, although you can see evidence of "the best available alternative" methodology in play.

Even Shaftec aftermarket boots are sniffed at by people who service cars. They know they don't last any time at all these days, even if Shaftec are some of the best available.

Put it this way. I put Shaftec "OE quality" boots on my restoration. This was me populating bare shafts, so there was absolutely no stretching at all. Did everything right, including greasing all over the interior and packing the CV joints themselves with grease as well as adding extra, but not an excessive amount. The person I take my car to put an MOT on it last year and said "your CV boots have failed - you can just feel it." Apparently, you can detect the split occurring from the inside first as you can feel a sort of "soft line" depression from the outside by running your fingers around the inner rings. The car has maybe done a couple of hundred miles since the boots were fitted, brand new.

If you can stomach buying actual CV joints, then the Shaftec ones do come with really substantial boots, much thicker rubber than the ones you buy on their own. The part code for 216/416 cars and others is CV94, or CV94N with the ABS ring fitted. Beware the cheap seller on eBay ATM, as they're sending out mixed batches of genuine Shaftec CV94Ns and remanufactured "other brands" such as Hardy Spicer (not that this isn't a high-quality brand) and "GLO." The boots paired with these are wrong too, and have a 19mm driveshaft hole rather than 22mm.

It's not just R8s. I think everyone is being short-changed by CV boot quality these days, and it's been that way for a while.

[crepello]

Hardy-Spicer was the OEM for the CV joints on my 214 - that's what they're marked.
I think Hardy-Spicer ended up in GKN, GKN Driveline itself wrecked by vulture capitalists a few years ago.
The last CV boots I bought were in GKN boxes, with the company logo moulded into the rubber.

With formerly respectable UK brands being offshored, it's increasingly a lottery whether you get equivalent
quality.

[Johnny 216GSi]

Hardy-Spicer was the OEM for the CV joints on my 214 - that's what they're marked.
I think Hardy-Spicer ended up in GKN, GKN Driveline itself wrecked by vulture capitalists a few years ago.
The last CV boots I bought were in GKN boxes, with the company logo moulded into the rubber.

With formerly respectable UK brands being offshored, it's increasingly a lottery whether you get equivalent
quality.

There's a particular GKN range/sub-brand that purports to make/offer superior CV boots, but I can't remember it just at the moment

Edited: Found it. GKN Lobro.

Not sure why my brain is telling me they are higher quality than others, but it would be down to something I'd read in the dim and distant past.

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Good point. If they are failing at the inner shaft end it could be they are stretched too much. I've done mine by taking off the CV joint so no stretching. From my records, it looks like the last time I did them was in 2012 when I fitted both CV joints and bellows. One of the old boots had failed and water got in destroying the CV - certainly a weak point on FWD vehicles. The sets I fitted then were Comline ECV024. Seem to have lasted well and no problems at the last MOT, 11 years and 26,000 miles later. Getting decent boots for these could be a problem as time goes on with NOS stuff gradually degrading. Had a similar problem with the big trailing arm bush. The original Rover part lasted 12 years, the next cheap aftermarket part only three years. In that case I fitted plastic bushes which seem to be doing OK.

No I got that wrong they're failing at the large bellows end, the outer end.

[Monster Hunter]

I'm still using old stock cv Boots from Mg rover, touch wood no issues and zero failures, albeit I do tend to change mine out ever ten five to ten years as part of my routine M/t program, kits nice to have a new source for the boots.... out of interest have we got a link for them for future reference...